All political lives end in failure, but David’s Steel’s parliamentary career came to a particularly ignominious end this week when he was criticised for ‘abdicating his responsibility’ and recommending Cyril Smith for a knighthood.
I’ve worked in child protection as a social worker for over twenty years. At first glance this seems like an open and shut case: Steel admitted failing to pass on allegations against Smith because it was “past history”.
That kind of failure to share information or take appropriate action is at the heart of most similar inquiries. What we really need to understand is why people don’t act on allegations of this nature.
Read more: Lord David Steel 'just as bad' as paedophile MP Cyril Smith, victims claim
There are several reasons. The first is that those who sexually abuse children groom not only children, but also adults, which allows them to continue their abuse over time and access multiple victims.
This was particularly evident in cases of sexual abuse in Scottish football where abusive sports coaches put considerable efforts into building relationships with parents of children they abused.
The second reason is that we expect those who commit abuse to be monsters - identifiable as morally corrupt and depraved. When we meet someone we like, if there are allegations about them, we think ‘They can’t be an abuser, they seem nice’. The problem with this is that monsters don’t get access to children – people being nice do. Our decision making improves if we focus on the behaviour rather than the need to accept or reject the individual being accused.
Our concern about the individual needs to instead be about whether what we do now promotes safety. Stop It Now! Scotland launched Upstream, a website for the public on child sexual abuse prevention for this reason. Whenever you are worried about an adult’s behaviour towards children the best thing is to speak to social work or the police.
If you don’t feel you can, there may still be things you can do that might protect children and prevent sexual abuse happening or continuing. The take home message from the David Steele debacle is that everyone needs to learn what those things are to ensure that the next child is protected from harm.
Upstream : https://www.theupstreamproject.org.uk
Stop It Now Helpline: 0808 1000 900
Stuart Allardyce is the director of Stop It Now! Scotland and a qualified social worker
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