Child sexual abuse and recovery: historicising survivor and practitioner experiences (c1950-2022)

Child sexual abuse survivors are told to “heal wounds” and “repair damage” using a language borrowed from medicine, but this framework often ignores the social and practical support they actually need to recover. This research addresses a fundamental gap: while clinical treatments for CSA are measured for efficacy, survivors’ own views and experiences are routinely sidelined, and the role of context—time, place, identity, structural inequality—is overlooked. The project is the first social, cultural and medical history of recovery from CSA in Britain and Ireland during the second half of the twentieth century. It uses a mixed-methods approach to bring together survivors and frontline practitioners, two groups whose perspectives are rarely included in the historical record. If successful, this work could reshape how public services—including healthcare, social welfare, and policy—respond to CSA. Instead of defaulting to psychological recovery alone, practitioners might learn from past experiences to offer a broader range of support that addresses emotional and physical equilibrium. The research is primarily historical and qualitative, not a clinical trial, but its insights could influence present-day practice and policy by giving survivors and practitioners a voice in how recovery is understood and delivered.