‘Why was I left to deal with this all on my own?’ Becoming allies with children to prevent sexual abuse

The social and political commitment to preventing child sexual abuse, is reflected in an improvement in societal responses over the past 50 years, credited to public policy, social awareness, and protective action by parents and caregivers within and beyond the home. However, despite evidence of progress, the prevalence of child sexual abuse remains relatively stable, indicating there is a persistent inability to prevent individuals from sexually abusing children. The responsibility for preventing child sexual abuse is predominantly located within policing, criminal justice, and child protection systems, and to a far lesser extent, medical and education systems. To supplement these efforts, there has been an impetus toward expanding the awareness and knowledge of the population to encourage more active participation in prevention. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2017), and public health prevention strategies have contributed to an improved community awareness and knowledge. Nonetheless, a persistent ‘ick factor’ (Innes, 2024, p.464) surrounds the issue of childhood sexual abuse as an ongoing social taboo. If the population were willing to acknowledge or discuss child sexual abuse, they would be more likely to take personal responsibility for it and actively respond. This is consequential because individuals who sexually abuse children do so due to social ignorance, silence, and disbelief (Salter & Woodlock, 2023). Therefore, those who are resistant to acknowledging or discussing child sexual abuse are unwittingly complicit in it. This article will share the findings of a qualitative, feminist poststructural inquiry which centred the lived experience of fourteen (n=14) adults who had experienced child sexual abuse in different community and familial contexts in Australia, attending to the intersecting social, cultural, and structural conditions that shaped those experiences. Of particular interest were the actions and responses of members of the participant’s support network when they were a child. Importantly, this research found that there were opportunities for family, community members and professionals to identify when an individual was sexually abusing them, to intervene, stop the harm and protect the child, yet they did not do so. A qualitative, post structural feminist research methodology enabled the critical analysis of the participants’ accounts. This revealed how abuse is sustained through gendered discourses, institutional silences, and power relations. The subtle operation of power through language, norms, and systems was revealed to open space for ethical, empowering responses that support agency, voice, and transformation. The focus on allyship reflected the author’s practice experience and the difficulties of safeguarding children from child sexual abuse in the constraints of neoliberal procedures and processes in statutory child protection systems.  
To supplement the progress that has been made due to developments in policy and practice, this study proposes that individuals in the community need to take more responsibility for the prevention of, and responses to child sexual abuse which is conceptualised through the idea of being an ally.
Keywords: ally, allyship, bystander, child protection, child sexual abuse, child sexual exploitation, DARVO, denial, feminist research, social work.