An Unthinkable Crime

A sweeping, ground-breaking account of how child sexual abuse has been systematically concealed and minimised for decades – and how a courageous group of survivors, psychologists and advocates are fighting to expose the truth. One in three girls. One in nine boys. That is the devasting estimate of how many children experience sexual abuse – 90 per cent of the time at the hands of someone they know. For decades, starting with Freud, child sexual abuse has been deemed ‘unthinkable’, too awful to be widespread. But in looking away, we’ve allowed it to fester and proliferate. It’s time to face this hidden epidemic head on. This engrossing, empathetic, deeply reported book is the first to bring together the stories of survivors with the inspiring work of psychologists, law enforcement officers, lawyers and advocates who have been fighting on behalf of children for decades. It also deals with the new challenges and powerful counter-tools available in the age of AI. Freud may have looked away, but Janelle Nanos and her sources have not – and neither should we.