Grosey's Messages

We know that most child sexual abuse offences are never reported to formal services like police or courts. The Australian Institute of Family Studies told the Review that: The sensitive nature of child sexual abuse means that victims and survivors may be reluctant to disclose their experiences. A recent study found that disclosure of child sexual abuse in Australia has been infrequent, with only 54.8% of all those who experienced [child sexual abuse] ever telling anyone anything about it. There are a range of cultural, economic, societal, religious, familial and institutional factors, alongside recollection and detection challenges, that likely contribute to underreporting of child sexual abuse. Underreporting is particularly likely for men and for victims and survivors who experienced child sexual abuse perpetrated by a parent or adult family member, a caregiver in an institutional setting, or a known adolescent they were romantically involved with. There are multiple and intersecting barriers to reporting faced by victim-survivors. Reporting may be delayed, it may occur in a staged way, or victim-survivors may not feel safe to disclose a full account of the abuse they have experienced. Where a victim-survivor’s initial disclosure is not believed or supported they are less likely to seek help or try to report the abuse in the future or to other people. Of the offences that are reported to police, most will never proceed to the conviction of a perpetrator. An inability to meet the requisite threshold to prove an offence beyond a reasonable doubt is a key barrier in pursuing child sexual offences through the criminal justice system. This does not mean that the offence did not occur. The threshold for pursuing matters through the criminal justice system is high. The result however is difficult to contend with, as the reality is that most perpetrators may never come to the attention of the law, or be held to account for the abuse they have committed. It is impossible to piece together a full picture

# posted by Groseys messages @ 9:20 AM