Let's teach young people how to protect themselves from abuse

But these spates of public gnashing of teeth tend to bring out the worst in us. So much energy is used on the unseemly search for scapegoats - on pointing the finger at public officials who missed the warning signs - that we can end up almost believing that it was the professionals themselves who were doing the abusing. Yet so little time is spent on thinking about whether there is anything more effective we could do in the future other than bolting stable doors.

The headlines are all about which council or police leader from the past has now resigned. It is right that our leaders should take responsibility for failures in the services they oversee, so I am not arguing that they should have remained in their posts. But I find it depressing that almost all the public debate seems to characterise the problem simply as one of how to improve reviewing and reporting systems, and how to track down and punish wicked adults.