Professor Wood explored in his lecture how bureaucratic responses to disclosures of sexual abuse from children were driven and defined by cultural expectations within institutions.
These were formed through the physical and emotional conflict inherent within the care/control ratio of adult responses to the ‘dangerousness’ of children and young people within these institutions. Similarly, exploration was offered in regard to how the responses from these children and young people experiencing sexual abuse within these controlled institutionalized settings was shaped through the physical; social and psychological environment and associated notions of ‘dangerousness’ associated with members of staff.
The lecture also explores the dynamics between ontological / epistemological factors associated with the processes of investigation undertaken by Professor Wood relating to the information reviewed, as such, discussion was offered upon the ethnographic and phenomenological nature of this investigation.
Alan Wood is a visiting professor at the University of Chester and independent consultant. He was commissioned by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in the United Kingdom to investigate how 6 custodial institutions responded to allegations of sexual abuse made by children subject to custody. Alan is a Master’s degree level qualified Social Worker and Child Therapist (Universities of Keele and York), and over the past 30 years of practice has worked in Leadership, Senior Management, and practitioner roles within the Statutory, Voluntary and Private Sectors across England. Throughout this period of practice and management Alan has worked within the sphere of safeguarding, court work, children who are looked after and therapy delivery.
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Reported by:
Dr. Yohai Hakak
+44 (0)1895 265844
Yohai.Hakak@brunel.ac.uk