I encountered a media scrum outside Rotherham’s council offices this week, following Alexis Jay’s damning report into the exploitation and abuse of 1,400 children in the borough. And I listened to the assembled journalists speculate about which heads would roll, and what the full extent of this horrendous episode would be.
Calls for the resignation of senior officials will be heard on the streets of the borough for some time, but it is vital that real lessons are learned from Jay’s report.
There have already calls for a mass cull of councillors and officers (some of whom must, rightly, take responsibility for failing in their duty to protect children and young people in Rotherham). But this alone will not ensure that the hideous acts that took place in the town will not happen again – either in my native South Yorkshire or elsewhere across the country.
There must now be a seismic shift in the culture of our agencies and it has to be instigated by those at the top of the political ladder. Victims must be supported, not doubted or ignored, or, even worse, blamed for the terrible crimes inflicted upon them.
Jay’s report lists numerous incidents of social workers and police officers choosing to ignore the allegations of rape and sexual abuse made by children and young girls, simply because the victims themselves had already been labelled ‘troublesome’, ‘out of control’ or ‘promiscuous’. It is simply not good enough for any allegation of sexual abuse to be downgraded in the eyes of officials because the victim has previously been known to the police.
Ignoring allegations and the cries for help from those who are vulnerable is victim-blaming of another kind. It is not a million miles removed from the same type of culture that sees individuals or organisations blaming rape victims for choosing to dress in certain manner, drink alcohol or put themselves ‘at risk’ in another way.
Only this summer, there were outcries after a poster published jointly by the NHS and the Home Office reminded potential rape victims about how to behave, rather than tackling the behaviour of those who commit rape and sexual assault.
All types of victim-blaming are completely unacceptable and I hope Labour will do all it can to ensure that this dangerous culture is removed from our society. We cannot move forward from Rotherham if anyone continues to feel that their allegations of rape or sexual assault and exploitation are not being treated as legitimate, whatever the circumstances.
I applaud the action taken by Ed Miliband to create a shadow ministerial post dedicated to tackling the prevention of violence against women and girls, including sexual violence. I hope the highly-capable Seema Malhotra will tackle the issues highlighted to the nation once again by Rotherham.
We must bring forward a plan for the next Labour government to implement, to ensure that the ‘ignore’ culture and victim-blaming that sadly still exist in the United Kingdom are stamped out for good.
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Rachel Hodson is a member of the Progress strategy board and a councillor in Doncaster
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Photo: Chris
Lets be honest lots of noises were made after previous damning reports, even if not so much by Labour who largely went do the route of being apologists and excuse makers for the offenders for little more than why what happened in Rotherham was allowed to happen.
Lets be even stronger than honest and admit that for to long and despite their being very clear evidence that strategies, key objectives and numerous other guidelines and roles in place were failing and in some cases not even being used and be truthful that appointees similar to Seema Malhotra and despite the waffle spewed as the reason for their appointment just haven’t looked after the most vulnerable people within our communities.
If the Justice system is to be dismantled piece by piece by this and subsequent Tory administrations, there will be no justice for anyone, victims or otherwise. How can victims families afford private prosecutions when ignored by a corrupt police force when there is no Legal Aid? How can a country call itself civilised if there is one law for the rich and another for the poor. The Tories have dismantled the court interpreter system, the legal aid system and have turned prisons into no-go areas with zero rehabilitation and massive recidivism. What next, debtors’ prisons?