Protecting Children and Adults from Abuse after Savile
| Published date | 03 October 2019 |
| Date | 03 October 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JAP-03-2019-0010 |
| Pages | 268-270 |
| Author | Pete Morgan |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Vulnerable groups,Adult protection,Safeguarding,Sociology,Sociology of the family,Abuse |
Edited by Marcus Erooga
Review DOI
10.1108/JAP-03-2019-0010
The aftermath of the disclosures and
investigations into the predatory behaviour
of Jimmy Savile has taken several forms
and directions, including the establishment
of a “cottage industry”of books and
reports into how he was able to abuse for
so long in situations where it was assumed
that his victims would be safe. This is not
to suggest that there are no hard lessons
to be learnt, for a range of constituencies,
from examining how he, and other
celebrities of greater and lesser note,
were able to insinuate themselves into
positions of trust and power that
enabled them to abuse their “victims”
over a long period of time. My concern
is that those lessons may be lost or
lose focus through trying to apply
them inappropriately.
I am aware that, as he died before the
allegations against him could be fully
investigated, technically Savile should be
described as “an alleged abuser”;the
weight of evidence against him,
however, is such that it seems inappropriate
and disrespectful to his accusers to
do so.
I should, first of all, admit to being able
to comment with any authority only on
safeguarding adults, not safeguarding
children; my knowledge and experience of
the latter is either old and out-dated or
limited to situations where abuse of both
adults and children had occurred, including
across the transition from childhood to
adulthood. For the point of view of this
review and this book, children are those
aged under 18, adults those aged 18
and above.
I do believe that ab use, including se xual
abuse, is primarily about the exercise of
power and its misuse, rather than any other
gratification of the perpetrator. Again, this is
not to suggest that se xual abusers do not
gain sexual gratification from their actions,
but that, like Savile, they will sexually abuse
where they can, and if one group, such a s
children, are not accessible, they will target
another that is. Sav ile, for example, abus ed
pre-pubescent chi ldren to pensioners, males
and females.
This book takes, as its starting point,
the 75 reviews of the practice, process and
procedures in the settings he is known to
have visited or been involved with. From a
consideration o f their key finding s and
themes, practical steps are identified that
can improve organisational safeguarding
and to reduce the incidence of abuse in the
future. Consider ation is also given t o
international research into similar celebrity
abusers and to other su ch cases in the UK.
This is a valuable and welcome exercise and
provides a detailed overview of Savile’s
behaviour and how he was able to
manipulate and ex ploit the systems , and
the lack of them, to his own ends. It also
correctly draws the conclusion that the
assumptions that a n organisation som ehow
becomes “safe”when abuse is discovered
within it and respo nded to and that Sav ile
was a one-off are both erroneous and
dangerous. “Celebrity”is a relative term, and
the control exerted by a charismatic figure
such as Savile can also be exerted and
misused by a popular member of staff
or volunteer.
The book makes many important points very
cogently: the danger of blurring personal and
professional boundaries; “whistle-blowing”
being a loaded and therefore an unhelpful
term; the importance of “bystander
programmes”; the concept of perpetrators
being “hidden in plain sight”; the impact of
conflicting priorities on the emphasis placed
on safeguarding practice within organisations
and the need for proactive not just reactive
safeguarding practice.
It would have strengthened the book’s
arguments, in my view, if the context in which
Savile and the other historical abusers
operated had been more explicitly
Protecting Children
and Adults from Abuse
after Savile
PAGE268
j
THE JOURNAL OF ADULT PROTECTION
j
VOL. 21 NO. 5 2019, pp. 268-270, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1466-8203
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