Episode 6

Understanding Child Sexual Abuse through Historical Research (and connections with CSA fiction) with Dr. Ruth Beecher​

Interviewed by Olivia Susilo – recorded on 5th August 2026. Edited with permission from the speaker.

Ruth is a historian and Senior Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. One of her works is an open access book, Community Health Practitioners and Child Sexual Abuse in the Family, 1970s – 2010s that was published last year. Currently, Ruth is the Principal Investigator of Recovery Histories – a Wellcome Trust-funded project that focuses on the histories of abuse, trauma, and recovery from survivors’ and support professionals’ perspectives in Ireland and the UK.

In this episode, we discussed many things, such as:

Ruth’s love for creative writing and how it might help academics process harms associated with their research and develop self-care skills through creative writing techniques

Why is it important to look into the history of child sexual abuse (CSA) and how this can increase our understanding of the issue.

Ruth’s open-access book, Community Health Practitioners and Child Sexual Abuse in the Family, 1970s to 2010, which examines the responses (or non-responses) of general practitioners (GPs), health visitors, and mental health workers in England and Wales to CSA.

Her on-going, ground-breaking Recoveries Histories project which analyses archival records, records oral histories of CSA survivors and support professionals and includes an ethnographic study of contemporary experiences of ways of living in the aftermath of CSA in Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. This is the first social, cultural and medical history into recovery from child sexual abuse in the second half of twentieth century Britain and Ireland.

Stereotypes in characters who experienced CSA in fictional works.

Listen to the recording by clicking on the link below:

Alternatively, listen to the recording on our Spotify below:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3NukIQaPDQfwxFmVaZKLQD?si=qI6Xt7lLS9m-_7lpNtj2Uw

Resources that Ruth mentioned:

Academic scholars mentioned and their work related to CSA:

• Heather Montgomery

Montgomery, H. (2024). Familiar violence: A history of child abuse. Polity Press. 

• Joanna Bourke

Bourke, J. (2022). Disgrace: Global reflections on sexual violence. Reaktion Books. 

• George Behlmer

Behlmer, G. K. (1982). Child abuse and moral reform in England, 1870–1908. Stanford University Press. 

• Harry Ferguson

Ferguson, H. (2004). Protecting children in time: Child abuse, child protection and the consequences of modernity. Palgrave Macmillan.

Ferguson, H. (2007). Abused and looked after children as ‘moral dirt’: Child abuse and institutional care in historical perspective. Journal of Social Policy, 36(1), 123–139. 

• Louise Jackson

Jackson, L. A. (2000). Child sexual abuse in Victorian England. Routledge. 

• Lucy Delap

Delap, L. (2015). Child welfare, child protection and sexual abuse, 1918–1990. History & Policy. 

• Steven Robertson

Robertson, S. (2005). Crimes against children: Sexual violence and legal culture in New York City, 1880–1960. University of North Carolina Press.

• Linda Gordon

Gordon, L. (2002). Heroes of their own lives: The politics and history of family violence, Boston, 1880–1960. University of Illinois Press. 

• Carol Smart

Smart, C. (2000). Reconsidering the recent history of child sexual abuse, 1910–1960. Journal of Social Policy, 29(1), 55–71.

• Lynn Sacco

Sacco, L. (2009). Unspeakable: Father-daughter incest in American history. Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Maria Luddy

Luddy, M., & Smith, J. M. (Eds.). (2014). Children, childhood and Irish society, 1500 to the present. Four Courts Press.

• Lindsey Earner-Byrne

Earner-Byrne, L. (2011). Child sexual abuse, history and the pursuit of blame in modern Ireland. In K. Holmes & S. Ward (Eds.), Exhuming passions: The pressure of the past in Australia and Ireland (pp. 31–56). Irish Academic Press.

Earner-Byrne, L. (2015). The rape of Mary M.: A microhistory of sexual violence and moral redemption in 1920s Ireland. Journal of the History of Sexuality, 24(1), 75–98. 

• Saidiya Hartman
  Hartman, S. (2008). Venus in two acts. Small Axe, 12(2), 1–14.

Hartman, S. (2019). Wayward lives, beautiful experiments: Intimate histories of riotous Black girls, troublesome women, and queer radicals. W. W. Norton & Company.

• Dr. Ruth Beecher

Beecher, R. (2023). Community health practitioners and child sexual abuse in the family, 1970s to 2010. Palgrave Macmillan.

• Tracy Loughran & Mark Williams

Loughran, T., & Williams, M. (Eds.). (in press). Imaginative Pasts: Orientations, Experiments, Reckonings. Manchester University Press.

• Julie Wheelwright & Ruth Beecher

Wheelwright, J., & Beecher, R. (2024). Writing difficult subjects: A toolkit for creative writing. Sexual Harms Research Alliance. 

Creative Professionals mentioned and their work related to CSA:

• Maya Angelou

Angelou, M. (1969). I know why the caged bird sings. Random House. 

• Toni Morrison

Morrison, T. (1970). The bluest eye. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

• Alice Walker
  Walker, A. (1982). The color purple. Pocket Books.

• June Jordan

Jordan, J. (1980). Passion: New poems, 1977–1980. Beacon Press.

Jordan, J. (1981). Civil wars. Beacon Press.

• Jane Smiley

Smiley, J. (1991). A thousand acres. Alfred A. Knopf.

• Gabriel Tallent

Tallent, G. (2017). My absolute darling. Riverhead Books.

• Wally Lamb

Lamb, W. (2025). The river is waiting. Simon & Schuster.