I’ve kept my mouth shut about Telford because I have a responsibility not to add to the misunderstanding that child sexual abuse is area-specific but I need to say this so I’m gonna come out and say it and start this conversation now. (THREAD)
1. Statistically in a town the size of Telford or Rotherham - tens of thousands of residents have been sexually abused as children. The numbers of 1400 and 1000 are so woefully underestimated and yet it’s shocking us all? Why? This is basic maths. These numbers cannot be right.
2. Saying that there was 1000 cases or 1400 victims spanning a decade or two decades is even worse because that cannot possibly be correct based on what we know about prevalence. It’s likely to be more like tens of thousands - millions across the UK
3. We have to stop this ‘othering’ where certain towns become known as ‘CSE hotspots’ - there’s no such thing as a hotspot for child sexual abuse - it’s happening everywhere at all times. If there was such thing as hotspots then there would also be areas that were abuse-free.
4. Statistically, child sexual abuse is a norm. It’s normal. We are talking huge proportions of our population ranging from 1 in 4 to 1 in 20 depending on the source. Taboo is one thing but this faux shock is getting tiring. We have a culture adults of abusing children.
5. I’m getting really tired of people trotting out Rotherham and Telford and Derby as the ‘bad eggs’ whilst completely ignoring the reality that this is happening to children in every area - and has been for hundreds of years. Thinking your woke but you need to read some history.
6. When we ‘other’ and point the finger at one area or one police force or one local authority - we are using self-preservation tactics so we don’t have to accept that adults are sexually abusing children all around us. We can blame Telford and Rotherham whilst we all feel safe.
7. Also - can we all just take a minute to remember that almost all of these victims are white teen girls, cos that group is the most likely to be identified by our current shitty CSE toolkits. Black kids, Asian kids, Boys, Gay kids - all being missed year after year.
8. It’s not a trend in offending we are seeing (targeting white girls) - its a trend of inadequate identification of victims, institutional racism, classism and a complete lack of understanding of the prevalence and typologies of child sexual abuse.
9. We can ONLY move forward in supporting victims of child sexual abuse and stopping perps if we stop making every fucking case a media circus where everyone blames one town for sexual abuse of children whilst telling themselves that their town/police/authority is better.
10. Right I’m done, got that out of my system. Gonna get back to writing my speech on victim blaming for Monday.
