Janelle Nanos

Essential reading. A rigorous, deeply human account of why survivors haven’t been believed — and what it takes to change that. This book matters

Nadia Murad, Nobel Prize-winning author of THE LAST GIRL

Riveting, maddening, and nearly impossible to put down, this searing history of the sexual abuse of children goes beyond the suffering to show how and why the prevalence of these heinous behaviors has been hidden for far too long. At times, readers may think they are devouring a true-crime thriller — that’s how expertly Janelle Nanos unspools the narrative. As the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators continue to go mostly unpunished, this is the book the world needs right now

An inspiring, enraging and deeply clarifying journalistic work, An Unthinkable Crime not only dares to look closely at something our society has willfully ignored for generations; it also explains, in no uncertain terms, how this has happened — and offers three deeply moving stories of people who have lived through the worst consequences of that denial and refused to stay silent any longer

Robert Kolker, author of HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD

Written with sensitivity and a reporter’s instincts, this book will shake you up. How we talk about what happens to one in three American girls doesn’t just matter for social justice — it matters for how scholars, politicians, and police alike think about what it means to protect women from the very start

A book of stupendous scholarship that shows how a band of defiant academics, psychologists, activists, law enforcement officials, and uncommonly brave victims slowly revised history, rendering visible a sickening problem — child sexual abuse — that was as endemic as it was ignored. Janelle Nanos has produced a definitive work, a story that’s ultimately about validation, vindication, and reclamation. What an achievement. What a gift

Jennifer Senior, Pulitzer Prize–winning Atlantic writer and New York Times bestselling author

An astonishing, trenchant, and deeply reported labor of love, An Unthinkable Crime forces us to reconcile two apparently incompatible truths: many of us find it impossibly difficult to contemplate childhood sexual abuse; yet the crime is extremely common, befalling one in three girls and one in nine boys. Janelle Nanos shows us exactly how this is possible: we have looked away and enabled networks of abuse to operate and entrench themselves, to the detriment of children everywhere. Bold, brilliant, and devastating

Professor Kate Manne, School of Philosophy at Cornell University and author of DOWN GIRL

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.

Janelle Nanos

Praise for An Unthinkable Crime

Essential reading. A rigorous, deeply human account of why survivors haven’t been believed — and what it takes to change that. This book matters

Riveting, maddening, and nearly impossible to put down, this searing history of the sexual abuse of children goes beyond the suffering to show how and why the prevalence of these heinous behaviors has been hidden ...

An inspiring, enraging and deeply clarifying journalistic work, An Unthinkable Crime not only dares to look closely at something our society has willfully ignored for generations; it also explains, in no u ...

Essential reading. A rigorous, deeply human account of why survivors haven’t been believed — and what it takes to change that. This book matters

Riveting, maddening, and nearly impossible to put down, this searing history of the sexual abuse of children goes beyond the suffering to show how and why the prevalence of these heinous behaviors has been hidden ...

An inspiring, enraging and deeply clarifying journalistic work, An Unthinkable Crime not only dares to look closely at something our society has willfully ignored for generations; it also explains, in no u ...

Essential reading. A rigorous, deeply human account of why survivors haven’t been believed — and what it takes to change that. This book matters

Riveting, maddening, and nearly impossible to put down, this searing history of the sexual abuse of children goes beyond the suffering to show how and why the prevalence of these heinous behaviors has been hidden ...

An inspiring, enraging and deeply clarifying journalistic work, An Unthinkable Crime not only dares to look closely at something our society has willfully ignored for generations; it also explains, in no u ...

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