Sexual Abuse in Dutch Child Protection, 1945–2010

Abstract

In 2010, the Samson committee was appointed to inquire into sexual abuse of children who were placed in out-of-home care between 1945 and 2010 and grew up as the responsibility of the Dutch government. One year earlier, in response to publicity generated by victim groups, the Dutch episcopate, together with the society of religious congregations responsible for most Catholic boarding schools in 2009, established a committee to investigate claims of sexual abuse in Catholic institutions. Its chair, Wim Deetman, a Protestant, former minister of education, member and president of parliament, mayor of The Hague and now member of the Constitutional Council, was a man of high repute and trusted by Catholics and the main political parties. In 2011 this committee published its report on sexual abuse of boys in the late 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and produced a supplementary report about physical violence against girls in 2013 (Deetman et al., 2011a, 2011b, 2013).