Understanding Child Sexual Abuse Disclosure (Paperback)

Disclosure of childhood sexual abuse remains deeply complex. Despite positive developments within criminal justice systems, child protection services and therapeutic provision too often place the burden of “coming forward” on the individual, overlooking the profound structural and societal barriers that make disclosure so difficult.

Understanding Child Sexual Abuse Disclosure challenges this norm. Drawing on a comprehensive review of the evidence base, it maps the full landscape of disclosure – its challenges, opportunities and theoretical underpinnings – before proposing an innovative social model response. Rather than asking why individuals do not disclose, it asks what society must do to make disclosure possible.

Accessible yet academically rigorous, this indispensable resource demonstrates how we must urgently shift attention away from individuals being expected to “come forward” and towards collective responsibility.

Joseph Mooney is Assistant Professor of Social Work at University College Dublin.