Book review: Helping Children to Tell About Sexual Abuse: Guidance for Helpers
| Published date | 01 May 2017 |
| Author | Kim P Roberts |
| Date | 01 May 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0269758017695605 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
In short, this book will most certainly be a reliable companion for my classes on victimology. I
predict that my copy will soon be looking well-thumbed – a cracked book spine is always a good
sign in my book.
Reference
Duggan M and Heap V (2014) Administering Victimization. The Politics of Anti-social Behaviour and Hate
Crime Policy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rosaleen McElvaney
Helping Children to Tell About Sexual Abuse: Guidance for Helpers
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2016; p 159
ISBN 978-1-8490-5712-7 (pbk) with accompanying children’s book Secret Secret by Daisy Law
Reviewed by: Kim P Roberts, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
DOI: 10.1177/0269758017695605
When I was 15 years old, a friend of mine disclosed that she had been willingly having a sexual
relationship with her co-habiting stepfather, but now found herself uncomfortable with the situa-
tion. I was not her best friend, but she told me that I was the only one she trusted, and that if anyone
knew what to do, it would be me. Though I was flattered, as we chatted about it, I asked her
permission to talk to a respected elder I knew. He was able to stand back and offer us some
structure which ultimately allowed us to come up with a plan for my friend’s next steps (compli-
cated by the fact that she had turned 16 – i.e. legal age of consent – during the time these events
were occurring).
I relate this event because it is typical of the complexities of disclosure of abuse that McElvaney
sensitively describes throughout this book. The reader gets a comforting sense of McElvaney’s
understanding that there are many paths to disclosure, recantation, and everything that follows.
The most attractive feature of the book is that this is clea rly a book about the process of
disclosure, rather than attempts to elicit disclosure. McElvaney preaches listening to a child’s
thoughts and feelings, rather than investigating the abuse disclosed. As she rightly notes, how to
question children about abusive events is best left to forensic interviewing experts.
In contrast, McElvaney outlines the many routes to disclosure, the breadth of the timing of first
and subsequent disclosures and, most importantly, how to help children through this process. As
pointed out several times as a comment on society: it is not the child’s responsibility to disclose.
We must be there for when, if ever, the child is ready to disclose. And ready to facilitate the
disclosure through supporting the child (not questioning the abuse) and helping her/him to develop
trust and comfort with you. As pointed out, children sometimes expect adults to know about the
abuse or to be the first to raise the topic.
The writing is balanced and pragmatic. McElvaney takes the reader through a process of
evaluation regarding what is best for any given child at any moment. She takes into consideration
family dynamics, children’s wishes to talk or try to forget the abuse, the child’s confusion over
their role in the abuse, things to contemplate when disclosing to different recipients (peers, family,
Book reviews 229
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