Commentary on the Book Entitled Sexual Violence Against Children in Britain Since 1965: Trailing Abuse by Nick Basannavar.
Commentary on the Book Entitled Sexual Violence Against Children in Britain Since 1965: Trailing Abuse by Nick Basannavar. Palgrave Macmillan. 2021. ISBN 978-3-03083147-9
Thomas O’Carroll
Accepted: 27 August 2023 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
Abstract This Commentary is a subjective personal appraisal of the book in question rather than an objective Review. The rationale for this approach is presented. The author of the book engages with a series of “landscapes”, real and metaphorical, in his quest to “trail” child sexual abuse (CSA) in Britain over the last half century and more in its material reality and its representation in public discourse. It is an interdisciplinary work intended to sit at the intersection of diverse research areas: sexual violence; the history of sexuality; social and cultural history; media history and media studies; medicine and psychiatry; sociology and policy; criminology, law and sexual offending; childhood and family studies. Despite the titular focus on “sexual violence” against children, no definition of the term is offered in the book. It is a critical omission, with major ramifications, from a work that is otherwise studiously attentive to the changing language through which taboo acts of sexual engagement with children have been conceived and represented in media and other public discourse. The author’s use of the “sexual violence” concept is vigorously contested.
Keywords Age of consent · Child sexual abuse · Paedophilia · Paedophile Information Exchange · Pedophilia · Sexual violence Introduction
As a figure whose activism and writing are discussed at length and subjected to damning criticism in Nick Basannavar’s book on sexual violence against children, I offer a perspective grounded in my lived experience of the events in question. It has thus been designated as a Commentary rather than an objective Book Review, but it is underpinned by extensive reference to objective empirical research. As such, this format would appear to fall well within this journal’s stated “aims and scope”, in that it seeks to explore and analyse “issues related to sexual relationships and sexual behaviour”.
