ABSTRACT
The sexual abuse of children has been a consistently high-profile public issue throughout the late 1980s, and continues to be one. It is not a new problem, nor is this the first period of its recognition. That it was adult survivors speaking out in the 1970s about their childhood experiences which initiated the current period of concern demonstrates that the problem itself is a long-standing one, and this is confirmed – at least for the USA – by research which has addressed the question of historical trends in incidence. In the UK, the public silence which preceded the current anxiety was itself preceded by a period of roughly sixty years, from the 1870s to the 1930s, of social anxiety and campaigns for more effective action to prevent the sexual abuse of children. 1
