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Journal of Child Sexual Abuse Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wcsa20
A Child Sexual Abuse Research Project: A Brief Endnote a
a
Susan Roberts & Maurice Vanstone a
Swansea University, Swansea, Wales Accepted author version posted online: 19 Jun 2014.Published online: 12 Aug 2014.
Click for updates To cite this article: Susan Roberts & Maurice Vanstone (2014) A Child Sexual Abuse Research Project: A Brief Endnote, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 23:6, 745-754, DOI: 10.1080/10538712.2014.934416 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2014.934416
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/termsand-conditions
Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 23:745–754, 2014 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1053-8712 print/1547-0679 online DOI: 10.1080/10538712.2014.934416
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RESEARCH RELATED TO SEXUAL ABUSE PERPETRATORS IN POSITIONS OF TRUST
A Child Sexual Abuse Research Project: A Brief Endnote SUSAN ROBERTS and MAURICE VANSTONE Swansea University, Swansea, Wales
There is a dearth of research on sexual abuse perpetrated by educators. Although the problem is receiving increasing attention, little emphasis has been placed on abuse directed at younger schoolchildren and on offenders’ accounts of this form of abuse. Here, we attempt to address this gap in knowledge by exploring the narratives of five convicted, imprisoned male child sexual abusers, each of whom worked with children in educational settings in the United Kingdom. We draw on four themes that emerged from detailed interviews with offenders, namely: the power of reputation, authority and control, the “front of invulnerability,” and disclosure of abuse. We conclude by considering the implications of our work for policy and practice. KEYWORDS sexual abuse, children, educators, teachers
Our research into the views, explanations, and motivations of 101 imprisoned child sexual abusers conducted with our late colleague, Professor Matthew Colton, was stimulated by an earlier project that examined the stories of a small group of abusers (Colton & Vanstone 1996). The main findings have been disseminated previously (Colton, Roberts, & Vanstone, 2009, 2010, 2012), but one element of that research, abuse perpetrated in educational environments, has recently surfaced “as the latest chapter in Received 14 November 2012; revised 25 October 2013; accepted 3 December 2013. Address correspondence to Susan Roberts, Centre for Criminal Justice and Criminology, Swansea University, 3rd Floor Vivian Building, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, United Kingdom. E-mail: [email protected] 745
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the history of child sexual abuse” (Morgenbesser, 2010, p. 367). While this problem is slowly receiving increasing attention, much of the evidence has emerged from newspaper reports of individual cases (Knoll, 2010), with little emphasis placed on learning from abusers about how they perpetrate abuse within these settings (Sullivan & Beech, 2004). Five of the cohort in our study were convicted, imprisoned adult male child sexual abusers who between them had offended against 26 victims in educational settings in the United Kingdom. While this subgroup is too small to extrapolate generalized findings, in this brief endnote to our research, we present their accounts of the strategies they employed to access victims, facilitate abuse, and ensure victims’ silence. We do so in the hope that they will add to understanding of this form of abuse, give some pointers for future prevention, and provide a reference point for more extensive research in this field. The accounts of these five men illustrate how power derives in part from the status and authority associated with professional roles. That power provided them with a legitimate base from which relationships, and reputations, could be carefully constructed to facilitate an environment in which abuse “flourished” and was easily concealed. The recognition given by colleagues and parents to abusers’ ability to work with “troubled” children where others had failed and to function as effective educators was central to this process. The men were aged 29 to 56. Three were single, one divorced, and one married with children of his own. One man held a teaching diploma, four were educated to standard degree level, and one had a higher degree. All five worked within an educational setting, and four were qualified teachers. Four committed offenses while working within a school environment and one in his own home as part of his home instructor role. Three had abused male victims, and two abused female victims. Their victims ranged in age from 8 to 17 years old. Two admitted taking up their professional role in order to gain access to children to abuse. All were afforded considerable privacy within their working environments. In one case, that privacy resulted from the nature of the abuser’s living accommodation at a boarding school; in the other, from an environment that was purposefully created within the abuser’s own home. For both men, the isolated nature of the space associated with their work roles facilitated abuse, and enabled it to continue undetected for over 11 and 17 years respectively. As with the full cohort, data were collected during in-depth, individual interviews, and from these interviews we have identified four themes, namely: the power of reputation, authority and control, “front of invulnerability,” and disclosure of abuse.
THE POWER OF REPUTATION The men exploited the fact that they were seen as being in a position to help where others had failed and used their reputation to build on the “existing
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social exclusion” of some children (Durham, 2003, p. 310), gain access, and ensure silence. For example, one man, who worked at a primary school, reported how he consciously planned the abuse he perpetrated, taking up his post “in order to get close to young boys.” He had “decided that children were sexual . . . that they enjoyed sex with adults or wanted to do it and it was okay to teach them.” This view of children as sexual objects permeated his account. In order to achieve his goal of accessing “boys who wanted sex,” he constructed a reputation for himself among staff and parents as someone who could control children. Children defined by others as troublesome, loners, or difficult presented as ideal targets and were easily accessed: “I made myself available . . . . If the child was troublesome or a loner, then people were less likely to listen to them. He [victim] was a difficult lad and I preyed on that. He got more difficult and nobody realized what was happening.” Colton and Vanstone (1996, p. 181) found that the men in their study— two of whom were teachers—were “not alone in their abuse of power.” Indeed, as part of the abuse process, other adults were recruited “into their action system.” There are some parallels here with our research, as in some cases children were referred to abusers by colleagues and parents. One man reflected on this accepted practice and how it worked to his advantage. He described how, as part of his strategy, he carefully isolated his victim, thus making it extremely difficult for the child to speak out. All authority figures in the child’s life, including his mother and teachers at his school, directed him toward the abuser. Another abuser had also built a reputation for himself as someone who worked with troubled children and young people. This man, head of year at a secondary school, reported first having contact with his female victim when a colleague referred her to him. His victim was extremely vulnerable at the time as she was a victim of bullying and was self-harming—a child defined by others as troubled and on the periphery. He created a position for himself as central to the child’s well-being and was perceived by both staff and parents as emotionally supporting the victim and helping her with her school work. Typically, the men in our sample talked of making concerted efforts to be trusted and accepted by parents, thus enabling increased access to the child so that they could be further isolated and in some cases abused in the abuser’s own home where privacy was assured. Moreover, another teacher also viewed his female victim as a sexual object and described how their relationship developed to the point where they “became close, as I would with a girlfriend.” He looked on her as a “partner” and was extremely confident in his approach. As a result of the trust he built up with his victim’s parents he was able to perpetrate abuse in his own home. Attempting to conceal the abuse was not an issue for this man; his victim’s parents believed—and appreciated—that he was helping her with her work.
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Yet another offender described with satisfaction how he, too, carefully built a relationship with his victim’s mother, offering support when she was experiencing difficulties due to her child’s “behavior problems”: “I got to know the child’s family and offered to take him [victim] home for the weekend to give his mum a break [and] having him [victim] home was more private and that made me very excited.” Reputation also functioned on another level to aid abusing. Two men, one a teacher at a secondary school and another who provided instruction within his own home, described how their reputations as effective educators who achieved good academic results enabled them to maintain abuse and avoid detection. The latter drew on his reputation and offended against seven of his pupils (having also offended against his own niece): I had a very, very powerful reputation as well through my success. Obviously, I was a very successful tutor . . . I had outstanding success. I never advertised . . . it was pure word of mouth and . . . I used that to my advantage . . . I used the fact that these children were sitting for exams usually and they had a lot of pressure on them. If they didn’t come to me they wouldn’t pass their exams, so . . . it was a sort of blackmail without using the word.
Abusers were attuned to children’s vulnerability in all its forms. It seems that in addition to characteristics that marginalize children, such as their challenging behavior, other more positively viewed traits also heighten vulnerability. It appears from the previous account that pupil and parental aspirations relating to educational success and achievement also rendered children vulnerable, locking them in to an abusive relationship. This abuser described how he drew on his reputation of being a good, popular teacher to enable and conceal abuse. He recalled the bewilderment of colleagues and parents when allegations of sexual misconduct emerged, expressing great satisfaction at how effectively he had manipulated all those who had been in a position to protect his victims: “I’d wrapped everyone around my little finger . . . I covered my tracks incredibly well.”
AUTHORITY AND CONTROL Where abuse is perpetrated by individuals in positions of trust, access to victims is often gained through the building of a relationship and subtle forms of manipulation rather than force or violence (Moulden, Firestone, Kingston, & Wexler, 2010). Authority—conferred on adults by society in recognition of their maturity and status as “fully social persons” (La Fontaine, 1990, p. 208)—also plays a central role in the abuse. The men’s accounts illustrate this pattern and demonstrate how they drew on the authority and control afforded them by their roles to manipulate and abuse.
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One had abused 12 male victims in four different boarding schools over a 17-year period. He explained how abuse was enabled by his “position of authority”: “I never used any kind of intimidation or threat or force, but what I was using was the fact that they were young people I was manipulating in that sense and the fact that I was in a position of authority.” Another who worked in a primary school also recalled how his authority worked to his advantage: “I was his teacher. He treated me like a member of the family and I used that to get closer to him and control the situation and normalize certain aspects of it . . . My victim saw me more and more in authority so it became more difficult for him to shout out.” The man who provided home instruction whose “only concern was sexual gratification,” described how his victims “were too afraid to say anything” about the abuse. He reflected on the control mechanisms he employed in order to offend. These included the control implicit in the teaching situation and also parental control. The latter involved the building of relationships with parents as a means of securing the offender’s position, another “lever” used to inhibit disclosure. This abuser’s confidence in his approach permeated his narrative. He displayed a sense of achievement at the success of his carefully planned strategies, which enabled him to abuse several victims and remain undetected for some years.
FRONT OF INVULNERABILITY We have seen from abusers’ accounts how their assessment of victims’ vulnerability was a key factor in their offending; they made conscious decisions as to which children to abuse. On a preventive level, one of the most interesting features of their narratives is that they shed some light on the extent to which children, by virtue of their reactions, have the capacity to both deflect and stop abuse and thus present a “front of invulnerability” (Finkelhor, 1984, p. 60). This man, who worked with very young children, explained how he screened his victims. As a precursor to abuse he would “tickle boys or stroke their stomachs. Those who objected were excluded. In my mind, I was only targeting those boys who wanted sex because they hadn’t said no to my initial advances.” The home instructor also talked in detail of how he used “light physical contact” to determine which pupils could be “controlled” and subsequently abused. He described how he carefully monitored children’s reactions in order to ensure his own safety and recalled how in several cases his victims stopped the abuse: There would have been more victims, but for children’s reactions that I shouldn’t go any further than I did . . . . Each child was a potential victim as far as I was concerned. So if you say why did you choose some children rather than others, the answer to that would be that these
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were the children who I could get away with it . . . . It was the children who stopped me doing any more . . . the victims stopped me, otherwise, I would have carried on abusing them.
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He provided some detail as to how the latter occurred. In order to aid abusing, he had asked one of his victims: “Can you come in a skirt next week?” Her response proved critical: She came in trousers the next week and I said, “I see you have come in trousers,” and she made a comment which really at the time was incredibly brave and intelligent of her. She said something to the effect: “We will forget about what happened last week.” And that was it, I never touched her again.
Another victim’s reaction also concerned the abuser sufficiently that the abuse was stopped. He recalled that this victim, who had been indecently assaulted over a number of weeks, said on arrival at his home, “‘I want my mother.’ And that, of course, immediately put the panic buttons on me.” He also described how his niece’s response resulted in him feeling unsafe, and thus the abuse ended: I had been abusing her and I asked her once if she would come over and she said something about, could she bring her mother with her. As soon as she did that I made some sort of excuse and that was it . . . . I could tell from what she said that things had changed and . . . I didn’t pursue anything again because I knew that I was treading very dangerous ground . . . . She was doing it to protect herself and I knew that.
Of interest is the extent to which these narratives are indicative of a shift in power from abuser to victim. While it is not appropriate that we place the responsibility for preventing abuse on the shoulders of children and young people, it is crucial that we further explore their capacity to deflect and, as we have seen in some cases, stop abuse. This “front of invulnerability” warrants further attention.
DISCLOSURE OF ABUSE Obviously, the silence of victims is critical for the abuser, and as Weiss (2002) notes, children who are sexually abused by individuals in positions of authority are often confused and intimidated by the experience and prone to silence. Moreover, few students disclose abuse by educators (Shakeshaft & Cohan, 1994), but when it occurs it is either accidental or purposeful (Sgroi, 1982). Thus it is hardly surprising that in some cases the abuse perpetrated by abusers in our sample remained hidden for many years after the abuse had ended. In one case, the abuse was discovered accidentally when the
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victim was found engaging in sexual activity with another pupil. In another, the victim was referred for counseling and the abuse came to light as a result of therapeutic intervention. In two cases, victims disclosed some years after the abuse had ended: the first, a male, reported abuse perpetrated 15 years earlier by the boarding school teacher, and the second, a female, contacted ChildLine many years after the abuse had ended. The manner in which the abuse was discovered in the case of the fifth abuser was unclear. Indeed, the extent to which the men in our sample were able to conceal their offenses and ensure their victims’ silence was striking.
CONCLUSION We began by referring to the dearth of research on educator abuse (Moulden et al., 2010) and yet, as even our small group of abusers shows, they— because of their ready access to victims; the trust invested in them by colleagues, pupils, and parents; and the strategies they employ to exploit that trust in pursuit of sexual gratification—represent a particular danger. Perhaps there are some tentative lessons to be learned or markers for further research to be made from these accounts. The first thing to note is the ease with which abusers were able to exploit power in circumstances in which there appeared to be very few obstacles, or what Finkelhor (1984) calls external inhibitors, present. Opportunities to be alone with children and situations in which high levels of trust could develop abounded, and individuals within the school environment and the child’s family placed their trust in these men and in some cases referred and directed children to them. The abusers themselves used their positions of formal authority to draw on unquestioned power and trust associated with their role to manipulate those around them, including colleagues and parents. In a calculating way, they constructed alliances and reputations as a means of facilitating abuse, controlling victims, and ensuring silence. Their accounts underline the fact that those who draw on the “power inherent in the teacher role to target vulnerable children for sexual abuse” (Knoll, 2010, p.383) warrant more focused attention. Admittedly, some efforts are being made to counteract this problem. For example, in the United Kingdom, guidance on prevention and mandatory safer recruitment training for school staff is in place (Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2009; Department for Education, 2012), and schools and colleges now have a Designated Senior Person (DSP) charged with overseeing child protection (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children [NSPCC], 2013). The NSPCC also have the EduCare Child Protection Awareness Programme (NSPCC, 2011). While these moves are welcomed, these men’s accounts show there is a need to acquire greater understanding about how this form of abuse is perpetrated and in particular a need to
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recognize children’s powerlessness particularly within environments characterized by formal authority and control mechanisms; acknowledge the power of reputation to facilitate and shield abuse; ensure that a “cultural focus on learning and attainment” in educational settings is “matched by a culture of safeguarding,” with children’s needs and welfare “paramount” (North Somerset Safeguarding Children Board, 2012, p. 7); provide training for staff, parents, and pupils on “unacceptable behaviors,” indicators of sexual misconduct by educators, and perpetrators’ strategies of building and then abusing trust; enable staff to speak out when they have concerns and ensure that processes are in place to fully investigate those concerns; ensure that children and young people who have been victimized feel supported enough to disclose; and develop a support service for the families of children abused by educators.
The accounts of abusers in our sample are characterized by a sense of “entitlement” (Ward & Keenan, 1999), the belief that their status afforded them the right to have their sexual needs met by children. Their accounts highlight premeditated, organized strategies of exploitation and manipulation, and, therefore, it is crucial that we think more critically about the environment in which abuse is perpetrated and how professional power, reputation, and authority function to enable abuse and silence victims. Above all, recognition must be given to the potential for educational environments to be unsafe places. As one offender in our study made clear: “Places that should have been safe were the least safe places in the world for them [victims] . . . . My major ploy was that I was too nice to be doing anything . . . I manipulated the whole situation. I groomed every adult I was in contact with in order to offend.”
FUNDING The authors would like to express their thanks to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) for its contribution toward the funding of this research.
REFERENCES Colton, M., Roberts, S., & Vanstone, M. (2009). Child sexual abusers’ views on treatment: A study of convicted and imprisoned adult male offenders. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 18(3), 320–338. doi:10.1080/10538710902918170
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Colton, M., Roberts, S., & Vanstone, M. (2010). Sexual abuse by men who work with children. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 19(3), 345–364. doi:10.1080/105387/ 11003775824 Colton, M., Roberts, S., & Vanstone, M. (2012). Learning lessons from men who have sexually abused children. Howard Journal, 51(1), 79–93. doi:10.1111/ j.1468-2311.2011.00682 Colton, M., & Vanstone, M. (1996). Betrayal of trust: Sexual abuse by men who work with children. London, England: Free Association Books. Department for Children, Schools and Families. (2009). Guidance for safer working practice for adults who work with children and young people. London, England: Author. Department for Education. (2012). Child protection training. Retrieved from http:// www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/pastoralcare/a0010827/child protection Durham, A. (2003). Young men living through and with child sexual abuse: A practitioner research study. British Journal of Social Work, 33(3), 309–323. doi:10.1093/bjsw/33.3.309 Finkelhor, D. (1984). Child sexual abuse: New theory & research. New York, NY: The Free Press. Knoll, J. (2010). Teacher sexual misconduct: Grooming patterns and female offenders. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 19(4), 371–386. doi:10.1080/10538712.2010. 495047 La Fontaine, J. (1990). Child sexual abuse. Cambridge, England: Blackwell. Morgenbesser, L. I. (2010). Educator sexual abuse: Introduction and overview. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 19(4), 367–370. doi:10.1080/10538712.2010. 496677 Moulden, H. M., Firestone, P., Kingston, D. A., & Wexler, A. F. (2010). A description of sexual offending committed by Canadian teachers. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 19(4), 403–418. doi:10.1080/10538712.2010.495046 National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. (2011). Safer recruitment. Educare. Leamington Spa, England: Author. National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. (2013). Briefing: The role of the Designated Senior Person (DSP) for child protection in schools and colleges. Safeguarding in education service. Retrieved from http://www.nspcc.org.uk/ Inform/resourcesforteachers/designated-sr-person/roleofdspbriefing_wdf88593. pdf North Somerset Safeguarding Children Board. (2012). Serious case review: The abuse of pupils in a first school—Overview report. Retrieved from http://www. northsomersetlscb.org.uk/uploads/files/283.pdf Sgroi, S. M. (1982). Handbook of clinical intervention in child sexual abuse. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Shakeshaft, C., & Cohan, A. (1994). In loco parentis: Sexual abuse of students in schools. What administrators should know. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Sullivan, J., & Beech, A. (2004). A comparative study of demographic data relating to intra- and extra-familial child sexual abusers and professional perpetrators. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 10(1), 39–50.
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Ward, T., & Keenan, T. (1999). Child molesters’ implicit theories. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14(8), 821–838. doi:10.1177/088626099014008003 Weiss, K. (2002). Authority as coercion: When authority figures abuse their positions to perpetrate child sexual abuse. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 11(1), 27–51.
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AUTHOR NOTES Susan Roberts, MPhil, is senior lecturer in the Department of Criminology, Swansea University. Her research interests focus on sexual offending against children, including the motivation and strategies of child sexual abusers; and female sexual offending. Maurice Vanstone, PhD, is Emeritus Professor in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Swansea University. His research has included the effectiveness of community sentences; sexual crimes against children and the motivations and strategies of child sexual abusers; the international origins of probation; and the skills and practice of probation officers in Jersey.
Journal of Child Sexual Abuse Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wcsa20
A Child Sexual Abuse Research Project: A Brief Endnote a
a
Susan Roberts & Maurice Vanstone a
Swansea University, Swansea, Wales Accepted author version posted online: 19 Jun 2014.Published online: 12 Aug 2014.
Click for updates To cite this article: Susan Roberts & Maurice Vanstone (2014) A Child Sexual Abuse Research Project: A Brief Endnote, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 23:6, 745-754, DOI: 10.1080/10538712.2014.934416 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2014.934416
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/termsand-conditions
Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 23:745–754, 2014 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1053-8712 print/1547-0679 online DOI: 10.1080/10538712.2014.934416
Downloaded by [University of Saskatchewan Library] at 06:04 29 January 2015
RESEARCH RELATED TO SEXUAL ABUSE PERPETRATORS IN POSITIONS OF TRUST
A Child Sexual Abuse Research Project: A Brief Endnote SUSAN ROBERTS and MAURICE VANSTONE Swansea University, Swansea, Wales
There is a dearth of research on sexual abuse perpetrated by educators. Although the problem is receiving increasing attention, little emphasis has been placed on abuse directed at younger schoolchildren and on offenders’ accounts of this form of abuse. Here, we attempt to address this gap in knowledge by exploring the narratives of five convicted, imprisoned male child sexual abusers, each of whom worked with children in educational settings in the United Kingdom. We draw on four themes that emerged from detailed interviews with offenders, namely: the power of reputation, authority and control, the “front of invulnerability,” and disclosure of abuse. We conclude by considering the implications of our work for policy and practice. KEYWORDS sexual abuse, children, educators, teachers
Our research into the views, explanations, and motivations of 101 imprisoned child sexual abusers conducted with our late colleague, Professor Matthew Colton, was stimulated by an earlier project that examined the stories of a small group of abusers (Colton & Vanstone 1996). The main findings have been disseminated previously (Colton, Roberts, & Vanstone, 2009, 2010, 2012), but one element of that research, abuse perpetrated in educational environments, has recently surfaced “as the latest chapter in Received 14 November 2012; revised 25 October 2013; accepted 3 December 2013. Address correspondence to Susan Roberts, Centre for Criminal Justice and Criminology, Swansea University, 3rd Floor Vivian Building, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, United Kingdom. E-mail: [email protected] 745
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the history of child sexual abuse” (Morgenbesser, 2010, p. 367). While this problem is slowly receiving increasing attention, much of the evidence has emerged from newspaper reports of individual cases (Knoll, 2010), with little emphasis placed on learning from abusers about how they perpetrate abuse within these settings (Sullivan & Beech, 2004). Five of the cohort in our study were convicted, imprisoned adult male child sexual abusers who between them had offended against 26 victims in educational settings in the United Kingdom. While this subgroup is too small to extrapolate generalized findings, in this brief endnote to our research, we present their accounts of the strategies they employed to access victims, facilitate abuse, and ensure victims’ silence. We do so in the hope that they will add to understanding of this form of abuse, give some pointers for future prevention, and provide a reference point for more extensive research in this field. The accounts of these five men illustrate how power derives in part from the status and authority associated with professional roles. That power provided them with a legitimate base from which relationships, and reputations, could be carefully constructed to facilitate an environment in which abuse “flourished” and was easily concealed. The recognition given by colleagues and parents to abusers’ ability to work with “troubled” children where others had failed and to function as effective educators was central to this process. The men were aged 29 to 56. Three were single, one divorced, and one married with children of his own. One man held a teaching diploma, four were educated to standard degree level, and one had a higher degree. All five worked within an educational setting, and four were qualified teachers. Four committed offenses while working within a school environment and one in his own home as part of his home instructor role. Three had abused male victims, and two abused female victims. Their victims ranged in age from 8 to 17 years old. Two admitted taking up their professional role in order to gain access to children to abuse. All were afforded considerable privacy within their working environments. In one case, that privacy resulted from the nature of the abuser’s living accommodation at a boarding school; in the other, from an environment that was purposefully created within the abuser’s own home. For both men, the isolated nature of the space associated with their work roles facilitated abuse, and enabled it to continue undetected for over 11 and 17 years respectively. As with the full cohort, data were collected during in-depth, individual interviews, and from these interviews we have identified four themes, namely: the power of reputation, authority and control, “front of invulnerability,” and disclosure of abuse.
THE POWER OF REPUTATION The men exploited the fact that they were seen as being in a position to help where others had failed and used their reputation to build on the “existing
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social exclusion” of some children (Durham, 2003, p. 310), gain access, and ensure silence. For example, one man, who worked at a primary school, reported how he consciously planned the abuse he perpetrated, taking up his post “in order to get close to young boys.” He had “decided that children were sexual . . . that they enjoyed sex with adults or wanted to do it and it was okay to teach them.” This view of children as sexual objects permeated his account. In order to achieve his goal of accessing “boys who wanted sex,” he constructed a reputation for himself among staff and parents as someone who could control children. Children defined by others as troublesome, loners, or difficult presented as ideal targets and were easily accessed: “I made myself available . . . . If the child was troublesome or a loner, then people were less likely to listen to them. He [victim] was a difficult lad and I preyed on that. He got more difficult and nobody realized what was happening.” Colton and Vanstone (1996, p. 181) found that the men in their study— two of whom were teachers—were “not alone in their abuse of power.” Indeed, as part of the abuse process, other adults were recruited “into their action system.” There are some parallels here with our research, as in some cases children were referred to abusers by colleagues and parents. One man reflected on this accepted practice and how it worked to his advantage. He described how, as part of his strategy, he carefully isolated his victim, thus making it extremely difficult for the child to speak out. All authority figures in the child’s life, including his mother and teachers at his school, directed him toward the abuser. Another abuser had also built a reputation for himself as someone who worked with troubled children and young people. This man, head of year at a secondary school, reported first having contact with his female victim when a colleague referred her to him. His victim was extremely vulnerable at the time as she was a victim of bullying and was self-harming—a child defined by others as troubled and on the periphery. He created a position for himself as central to the child’s well-being and was perceived by both staff and parents as emotionally supporting the victim and helping her with her school work. Typically, the men in our sample talked of making concerted efforts to be trusted and accepted by parents, thus enabling increased access to the child so that they could be further isolated and in some cases abused in the abuser’s own home where privacy was assured. Moreover, another teacher also viewed his female victim as a sexual object and described how their relationship developed to the point where they “became close, as I would with a girlfriend.” He looked on her as a “partner” and was extremely confident in his approach. As a result of the trust he built up with his victim’s parents he was able to perpetrate abuse in his own home. Attempting to conceal the abuse was not an issue for this man; his victim’s parents believed—and appreciated—that he was helping her with her work.
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Yet another offender described with satisfaction how he, too, carefully built a relationship with his victim’s mother, offering support when she was experiencing difficulties due to her child’s “behavior problems”: “I got to know the child’s family and offered to take him [victim] home for the weekend to give his mum a break [and] having him [victim] home was more private and that made me very excited.” Reputation also functioned on another level to aid abusing. Two men, one a teacher at a secondary school and another who provided instruction within his own home, described how their reputations as effective educators who achieved good academic results enabled them to maintain abuse and avoid detection. The latter drew on his reputation and offended against seven of his pupils (having also offended against his own niece): I had a very, very powerful reputation as well through my success. Obviously, I was a very successful tutor . . . I had outstanding success. I never advertised . . . it was pure word of mouth and . . . I used that to my advantage . . . I used the fact that these children were sitting for exams usually and they had a lot of pressure on them. If they didn’t come to me they wouldn’t pass their exams, so . . . it was a sort of blackmail without using the word.
Abusers were attuned to children’s vulnerability in all its forms. It seems that in addition to characteristics that marginalize children, such as their challenging behavior, other more positively viewed traits also heighten vulnerability. It appears from the previous account that pupil and parental aspirations relating to educational success and achievement also rendered children vulnerable, locking them in to an abusive relationship. This abuser described how he drew on his reputation of being a good, popular teacher to enable and conceal abuse. He recalled the bewilderment of colleagues and parents when allegations of sexual misconduct emerged, expressing great satisfaction at how effectively he had manipulated all those who had been in a position to protect his victims: “I’d wrapped everyone around my little finger . . . I covered my tracks incredibly well.”
AUTHORITY AND CONTROL Where abuse is perpetrated by individuals in positions of trust, access to victims is often gained through the building of a relationship and subtle forms of manipulation rather than force or violence (Moulden, Firestone, Kingston, & Wexler, 2010). Authority—conferred on adults by society in recognition of their maturity and status as “fully social persons” (La Fontaine, 1990, p. 208)—also plays a central role in the abuse. The men’s accounts illustrate this pattern and demonstrate how they drew on the authority and control afforded them by their roles to manipulate and abuse.
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One had abused 12 male victims in four different boarding schools over a 17-year period. He explained how abuse was enabled by his “position of authority”: “I never used any kind of intimidation or threat or force, but what I was using was the fact that they were young people I was manipulating in that sense and the fact that I was in a position of authority.” Another who worked in a primary school also recalled how his authority worked to his advantage: “I was his teacher. He treated me like a member of the family and I used that to get closer to him and control the situation and normalize certain aspects of it . . . My victim saw me more and more in authority so it became more difficult for him to shout out.” The man who provided home instruction whose “only concern was sexual gratification,” described how his victims “were too afraid to say anything” about the abuse. He reflected on the control mechanisms he employed in order to offend. These included the control implicit in the teaching situation and also parental control. The latter involved the building of relationships with parents as a means of securing the offender’s position, another “lever” used to inhibit disclosure. This abuser’s confidence in his approach permeated his narrative. He displayed a sense of achievement at the success of his carefully planned strategies, which enabled him to abuse several victims and remain undetected for some years.
FRONT OF INVULNERABILITY We have seen from abusers’ accounts how their assessment of victims’ vulnerability was a key factor in their offending; they made conscious decisions as to which children to abuse. On a preventive level, one of the most interesting features of their narratives is that they shed some light on the extent to which children, by virtue of their reactions, have the capacity to both deflect and stop abuse and thus present a “front of invulnerability” (Finkelhor, 1984, p. 60). This man, who worked with very young children, explained how he screened his victims. As a precursor to abuse he would “tickle boys or stroke their stomachs. Those who objected were excluded. In my mind, I was only targeting those boys who wanted sex because they hadn’t said no to my initial advances.” The home instructor also talked in detail of how he used “light physical contact” to determine which pupils could be “controlled” and subsequently abused. He described how he carefully monitored children’s reactions in order to ensure his own safety and recalled how in several cases his victims stopped the abuse: There would have been more victims, but for children’s reactions that I shouldn’t go any further than I did . . . . Each child was a potential victim as far as I was concerned. So if you say why did you choose some children rather than others, the answer to that would be that these
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were the children who I could get away with it . . . . It was the children who stopped me doing any more . . . the victims stopped me, otherwise, I would have carried on abusing them.
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He provided some detail as to how the latter occurred. In order to aid abusing, he had asked one of his victims: “Can you come in a skirt next week?” Her response proved critical: She came in trousers the next week and I said, “I see you have come in trousers,” and she made a comment which really at the time was incredibly brave and intelligent of her. She said something to the effect: “We will forget about what happened last week.” And that was it, I never touched her again.
Another victim’s reaction also concerned the abuser sufficiently that the abuse was stopped. He recalled that this victim, who had been indecently assaulted over a number of weeks, said on arrival at his home, “‘I want my mother.’ And that, of course, immediately put the panic buttons on me.” He also described how his niece’s response resulted in him feeling unsafe, and thus the abuse ended: I had been abusing her and I asked her once if she would come over and she said something about, could she bring her mother with her. As soon as she did that I made some sort of excuse and that was it . . . . I could tell from what she said that things had changed and . . . I didn’t pursue anything again because I knew that I was treading very dangerous ground . . . . She was doing it to protect herself and I knew that.
Of interest is the extent to which these narratives are indicative of a shift in power from abuser to victim. While it is not appropriate that we place the responsibility for preventing abuse on the shoulders of children and young people, it is crucial that we further explore their capacity to deflect and, as we have seen in some cases, stop abuse. This “front of invulnerability” warrants further attention.
DISCLOSURE OF ABUSE Obviously, the silence of victims is critical for the abuser, and as Weiss (2002) notes, children who are sexually abused by individuals in positions of authority are often confused and intimidated by the experience and prone to silence. Moreover, few students disclose abuse by educators (Shakeshaft & Cohan, 1994), but when it occurs it is either accidental or purposeful (Sgroi, 1982). Thus it is hardly surprising that in some cases the abuse perpetrated by abusers in our sample remained hidden for many years after the abuse had ended. In one case, the abuse was discovered accidentally when the
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victim was found engaging in sexual activity with another pupil. In another, the victim was referred for counseling and the abuse came to light as a result of therapeutic intervention. In two cases, victims disclosed some years after the abuse had ended: the first, a male, reported abuse perpetrated 15 years earlier by the boarding school teacher, and the second, a female, contacted ChildLine many years after the abuse had ended. The manner in which the abuse was discovered in the case of the fifth abuser was unclear. Indeed, the extent to which the men in our sample were able to conceal their offenses and ensure their victims’ silence was striking.
CONCLUSION We began by referring to the dearth of research on educator abuse (Moulden et al., 2010) and yet, as even our small group of abusers shows, they— because of their ready access to victims; the trust invested in them by colleagues, pupils, and parents; and the strategies they employ to exploit that trust in pursuit of sexual gratification—represent a particular danger. Perhaps there are some tentative lessons to be learned or markers for further research to be made from these accounts. The first thing to note is the ease with which abusers were able to exploit power in circumstances in which there appeared to be very few obstacles, or what Finkelhor (1984) calls external inhibitors, present. Opportunities to be alone with children and situations in which high levels of trust could develop abounded, and individuals within the school environment and the child’s family placed their trust in these men and in some cases referred and directed children to them. The abusers themselves used their positions of formal authority to draw on unquestioned power and trust associated with their role to manipulate those around them, including colleagues and parents. In a calculating way, they constructed alliances and reputations as a means of facilitating abuse, controlling victims, and ensuring silence. Their accounts underline the fact that those who draw on the “power inherent in the teacher role to target vulnerable children for sexual abuse” (Knoll, 2010, p.383) warrant more focused attention. Admittedly, some efforts are being made to counteract this problem. For example, in the United Kingdom, guidance on prevention and mandatory safer recruitment training for school staff is in place (Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2009; Department for Education, 2012), and schools and colleges now have a Designated Senior Person (DSP) charged with overseeing child protection (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children [NSPCC], 2013). The NSPCC also have the EduCare Child Protection Awareness Programme (NSPCC, 2011). While these moves are welcomed, these men’s accounts show there is a need to acquire greater understanding about how this form of abuse is perpetrated and in particular a need to
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recognize children’s powerlessness particularly within environments characterized by formal authority and control mechanisms; acknowledge the power of reputation to facilitate and shield abuse; ensure that a “cultural focus on learning and attainment” in educational settings is “matched by a culture of safeguarding,” with children’s needs and welfare “paramount” (North Somerset Safeguarding Children Board, 2012, p. 7); provide training for staff, parents, and pupils on “unacceptable behaviors,” indicators of sexual misconduct by educators, and perpetrators’ strategies of building and then abusing trust; enable staff to speak out when they have concerns and ensure that processes are in place to fully investigate those concerns; ensure that children and young people who have been victimized feel supported enough to disclose; and develop a support service for the families of children abused by educators.
The accounts of abusers in our sample are characterized by a sense of “entitlement” (Ward & Keenan, 1999), the belief that their status afforded them the right to have their sexual needs met by children. Their accounts highlight premeditated, organized strategies of exploitation and manipulation, and, therefore, it is crucial that we think more critically about the environment in which abuse is perpetrated and how professional power, reputation, and authority function to enable abuse and silence victims. Above all, recognition must be given to the potential for educational environments to be unsafe places. As one offender in our study made clear: “Places that should have been safe were the least safe places in the world for them [victims] . . . . My major ploy was that I was too nice to be doing anything . . . I manipulated the whole situation. I groomed every adult I was in contact with in order to offend.”
FUNDING The authors would like to express their thanks to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) for its contribution toward the funding of this research.
REFERENCES Colton, M., Roberts, S., & Vanstone, M. (2009). Child sexual abusers’ views on treatment: A study of convicted and imprisoned adult male offenders. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 18(3), 320–338. doi:10.1080/10538710902918170
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Colton, M., Roberts, S., & Vanstone, M. (2010). Sexual abuse by men who work with children. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 19(3), 345–364. doi:10.1080/105387/ 11003775824 Colton, M., Roberts, S., & Vanstone, M. (2012). Learning lessons from men who have sexually abused children. Howard Journal, 51(1), 79–93. doi:10.1111/ j.1468-2311.2011.00682 Colton, M., & Vanstone, M. (1996). Betrayal of trust: Sexual abuse by men who work with children. London, England: Free Association Books. Department for Children, Schools and Families. (2009). Guidance for safer working practice for adults who work with children and young people. London, England: Author. Department for Education. (2012). Child protection training. Retrieved from http:// www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/pastoralcare/a0010827/child protection Durham, A. (2003). Young men living through and with child sexual abuse: A practitioner research study. British Journal of Social Work, 33(3), 309–323. doi:10.1093/bjsw/33.3.309 Finkelhor, D. (1984). Child sexual abuse: New theory & research. New York, NY: The Free Press. Knoll, J. (2010). Teacher sexual misconduct: Grooming patterns and female offenders. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 19(4), 371–386. doi:10.1080/10538712.2010. 495047 La Fontaine, J. (1990). Child sexual abuse. Cambridge, England: Blackwell. Morgenbesser, L. I. (2010). Educator sexual abuse: Introduction and overview. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 19(4), 367–370. doi:10.1080/10538712.2010. 496677 Moulden, H. M., Firestone, P., Kingston, D. A., & Wexler, A. F. (2010). A description of sexual offending committed by Canadian teachers. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 19(4), 403–418. doi:10.1080/10538712.2010.495046 National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. (2011). Safer recruitment. Educare. Leamington Spa, England: Author. National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. (2013). Briefing: The role of the Designated Senior Person (DSP) for child protection in schools and colleges. Safeguarding in education service. Retrieved from http://www.nspcc.org.uk/ Inform/resourcesforteachers/designated-sr-person/roleofdspbriefing_wdf88593. pdf North Somerset Safeguarding Children Board. (2012). Serious case review: The abuse of pupils in a first school—Overview report. Retrieved from http://www. northsomersetlscb.org.uk/uploads/files/283.pdf Sgroi, S. M. (1982). Handbook of clinical intervention in child sexual abuse. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Shakeshaft, C., & Cohan, A. (1994). In loco parentis: Sexual abuse of students in schools. What administrators should know. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Sullivan, J., & Beech, A. (2004). A comparative study of demographic data relating to intra- and extra-familial child sexual abusers and professional perpetrators. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 10(1), 39–50.
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Ward, T., & Keenan, T. (1999). Child molesters’ implicit theories. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14(8), 821–838. doi:10.1177/088626099014008003 Weiss, K. (2002). Authority as coercion: When authority figures abuse their positions to perpetrate child sexual abuse. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 11(1), 27–51.
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AUTHOR NOTES Susan Roberts, MPhil, is senior lecturer in the Department of Criminology, Swansea University. Her research interests focus on sexual offending against children, including the motivation and strategies of child sexual abusers; and female sexual offending. Maurice Vanstone, PhD, is Emeritus Professor in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Swansea University. His research has included the effectiveness of community sentences; sexual crimes against children and the motivations and strategies of child sexual abusers; the international origins of probation; and the skills and practice of probation officers in Jersey.
