Winner of the Christine M. Alder Book Prize in 2015 from the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Historical abuse of children is a worldwide phenomenon. This book assesses the enablers of abuse and the reasons it took so long for officials to respond. It analyzes redress for institutional abuse in two countries, Canada and Australia, using first-hand accounts of survivors' experiences.
"This work brings together the thoughts on this question advanced by leading scholars, from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, from around the world. These thinkers...provide new perspectives on sanctioned and informal responses to abuse in religious, educational and total institutions, as well as to abuse carried out in non-institutional settings."--
Institutional abuse of children: Legal remedies and redress in Australia examines the recently amended 'common law' framework. These reforms include removal of limitation periods, reversal of the onus of proof, extending vicarious liability to persons akin to employees, requiring institutions to identify a proper defendant when necessary, and permitting some earlier settlements and judgements to be revisited. The unique fixed term National Redress Scheme for historic child sexual abuse in institutional settings is also examined, in the context of the underlying policy to offer an alternate redress pathway which aims to be more flexible, less formal, faster, cheaper, and involving less trauma and conflict for survivors. As the first detailed analysis of the new legal framework relating to compensation and redress for child sexual abuse in Australia, this book makes an original contribution to knowledge and understanding of the law in this complex area, which continues to develop at a rapid pace as additional legislation is enacted across Australia and as the courts begin to construe these new legislative provisions. Features ¿ Analyses the new legal framework governing claims for compensation and redress arising out of sexual abuse of children in institutional settings in Australia ¿ Examines the relationship between the National Redress Scheme and civil claims ¿ Provides a practical understanding of how to work through the intersecting laws and redress systems to best advise clients
This book positions inquiries into the historical abuse of children in care within the context of transitional justice. It examines investigation, apology and redress processes across a range of Western nations to trace the growth of the movement, national particularities and the impact of the work on professionals involved.
This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the work of the The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2013-17) and its social, psychological, legal and discursive impact.
Child Sexual Abuse Reported by Adult Survivors is a wide-ranging and timely critical history and analysis of legal responses to ‘historical’ or ‘non-recent’ child sexual abuse (NRCSA) in England and Wales, Ireland and Australia, each of which represents an evolving and progressive approach to this important and complex issue. The book examines the emergence of NRCSA as a distinctive social, political and legal phenomenon in each country and explores the legal responses developed to address its unprecedented challenges. Courts and parliaments in each country have reformed existing doctrine and practice and have created new ways of holding state and private actors accountable and new ways of addressing survivors’ injuries. Criminal law, tort law, public inquiries and state reparations have all been to the forefront of these new legal responses, which have transformed law’s engagement with NRCSA survivors and understandings of justice itself. However, despite this undeniable progress, the book identifies ways in which the legal responses developed in each country fail to deliver accountability and recognition to NRCSA survivors and argues that such failures betray the law’s inherent ambivalence to delivering justice for these survivors. Creating new insights into legal responses to this complex contemporary legal, social and political problem, this book will be of great interest to academic lawyers, political scientists and historians, as well as those working on related topics in criminology, sociology, social policy, cultural studies and gender studies.
This book investigates the causes and consequences of image-based sexual abuse in a digital era. Image-based sexual abuse refers to the taking or sharing of nude or sexual photographs or videos of another person without their consent. It includes a diversity of behaviours beyond that of "revenge porn", such as the secret trading of nude or sexual images online; "upskirting", "downblousing" and other "creepshots"; blackmail or "sextortion" scams; the use of artificial intelligence to construct "deepfake" pornographic videos; threats to distribute photographs and videos without consent; and the taking or sharing of sexual assault imagery. This book investigates the pervasiveness and experiences of these harms, as well as the raft of legal and non-legal measures that have been introduced to better respond to and prevent image-based sexual abuse. The book draws on groundbreaking empirical research, including surveys in three countries with over 6,000 respondents and over 100 victim-survivor and stakeholder interviews. Guided by theoretical frameworks from gender studies, sociology, criminology, law and psychology, the authors argue that image-based sexual abuse is more commonly perpetrated by men than women, and that perpetration is higher among some groups, including younger and sexuality minority men. Although the motivations of perpetrators vary, a dominant theme to emerge was that of power and control. The gendered nature of the abuse means that it is best understood as a "continuum of sexual violence" because victim-survivors often experience it as part of a broader pattern of gendered harassment, violence and abuse. Written in a clear and direct style, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, law and psychology. Image-based Sexual Abuse is also an essential resource for activists, legal and policy practitioners, technology companies and victim-survivors seeking to understand the deeply complex nature of intimate-image sharing in a digital era.
Institutional Abuse brings together a number of different research studies and accounts of institutional abuse from leading academics and researchers. Public enquiries and court cases concerning institutional abuse in a range of settings have generated considerable media interest and have highlighted the need for preventative strategies and appropriate responses. Four areas of abuse are covered: *the abuse of children *the abuse of adults with mental health problems *the abuse of adults with learning difficulties *the abuse of older people. Each section includes a chapter which reports on users' experiences of abuse and their views as to how institutional abuse can be prevented and survivors' needs met.
This open access book focuses on institutions that were produced and formed by the emerging welfare state. How were institutions experienced by the people who interacted with them? How did institutions as sites of experience shape and structure people’s everyday lives? Histories of institutions have mainly focused on the structures and power relations produced by institutional settings. Likewise, despite an extensive historiography of the welfare state, reflections on individuals’ experiences of welfare are few. By using ‘lived institutions’ as its conceptual frame, this edited collection merges the fields of institutional studies, the history of the welfare state – and the novel and vibrant field of the history of experience.
