Reputation and the Sexual Abuse of Boys

Abstract

In 1895, a Manchester (UK) newspaper accused Gilbert Kirlew of sexually abusing boys at a refuge for homeless and neglected children. Kirlew, the epitome of middle-class respectable masculinity, was a leader in local philanthropic action and mobilization of all kinds. Notably, he was in the forefront of the new social movement to rescue poor children in order to provide them with a secure home and an education suitable for working-class adulthood. The Kirlew sexual abuse scandal illustrates how changes in late-Victorian attitudes about homosexuality, society’s responsibilities to children, and sexual abuse came into conflict with the class-based cultural power of male reputation and character.