Diffusing responsibility: A case study of child sexual abuse in popular discourse

• We use a case study approach involving child sexual assault by a pediatrician involving over 100 victims.
• We analyze online comments from Delaware's primary newspaper.
• We examine predominant beliefs about child sexual abuse through popular discourse.
• Comments overwhelmingly explained the abuse as the fault of the victims' parents.
• Data also demonstrated social distancing between readers and victims' parents.

Popular discourse provides a window into predominant social beliefs. To assess predominant beliefs about child sexual abuse, this exploratory, descriptive study examines the discourse surrounding a high-profile child abuse case that involved over 100 victims and culminated in the arrest of a well-known Delaware pediatrician in 2009. The Dr. Earl Bradley case, dominated local news media for more than a year. Online comments from the state's primary newspaper were collected and analyzed to identify themes. Coding analysis found that popular discourse overwhelmingly explained the abuse as the fault of the victims' parents, putatively, the mothers. Commenters engaged in direct blaming of parents, thus, at least to some extent, shifting blame from the offender and the institutional systems that failed to adequately react to the allegations of abuse to the victims' parents. Newspaper comments also demonstrated social distancing which, in addition to the comments attributing blame to the parents, served to excuse and distract from the responsibility of authority figs. or structural change. Although comments that defended parents did appear, these instances were far less frequent than comments blaming the parents, which illustrates a trend to individualize rather than activate collective challenges, therefore putting the onus on victims to police the powerful. Overall, institutional malfeasance eclipsed the well-being of children, and public commentary displayed an implicitly gendered parent-bashing, diminishing the responsibility of the professionals.