Work

Time to be Heard: The Scottish Government and the Construction of a Myth of Historical Child Abuse

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: This article problematises the Scottish Government's response to historical abuse in residential child care.This is a sensitive subject, eliciting powerful emotional and moralising impulses that act to inhibit expressions of dissent.In this article we do introduce dissenting perspectives.We provide a brief background to the emergence of historical abuse as a public issue and outline the Scottish Government's response to this, through its commissioning of two reports, a Systemic Review (SR) of Historical Abuse and, more especially, the Time To Be Heard (TTBH) Pilot.We develop a critique of TTBH, highlighting what we see as its major epistemological and conceptual flaws.These, we argue, contribute to the construction of a particularly negative discourse around care homes and schools, with damaging consequences for those who live and work in residential child care today.We conclude by identifying wider implications in respect of the evidential basis for policy formulation in a context where ideology and emotion crowds out social scientific inquiry.

Source: Scottish Affairs

DOI: 10.3366/scot.2012.0002

Authors: Mark Smith, Viviene E. Cree, Gary Clapton

Language: English

Topic: Military, Security, and Education Studies

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: green

Funders: Scottish Government, Economic and Social Research Council

Award: G4964011092