Savile Scandal Research Articles

The origins of the Jimmy Savile scandal

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the origins of the Jimmy Savile Scandal in which the former BBC entertainer was accused of a series of sexual offences after his death in 2011. The case has had a massive impact on UK policing and criminal justice policy and on care work, with implications for due process and public expenditure in responding to reports of sexual abuse.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on an Economic and Social Research Council funded project to collate data on the Savile case. It is based, primarily, on interview material from former pupils and staff members from Duncroft School, from whence initial allegations against Savile emanate, contrasting these with media accounts.FindingsThe research provides a very different picture of Duncroft and the contemporary policy context to that presented in media accounts. A questioning account of the origins of the scandal emerges. The findings may lend themselves to a moral panics analysis but also point to the power of dominant stories in influencing public policy.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is based on only a very small sample of interviews. The material is ethically sensitive in that it may be claimed or used to cast doubt on accounts of abuse.Social implicationsThe implications of the wider project from which it draws are potentially profound, casting doubt on the origins and detail of the Savile scandal.Originality/valueThe paper addresses one of the major socio-cultural episodes in recent British history, which has had a profound effect on the workings of the criminal justice system, signalling a shift away from a presumption of innocence. It also offers insight into the cultural context of care work and the possibility, especially for males, of being subject to allegations made against them.

Indecent images and defamatory meaning in late modern societies: taking ordinary, reasonable readers outside their ivory tower

ABSTRACTThe article scrutinises a libel case brought by a claimant against the public prosecuting authority in England and Wales, asking the court to determine as a preliminary issue the meaning of a Charging Announcement. This case is worth consideration because it illustrates how the arguably problematic interpretation of the offence of ‘making’ indecent images of children may extend beyond the dynamics of the criminal trial to colour the adjudication of civil disputes. The article also challenges the qualities of hypothetical referees in defamation cases, suggesting that they need to be determined based on a realistic rather than an idealistic view of late modern, multi-mediated societies. The Savile scandal and other high-profile child sexual abuse cases have cultivated a climate of mistrust in which the ordinary reader is reasonably (not unduly) suspicious and should not be expected in this context to favour a less defamatory meaning over a more defamatory one.

Press coverage as a heuristic guide for social decision-making about sexual offenders

ABSTRACTWe present two studies examining the role of the British press in promoting heuristic-based decision-making about sexual crime. In Study 1, 1014 press articles were used in order to examine the role of the availability heuristic. That is, we used the recent high-profile Jimmy Savile sexual offending scandal to investigate how this case impacted upon press reporting of sexual crime. We found a 295% increase in the frequency of sexual crime coverage after this case, in addition to a 22:1 over-representation of sexual crime prevalence. Linguistically, tabloid stories about sexual crime did not significantly differ in the 12 months following the Jimmy Savile scandal, though broadsheets were less negative in their coverage after the scandal broke. Tabloid headline descriptors of sexual offenders were also substantially more offensive than those used by broadsheets. In Study 2, tabloid readership was associated with more negative attitudes and preferences for harsher punishments for sexual offenders, which we propose may be attributable to the affect heuristic. We discuss our findings within the context of dual-process cognition, and argue that the national press promote heuristic-based thinking about the issue of sexual offending. Future research avenues, and potential implications for press engagement, are also identified.

MORAL CRUSADES IN AN AGE OF MISTRUST: THE JIMMY SAVILE SCANDAL

Frank Furedi’s exposition of the Jimmy Savile scandal is a self-styled offer of a “sociologically informed explanation” of the drama, as it unfolded. Its publication date of 2013 is significant, because even a year is a long time in the dismal saga of child abuse revelations in 21st century Britain.

A Prototype-Willingness Model of Sexual Crime Discourse in England and Wales

Dual-process models of decision making assume that we process information using two distinct ‘systems’: a deliberate and analytical system, and an intuitive system. This article uses 148 UK press articles about sexual crime to apply one such model – the ‘prototype-willingness’ model – to the study of social discourses about sexual crime in England and Wales. A small number of cases were significantly over-represented within the article sample (for example, the recent Jimmy Savile scandal). This finding is examined within the context of contemporary debates about sexual crime, and a model of social and political discourse is advanced. Implications for legislation and future research are discussed.

Nursing Standard gave ‘significant’ coverage of Savile scandal, says Broadmoor report

Nursing Standard gave ‘significant’ coverage of Savile scandal, says Broadmoor report

Book review: Frank Furedi, Moral Crusades in an Age of Mistrust: The Jimmy Savile Scandal

Book review: Frank Furedi, <i>Moral Crusades in an Age of Mistrust: The Jimmy Savile Scandal</i>

The Sir Jimmy Savile scandal: Child sexual abuse and institutional denial at the BBC

This study advances research on scandal through an empirical examination of one of the most extraordinary UK institutional child sexual abuse (CSA) scandals in the post-war period. Sir Jimmy Savile (1926–2011) was a BBC celebrity, showbiz friend of the establishment and philanthropist. In October 2012, one year after his death, an ITV documentary alleged that Savile was also a prolific sexual predator who for decades had exploited his BBC status to abuse teenage girls. As we demonstrate, this incendiary documentary triggered a news media feeding frenzy that in less than one week destroyed Savile’s reputation and thrust the BBC – the institution that made him a star – into a multi-faceted, globally reported CSA scandal. This study has four purposes. First, we propose a model of institutional CSA scandals that can account for critical transitions between key phases in the scandal process. Second, we apply this model to analyse the transition between the ‘latent’ and ‘activated’ phases of the Savile scandal. This transition corresponded with a dramatic transformation in the inferential structuring of Savile from ‘national treasure’, who had devoted decades to working with children, to ‘prolific sexual predator’, who spent decades abusing them. Third, we demonstrate how the BBC’s denial of responsibility for Savile’s sexual offending and its subsequent institutional cover-up triggered a ‘trial by media’ which in turn initiated the next phase in the scandal’s development – ‘amplification’. Finally, we consider the significance of our analysis of the Sir Jimmy Savile scandal for understanding the activation and development of scandals more generally.

Historic claims of abuse

Following the Jimmy Savile scandal, there has been an increase in the number accusations of historic abuse. Legal experts Michael Pether and Sarah Firth explain the essential steps that schools must take should they receive notification of such a claim.

Savile scandal highlights the need for safeguarding children, say lead nurses

Savile scandal highlights the need for safeguarding children, say lead nurses

Savile scandal highlights the need for safeguarding children, say lead nurses

Savile scandal highlights the need for safeguarding children, say lead nurses