The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has recently released 55 submissions in response to their ‘Consultation Paper: Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Out-of-Home Care’ You can download and read the submissions here. This is my submission dated 11 March 2016. I became aware of the above Consultation Paper only […]
Mismanaging Expectations: The dominance of sexual abuse at the royal commission
This is the final draft of my paper for the Biennial European Social Science History Conference of the International Institute of Social History to be held in Valencia, Spain 30 March to 2 April 2016. Read more about the Conference here. Given that there are several papers being presented on related issues, I will revise […]
Pell Faithful Rush to the Barricades Too Late
Jingle bells, Cardinal Pell. An orchestrated campaign has been mounted in belated defence of Cardinal George Pell who told the Child Abuse Royal Commission at the last minute that he was too ill to fly to Australia to give vital evidence (here). There was wide-spread skepticism since it was widely known that he had flown […]
Blame the Victims for Child Sexual Abuse
This is an important update on a blog first posted on 8 July 2015. It concerned an outrageous claim made by the Parenting Research Centre and the University of Melbourne in a ‘research’ report called, ‘Scoping review: Evaluations of out-of-home care practice elements that aim to prevent child sexual abuse’. The report was commissioned by […]
A Mother 12 Storeys High with a Letterhead
Is fact stranger than fiction? Comments on Ginger Briggs, Staunch, Affirm Press, Melbourne, 2012. I was so stirred up by this disturbing book that instead of placing it with my regular short reviews of books (here) I wanted to make a closer examination of this fascinating work. On face value, Staunch is a novel, based on a true story. […]
Blame the Kids in ‘Care’
The absurd claim that the “vast majority” of sexual abuse in out-of-home ‘care’ is perpetrated by other children is being recycled as an accepted truth by people who should know better – and by some who do know better. The media picked up the “vast majority” reference made by Senior Counsel of the Royal Commission who had […]
Lateral Violence
On several occasions while participating in public events aimed at raising public awareness of Care Leaver/Forgotten Australian issues and demands, I have been personally attacked. Not with physical violence, thank goodness, but I have been insulted, yelled at, falsely accused of corruption, and otherwise taunted. And so have others who put their heart and soul […]
Sexual Abuse in Residential ‘Care’: Who’s Responsible?
‘Children the main perpetrators of sex abuse in out-of-home care, royal commission told’ That’s the headline in the Sydney Morning Herald (10 March 2015, here); but what’s the substance of the story? According to the story: ‘The vast majority of child sexual abuse occurring in Australian foster homes and residential care facilities is perpetrated by […]
Historic Child Abuse Not Consigned to History’s Garbage Bins
Child Sexual Abuse has not been consigned to the garbage bins of history. In an opinion piece in a Sydney paper today, Claire Harvey rightly takes umbrage at a statement made to the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse last week by the former Principal of the prestigious Knox Grammar School in Sydney where sexual abuse was […]
Is the Child Welfare System Beyond Repair?
NEW: 31 January 2015 The child welfare system in many first-world nations is stuffed: that’s the verdict of many of its sternest critics. Forget about tinkering around the edges of the system, they say. It would be far better to start again from scratch. In Australia, life in residential ‘care’ remains as degrading and brutish as […]