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Sociological and historical research into sexual violence against children has reported consistently that it is girls who have most often been the subject of sexual, psychological and physical violence in both familial and institutional settings in modernity. However, more recently, public inquiries have provided evidence that during the 20th century, boys were much more likely to be abused in particular kinds of religious settings. This has been substantiated in findings from inquiries in Australia, Ireland, the UK and the USA. This reverses the trend of child sexual abuse (CSA) demonstrated in family and community environments, where girls are more likely to be abused, although perpetrators are much more likely to be men across all settings (Dowling, Boxall, et al. 2021). The question of gender in relation to the experience and management of CSA therefore requires further examination. In this article we investigate whether gender is a specific dimension of CSA in religious institutions, and specifically the Roman Catholic Church, by two methods. We begin by firstly examining the literature that addresses gender representation, religion and CSA in relation to three central evidence-based indicators: prevalence, disclosure and trauma impacts. Secondly, we link this discussion to a case study of the Catholic Church in Australia, where we identify specific patterns of gendered child violence and we ask the question: are such gendered forms of violence related to Catholic socialisation processes and if so by which specific mechanisms does Catholic culture produce the conditions that facilitate the sexual abuse of children? This article will explore these questions by looking at the ways CSA in Catholic institutions are gendered and how this produced particular forms of knowledge and truth. We argue that gender is a central organising principle in Catholic bureaucracy, culture and theology. The analysis identifies five central factors underpinning the reproduction of a discourse of power and knowledge normalizing gendered patterns of CSA and addresses a gap in current research by addressing gender representation as the central factor in the prevalence, disclosure and trauma of religiously based CSA.

Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) are a feature of the criminal justice landscape in Canada, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, parts of Western Europe, and South Australi...

The literature on desistance from crime shows that desisters often engage in a process of rebiographing, crafting life stories–or “redemption scripts”–that make sense of their move away from crime. However, this literature has largely excluded nonwhite offenders and sexual offenders. The current study addresses these gaps by examining the desistance narratives of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander men convicted of sexual offending. Drawing on interviews with these men, it identifies ways in which cultural identity can foster desistant identities among sexual offenders.

Police officers are highly criticized for their differential policing of people categorized by identity. One such group who has experienced differential policing is the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ+) community. Contributing new knowledge to the extant policing literature regarding intersectional identities of Australian police officers and perceptions of policing, this research applies Social Identity Theory to understand differences between lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and heterosexual self-identified general-duties police officers ( N = 349) and policing of LGBTIQ+ people. Using an online survey, results suggest the sexual identity of a general-duties police officer does shape perceptions of policing of LGBTIQ+ people. Furthermore, there are distinct differences in the way heterosexual and lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) self-identified officers perceive police engagement with LGBTIQ+ people, with LGB and heterosexual self-identified officers equally compensating for their sexual identity in terms of policing LGBTIQ+ people and distancing themselves from the LGBTIQ+ community.

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission) examined child sexual abuse within a wide range of institutions that provide services to children, this included residential facilities. The current study (funded by the Royal Commission) considers young people’s perception of safety in residential care; specifically,the current study attended to the voices of young people who spoke about sexual harassment and assault in qualitative interviews. Interviews were conducted with young people aged between 13 and 21 years who were or had recently been in residential care. Participants were asked for their perceptions of situations in a series of vignettes describing various levels and types of sexual assault and harassment.During these interviews, the young people in this study voluntarily reported known incidences of sexual assault and harassment in varying levels, perpetrated by workers, individuals outside of residential care, and peers within residential care.Sexual assault and harassment was discussed in heteronormative and gendered ways with young men seen as perpetrators and protectors, and young women seen as being vulnerable.Further, it was evident from this study, that there were varying responses to these situations from workers within the residential care facilities. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

International research has shown that young people in residential care experience challenges and are often exposed to risks that compromise their physical and emotional safety. In particular, the literature has begun to account for the interpersonal difficulties that children and young people have with their peers: concerns about bullying, harassment, peer sexual and physical violence and exploitation. This paper builds on this literature, drawing from a study for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse where 27 children and young people living in residential care discussed their experiences of safety. Although they reported abuse and harm (including exposure to peer violence and bullying and exploitation from outsiders) and how their peers' experiences affected their sense of safety, our study also uncovered ways that young people supported each other and provided them relationships that were protective. The implications for policy and practice, including the need to strengthen peer relationships and foster positive peer cultures are explored Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Within the context of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), officially speaking at least, all sexual activity by a cleric is forbidden. Research suggests that this is not occurring in the RCC, but rather, there is a significant amount of clerical sexual activity in various forms. There appears, however, to be a great deal of ambiguity or ambivalence as to whether clergy sexual misconduct against adults (CSMAA) is actually abusive, or even misconduct. Drawing on qualitative data from a self-identified victims of CSMAA, this paper seeks to offer clarity to the dynamics of this form of abuse.

This study examined Family Court of Australia (FCA) judicial determinations in parenting disputes when allegations of child sexual abuse (CSA) are made by an interested party, usually the mother. For the study, 156 published judgments from 2013-2015 were examined to measure how often allegations of CSA are substantiated, suspected to be true, and disbelieved. The characteristics most common in substantiated versus unsubstantiated cases, evidence of abuse presented, and resulting parenting orders were assessed. Findings indicate that, against international comparisons, FCA judges substantiate cases very conservatively, with rates of substantiation much lower than in other studies. Allegations made by mothers against fathers were disproportionately unsubstantiated, as were those which did not fall under the Magellan case management system. Cases where the only evidence of CSA was a child’s disclosure and parent’s allegation were common in both substantiated and unsubstantiated cases, meaning that a lack of other evidence does not preclude a positive finding of risk of CSA by the FCA. Those cases also involving a protection order against the accused were more likely to be substantiated. Confirmation biases and a judicial tendency to err on the side of false negatives are discussed.

Young people who live in residential care are at greater risk of experiencing sexual abuse and other forms of abuse than those living in other out of home care placements. To better understand how young people perceive and experience safety in residential care, and the things that they most need to be and feel safe, a qualitative study was conducted with 27 Australian children and young people for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. This paper describes young people's perspectives on what makes residential care safe: supportive relationships, stability and predictability, fair rules, and having some control over their environment. Young people said that safety could be improved with: better appreciation of the risks in residential care; better matching, staffing and oversight; and better-designed responses that involve young people themselves. The findings provide critical insights from young people themselves and argue that adults and institutions need to appreciate their views of safety so as to adequately respond.

Background Allegations of child sexual abuse provide complex challenges to family court systems. Objectives Despite being highly criticised in the academic research, this analysis examined whether and how the gendered concepts of parental alienation syndrome or parental alienation more broadly are still being used to rebut allegations of child sexual abuse in family court cases in Australia. Parental Alienation is broadly understood as the deliberate actions of one parent to disrupt and prevent children’s ongoing relationships with their other parent, in this case through allegations of abuse. Methods We examined 357 publicly available judgements of the Family Court of Australia between 2010 and 2015. Judgements were analysed qualitatively for key themes using N-VIVO software. Results Five themes emerged in the data, including use of the concept of parental alienation, coaching, mothers as manipulative, mothers as mentally ill, and impact of the best interest of the child. Conclusions Results indicate that judgements made in the Family Court of Australia are both similar and divergent from those made in other jurisdictions internationally. The complexity of responding to allegations of child sexual abuse for parents is discussed.

Clergy-perpetrated child sexual abuse (CSA) has become widely acknowledged as a form of violence that has ongoing and long-term impacts on the lives of survivors, their families, and the communities where clergy-perpetrated CSA has occurred (Bohm, Zollner, Fegert, & Liebhardt, 2014; Taspell, 2014). The consequences for religious organisations who trained, employed, and managed clergy perpetrators have come about through the sustained and determined actions of survivors and their advocates to demand accountability through civil litigation, public inquiry, and criminal prosecution (Keenan, 2012a). As a result of the politicisation of clergy-perpetrated CSA, knowledge has come not only from academic literature and studies, but from large-scale public inquires conducted in a number of jurisdictions, including Ireland, Australia, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Germany (Death, 2018). Although incidence is difficult to determine, there is a growing body of literature that addresses the causes, contexts, nature of perpetrators and perpetration, and responses to clergy-perpetrated CSA. Much of this has focused on Roman Catholic traditions, where much of the historical abuse has occurred. Although it is acknowledged that clergy-perpetrated CSA has been reported in a number of Christian denominations, and other religions, this chapter also focuses on Roman Catholic traditions (Parkinson, Oates, & Jayakody, 2012). The best explanations of clergy-perpetrated CSA include consideration of both individual and systemic issues in its perpetration and the subsequent management of disclosures. Clericalism has proved a useful concept, being applicable to perpetrators, survivors, and institutions.

Both historical and contemporary residential care for children have been found to present risks to their safety and security. Views about the characteristics of workers that helped them to feel safe in the placement were obtained from 27 children and young people who were placed in residential care in Australia. Competent and trustworthy staff were considered essential. These workers were characterised as caring, proactive, tenacious in building relationships, and available. Importantly, they listened and ensured young people had a voice. The study affirms the central role of the worker-client alliance in ensuring residential care is a positive and safe experience for children and young people, and identifies structural factors that children and young people believe are barriers to them feeling safe. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This article explores the contradictory ways in which adolescents just under the age of consent are represented in illegal sexual relations with both men and women who are over the age of consent. We are specifically interested in exploring the ways in which the gender of the adolescent and the adult affect public discourse, legal responses, and social perceptions of the harm of sexual relations. We argue that the development of an indiscriminate legal and policy narrative of child sexual abuse that increasingly includes all aspects of adolescent sexuality “erases” an adolescent subjectivity. By exploring the nuanced ways in which the historical construction of childhood as sexually innocent intersects with current cultural scripts of femininity and masculinity, this article hopes to add to the small but growing literature on the issue of sexual consent, sexual ethics, and sexual citizenship for young people.

Since 2012, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission) has uncovered evidence of significant rates of child sexual abuse within Australian residential care facilities. Although much of this evidence is historical and relates to residential facilities that were run quite differently to the ways that residential care is provided in contemporary times, child sexual abuse remains a risk for many young people in care. In addition to child sexual abuse perpetrated by adults within residential care settings, greater attention has recently focused on problematic sexual behaviour amongst young people, and the exploitation of young people by adults outside the residential care setting (Hallett, 2015; Timmerman & Schreuder, 2014). In 2014, the Royal Commission commissioned the Institute of Child Protection Studies at the Australian Catholic University, with partners from Griffith University and Queensland University of Technology, to develop an understanding of how children perceive safety and consider it within institutional contexts. Specifically, this study explores the following research questions: 1. What does safety to mean to children and young people in the context of residential care? a. How do children and young people perceive safety within residential care and what do they need to feel and be safe? b. What are the safety concerns of children and young people in residential care? c. What do children and young people consider is being done to prevent harm (by staff, other adults and peers) in residential care? d. What do children and young people consider should be done to respond to safety issues in residential care? This report provides an overview of the major themes emerging from interviews with 27 children and young people with lived experience of residential care in Australia

This chapter considers the issue of child sexual abuse (CSA) within the Roman Catholic Church (the Church) internationally. In particular, the State-facilitated responses in the USA, Ireland and Australia are considered for this study. This includes the function of civil litigation and State inquiry. Such inquiries continue to be extremely important in understanding CSA in Catholic institutions. Internationally, civil litigation and public inquiries have become a substantial response in the survivor’s pursuit of justice and in understanding the breadth and depth of the issues associated with CSA by Roman Catholic clergy (clergy). Such methods are inherently jurisdictional and may not go far enough to challenge the deeply rooted systemic and cultural issues that impact on the ways in which CSA by clergy is perpetrated and managed. Hence, consideration needs to be given as to how the upper echelons of the Church can be brought to account for both primary and secondary abuses in the perpetration and management of CSA by clergy.

Balboni identifies her interest as being the processes of official disclosure and the path taken to civil litigation by survivors of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic Clergy. The empirical data, on which this work is based, come in the form of in-depth face-to-face interviews with 22 survivors of clergy sexual abuse who have pursued litigation and 13 of their advocates. Balboni provides a space for survivors’ accounts of the ‘why’ behind their decision making and the impact of civil litigation on their lives to be heard, discussed and contextualized with both clarity and sensitivity. She acknowledges the breadth and depth of survivor responses, and the perspectives of their legal advocates, employing defiance theory, symbolic interaction and other points of analysis, to capture the journey of survivors towards litigation and beyond. Balboni’s work is deeply poignant in its recognition of survivors’ voices, the complex transformative capacity of litigation, the effects of community forming amongst survivors and the complex nature of ‘empowerment’ obtained by survivors through civil litigation. Acknowledging that, for many survivors, litigation becomes a means of identity change and truth telling, Balboni admits that ‘these survivors helped me understand that litigation is more about voice than monetary settlement’ (p. 149). This work is not deeply analytical or theoretically rich but privileges the voices of survivors and their advocates with sufficient frameworks to contextualize and explain participants’ perspectives and experiences.