Child Abuse and Public Inquiries: Historicizing the Imperative for Openness and Disclosure

By the late twentieth century, an imperative for openness and transparency – what might fruitfully be called a ‘culture of disclosure’ – was increasingly evident across all spheres of social, political and personal life in the West. While this can be identified in disparate domains, it has been particularly striking in relation to discourses of child abuse. This paper explores the imperative for openness and disclosure about the abuse and neglect of children against the backdrop of emergent constructions of childhood vulnerability since the 1970s. It takes as its focal point a key instantiation of societal openness over the last several decades: public inquiries into childhood maltreatment. While official inquiries have a number of functions, a key purpose is acknowledged as ‘learning lessons’ from the past in order to prevent future recurrence. Given it is now widely accepted that people who have suffered abuse and neglect as children often face lifelong challenges, including poverty, social isolation and poor mental health, there is a strong warrant for investigations that throw light on cases of past abuse. This paper first considers the rise of public inquiries in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, as exemplars of increasing societal concern about childhood vulnerability and abuse. Second, it examines inquiries against the backdrop of emerging theories of human development and psychological research that re-shaped how childhood experience, and the effects of ill-treatment, came to be understood. Finally, it explores the public pedagogical function of inquiries, and makes a case for the use of official inquires in understanding broader processes of social change; in this case, changing concepts of childhood vulnerability and the emergence of social and educational policies aimed at safeguarding children and promoting their wellbeing.