Some background information on institutional child abuse...
"Independent on Sunday, 8th October 2000
by Christian Wolmar"
"The scandal that unfolded in British children's homes in the 1980s and 1990s is, on the face of it, inexplicable. A modern western nation with a tradition of caring for the weak - the birthplace of the welfare state - houses thousands of children in residential homes where they end up battered and sexually abused.."
"Even if one argues that there was a concentration of abuse in homes in the areas of the major inquiries (a proposition for which there is no evidence), and that some of the allegations under investigation are bound to be false, one could conservatively suggest that 2 to 3 per cent of all children who went into children's homes in the 1970s and 1980s were abused. The Tribunal of Inquiry headed by Sir Ronald Waterhouse found in February this year that at least 650 people had been abused in the children's homes of North Wales alone. Nationally, over two decades, it is not unreasonable to infer that, of the 600,000-700,000 children who went through children's homes, between 12,000 and 15,000 were abused.
The reasons for this epidemic are many and debatable. But one possible cause that has received little attention - and that seems particularly relevant to the question of why the epidemic occurred when it did - is the general tenor of the period in question, especially where sexual politics was concerned.
THE ROLE and function of children's homes changed dramatically between the mid 1960s and the early 1970s. As late as 1967, the service was very female dominated and most of the staff lived in the homes. The Williams committee, reporting on the staffing of residential homes that year, noted: "Two-thirds of people at present employed in residential homes are single women and one-third of all staff are over 50 years of age." All but 7 per cent of workers in the survey lived on the premises, which provided an important but barely noticed safeguard for the children..."
"...Encouraged by all these liberation movements, in October 1974 a group of paedophiles, who defined themselves as child lovers not necessarily interested in sex with children, formed the Paedophile Information Exchange [PIE] to "provide the means for paedophiles to feel less isolated and gain a sense of community". Their aim was also to "alleviate suffering of many adults and children" by campaigning against the laws on the age of consent, to allow adults to have sex with children. But knowing that this was an unpalatable message, they did not put it like that. Instead, they talked of the right of children to have sex at any age. If the Gay Liberation Front represented homosexuals and the feminist movement supported women, then paedophile activists were for children's rights..."
"...A social worker who has worked for many years on cases involving paedophiles reckons that the attempt to merge gay and paedophile issues was a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters: "They did it to prepare their defence, so that when they were arrested or there was a complaint, they could cry homophobia. It is a very useful charge for them. It can delay, subvert, divert investigations. This is a deliberate defence, particularly from the men who came up in the 1970s, many of whom knew each other."..."
http://spotlightonabuse.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/home-truths-8-10-00/