| Abstract: | Summary The sexual abuse of children by persons who work with them -institutional abuse - is a focus of major concern among policymakers, practitioners and the public. Despite this, knowledgeabout it remains limited. This paper presents findings froma study of institutional abuse cases referred to social servicedepartments or the police in eight local authority areas. Whilesuch cases were relatively uncommon and constituted a smallproportion of all child protection referrals, some involvedlarge numbers of victims and abusers. Institutional abuse casesin the present study shared some characteristics with the majorityof (intrafamilial) abuse cases, but there were also importantdifferences, such as the proportion of male victims and theextent to which abuses used techniques of targeting and entrapment.Contrary to media representations, the institutional abuse reportedhere was not just a problem of children's homes, social workor the public sector, but occurred in a wide variety of settingsand sectors and was perpetrated by a range of occupational groups.If all children are to be protected, then policy and practicemeasures to prevent abuse need to be directed towards a muchwider range of institutions. |
