Research review statistics – Dr. Laurie Matthew
Dr Laurie Matthew OBE: Izzy’s Promise and Eighteen And Under Dundee Conference 26.02.20
Research review statistics
In the UK: 1 in 6 children suffer child sexual abuse. 21% of children in local authority care are exposed to suspected or confirmed sexual exploitation every year.
regarding the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent DePaul (1917-81); Sisters of Nazareth (1933-84); Quarriers, Aberlour, Barnardo’s (1921 -1991) from the Scottish child abuse inquiry.
Findings to date are that children in these homes were subject to extreme physical, sexual & psychological abuse and were victims of predators. Transcripts show that some of the victims are talking about ritual and organised abuse.
Still under investigation are the Congregation of Christian Brothers, Order of Benedictines and Marist Brothers; Child migrants; Boarding schools; Local authority homes; foster care & care homes: Heath care establishments.
A similar inquiry is taking place in England with similar results. https://www.iicsa.org.uk
The review found that the “care” system is fractured, bureaucratic and unfeeling. The failing ‘care system’ gets it wrong for many children with children suffering through separation, trauma, stigma and pain. The Review has found that too many childhoods have been lost to a system that serves its own convenience.
The Scottish Government has now made a commitment to change this through early intervention and prevention and has pledged to eliminate crisis services.
We have held these reviews many times before and heard similar promises yet children are still being abused within state care. Will this time be different? Let’s check back in 10 years.
Izzy’s Promise & R.A.N.S.
Despite having only 2 staff, Izzy’s Promise supported 288 survivors last year. Ritual Abuse Network Scotland has 80 survivors as members. This forum ins run by survivors for survivors and survivors support one another on it. All ritual abuse survivors who contacted Izzy’s Promise were abused in childhood.
Izzy’s Promise provides help through Email, text, phone, social media, face to face, online. We provide practical & emotional ongoing support.
Survivors describe ritual, organised abuse, sexual exploitation, rape, torture, child sexual abuse, in care abuse, traditional harmful practices, trafficking, pornography, grooming.
Many survivors suffer from DID; Complex PTSD; Borderline Personality Disorder; recovered memories, mind control, suicide, self-harm, ongoing abuse, harassment, drug abuse
Case study from Izzy’s Promise
Mary grew up with RA within her family. There was social work involvement because her brothers were constantly in trouble. No one ever asked why or checked with Mary how she was.
When Mary was age 14 she asked to be taken into care and was placed in a Children’s home for 2 weeks. 2 care workers were abusers involved in the organised RA abuse so the abuse continued. She went home after that.
At age 16 there was police involvement due to her brother abusing a child. Again no one asked her about anything.
At age 17 she was self-harming and making suicide attempts so was hospitalised and was diagnosed with PTSD and DID. Still no one asked.
Age 20 she contacted Izzy’s Promise and with support reported to police. Though there was evidence to prosecute, it did not happen as prosecutors through her too vulnerable to testify even though she wanted to do so.
Survivors said…
“We face denial and disbelief on a scale that beggars belief. “
“I was given ECT….at the age of 13. They diagnosed PTSD. At 16 diagnosed FMS”
“Awareness is low across services, with statutory services worst.”
“I was told not to mention RA because you are then unwell instead of a survivor.”
“I was told I was too complex and they can’t help me”
“Workers fear for their jobs, professionals for their reputations and me for my life.”
RA Research conclusions
Survivors still suffer the backlash of 1980-90’s and the continued discourse around belief, memory and mental illness.
Adult survivors remain reluctant to reveal their histories due to the many negative reactions.
Poor services + low awareness leads to silent survivors and this in turn leads to no awareness.
The only witnesses to ritual and organized abuse are the abusers and the survivors. Only the survivors will try to tell so the public can learn about it so society needs to listen to them. The abusers will just seek to discredit, scare and silence anyone who tries to speak out.
Eighteen And Under (www.18u.org.uk) was founded in April 1994 and last year (2019) supported 296 young survivors. Receives no government or local authority funding. Has only 1 paid worker and relies on trained volunteers.
Young survivors rarely recognise abuse or differentiate between types of abuse but many describe organised about, sexual exploitation, trafficking and ritual abuse.
Young survivors do not have the language or knowledge to know what is happening. They have few services that they trust. Most live with ongoing abuse. Young people have little agency or control over their lives and can be stuck in abuse situations.
There are huge insurmountable barriers to young people disclosing abuse to anyone in authority so most live with abuse and only tell as adults.
Case Studies
Emma was taken into care age 8 due to family abuse and neglect. She was placed in a care home. She had no family, no one to visit, she was isolated and lonely. A care worker befriended her and ‘looked after’ her. He said he loved her and grooms her for sex. She doesn’t understand it is abuse and craves his care and affection.
By age 14 she was being sexually exploitation, involved in pornography and organised and ritual abuse. At age 16 she moved city to try and escape but was tracked though an app on her phone and abuse continued. Age 17 she was diagnosed with PTSD,DID, anorexia and was suicidal.
Jess aged 13 lived with gran as her mum was a heavy drug user. She craves love and attention from mum and visits her as much as possible. Mum introduces Jess to the ‘church’ and the concept of ‘sin’. Mum tells her that sin must be cleansed form her body and introduces men who rape and abuse her within the ‘church.
By age 15 she is depressed, suicidal, using alcohol and regularly running away for her gran’s home. She is taken into care where there is an abusive female care worker who takes her under her wing. The abuse becomes much more highly organised from that point.
Why don’t young people tell? They do not have language, they have no trust, they are ashamed, they are afraid, they have no one to tell and are afraid things will get worse, sometimes they don’t know its wrong, they think they deserve it and they have been groomed or brainwashed into staying silent.
Results from PhD research
Research carried out with 140 young survivors of sexual abuse who were unknown to the authorities, 2019: Why don’t young survivors tell?
They didn’t want authorities to know (n=49)
They didn’t want parents to know (n=33)
They didn’t trust anyone (n=32)
Too worried about what would happen (n=27)
Too scared (n=18)
Young survivors’ views of confidentiality
100% think current confidentiality insufficient
77% (n=106) want total confidentiality.
90% (n=45) of under 16’s and males want total confidentiality
14% (n=19) want almost total confidentiality
9% (n=15) want higher confidentiality than they currently receive
Should confidentiality ever be broken?
Confidentiality should never be broken 70% (n=92)
It should only be broken with direct permission 11% (n=15)
Quotes from young survivors:
“Knowing it was kept private allowed me to tell about abuse”, (girl aged 14).
“Maybe if a younger child is getting hurt then that can be shared but not my personal or private stuff” (girl, 15).
“My story is my business and I would never want someone to take it further, that’s why a lot of people are scared to speak up because they fear they would lose control of the situation. If I was to tell someone something that caused them to be concerned I would hope they would encourage me to take it further instead of the decision being made for me” (girl, 17).
Experience of young people desperately needing to talk about something really important to them
96 remained silent because: 81% had fear of consequences, 30% feared loss of privacy, 24% feared loss of control, 7% were protecting abuser, 5% had no trust in anyone at all
44 had experience of their confidentiality being breached when they had thought they could talk in confidence to someone (17 retracted their story of abuse afterwards): 35% feared the consequences, 17% had loss of privacy, 16% lost all trust, 8% lost control, 6% protected the abusers
42 young people had experienced confidentiality: 71% had been able to openly talk about abuse, 48% build trust, 33% felt they kept control, 28% were able to explore options, 24% were able to get the abuse stopped, 24% had time to think, 14% felt respected, 12% felt less isolated
Quotes about young survivors’ experiences
“You can’t tell anything because they write it down and share it with everyone. I went back to school and the teachers all knew. They looked at me different and stopped talking the same to me. (girl, 13). This girl then found out that other young people had found out what had happened to her too.
“It’s like they’ve made up their minds and nothing I say is listened to or believed. They have wrote it somewhere in those papers they have and because its wrote down it’s what they think.” (girl, 13). This girl was trying to say that it was her brother who had abused her and not her dad but the professionals would not believe her.
“You feel like you’ve lost all control just like when you get abused.” (girl, 17)
“School, health, social work took over my life. I got so depressed. I learned to stop talking to any of them” (girl, 16).
“The police wouldn’t leave me alone. They said he had abused another girl so I had to tell them everything. I couldn’t. I was cracking up so I just said it was all lies.” (girl, 15).
“Everything got out of control so I just took it all back.” (girl, 17).
Retractions of abuse quotes
“They wouldn’t stop asking questions about it. I just couldn’t take it anymore so I lied and said it never happened. But it did” (girl, 18).
“I started to tell a teacher and next thing I knew everything kicked off, my parents were called, the police were called and the it got out of hand. I had enough and couldn’t do it no more.” (girl, 16).
Quotes about young survivors protecting abusers
“I did not want the person to get in trouble”, (girl, 16)
“It doesn’t matter what he did to me, I love him” (girl, 14)
“Everyone says it’s wrong because he is 28 and I’m 14 but I love him and I know he loves me too.” (girl, 14)
“I want nothing to do with him. I need to put it behind me” (girl, 19)
“It was partly my fault so why should he get punished?” (girl, 16)
Quotes from young survivors who remained silent
“You can talk about having sex but daren’t say anything about what’s happening to you or they get social work onto you.” (girl, 15.)
“You can’t say anything or it gets back to social workers it gets wrote down and used against you” (boy, 15)
“You can’t trust anyone especially police, social work or teachers” (girl, 14).
“They said they were worried and I could talk to them but said that if I tell them I’m being abused they will pass it on. Well that shut me up.” (girl, 14)
Quotes from young survivors who had experienced confidentiality
“I never felt in control of anything in my life when I was abused so knowing I was in control over what I talked about was extremely important.” (girl, 16).
“I never thought about resisting. A simple wedge under my door did the trick.” (girl, 16).
“I didn’t know it was abuse until I started talking.” (girl, 19).
“It was a relief to be able to talk but it took a long time to trust.” (girl, 15).
“I didn’t know how to stop it until I was able to talk to someone.” (girl, 16).
Research conclusions
Young survivors are silenced by the lack of confidentiality and the child protection systems.
Confidentiality is key to young survivors talking openly. Particularly those under 16 and males. With confidentiality young survivors can explore options, talk about the abuse, stay in control, get help and end the abuse.
There needs to be a shift in thinking and practice towards considering the long-term needs of survivors rather than rushing in too fast and risking making things worse. There needs to be a power shift towards greater equality between young people and professionals.
Young people have a right to be heard and recognised as having the knowledge, ability and wisdom to be actively involved in making sound and appropriate decisions about their own lives, rather than being regarded as passive and subordinate and needing others to make important decisions for them.
Child protection & organised abuse
It seems clear that survivors of all kinds of abuse, but especially ritual and organised abuse can’t tell. There is a massive distrust of social services, police and criminal justice
Child sexual abuse and organised abuse are not always stopped through reporting or placing a young person in “care.” In care many vulnerable children are failed and further abused. In care there are predators waiting and watching for vulnerable young people.
Prosecution rate in Scotland is really low also showing that the system doesn’t work eg in 2017-18: there were 2,136 rapes & 119 attempted rapes reported to police resulting in 247 prosecutions: 107 convictions
Young survivors are further damaged by all of the systems that are supposed to protect them (care, justice, education, health)
There is a massive economical and human cost of this failure resulting in death, long-term illness, loss of earnings, loss of relationships, loss to the economy and cost of treating adult survivors while still creating the next generation of survivors through not protecting the children now.
What can we do to improve matters?
We can stop pretending that child protection and criminal justice works and begin to look at less harmful alternatives to it
We can learn from the past through the endless reviews and inquiries and finally start to investigate the present abuse. We can work with agencies such as 18u who are already reaching young survivors and learn from them.
We could learn a lot from survivors by actively listening to them. We can learn from abusers too. They seem able to easily identify the most vulnerable children e.g. disabled, lonely, without family, in care, etc and build relationships with them. Why can’t we have good people building relationships with these vulnerable children before the abusers get to them? Children need relationships to thrive but they are left vulnerable to the predators.
Give young survivors confidential help when they need it/build relationships with them and between agencies especially survivor agencies who have the expertise.
We could deliver evidence-based abuse prevention programmes e.g. V.I.P. (www.violenceispreventable.org.uk) One of the most effective programmes to date when delivered with skill. Primary and secondary prevention.
V.I.P. (abuse prevention research example) Disclosures from children during 4 lessons
18u worker delivered lessons (68 pupils): 65 Disclosures
15 – physical abuse 2 – child sexual abuse 1 – sexual assault
14 – bullying 2 – grooming 1 – erotica
11 – physical assault 1 – attempted stealing 1 – abduction
10 – domestic violence 1 – emotional abuse
5 – attempted abduction 1 – rape
Waiting List Comparison (59 pupils): 0 Disclosures: Teacher delivery: 1 disclosure
Final Words
“To be able to have someone who will truly listen that will not go running and telling social care/ police and so on. Without this I wouldn’t feel safe talking and will be left feeling very alone, isolated and living in fear. This (confidentiality) gives me time to explore my own feelings and figure out things my own way. I’m in care so I have no control over my life so having some control over what I’m able to say is important to me.” (girl age 16).
Sadly many young people have not been protected from harm and abusers have been able to groom them, isolate them, harm them psychologically, sexually and physically and silence them. Society needs to find a way of identifying and fully protecting these young people and stop further generations from being harmed.
