In the course of my work I stumbled across an article that has left me feeling very sickened and depressed.
It's a real wake up call to those of us who look at the past through rose tinted spectacles. I quote just one section:
Welfare work before the Second World War tended to categorise vulnerable children according to their perceived degree of sexual knowledge and thus culpability for eliciting abuse. Many of the victims were very young; a study produced in 1958 by a woman Police Surgeon noted that of the nearly 2000 cases she examined between 1927 and 1954, half the victims were under 7 years. Nonetheless, victims were not always portrayed as virtuous or innocent, particularly if they were from impoverished backgrounds. A Southwark home for girls who had been sexually abused acknowledged the ‘tragic experience’ of its residents, but pejoratively characterised them as ‘hopelessly ignorant’, ‘dirty in person and habits’, and suffering ‘over-wrought nerves.’
http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/child-welfare-child-protection-and-sexual-abuse-1918-1990
I once again give thanks that these horrendous offences are no longer brushed under the carpet and children and adult survivors of abuse are being listened to.