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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:40 pm
Time: 9:40 pm
Results for child institutional abuse
2 results foundAuthor: Mathews, Ben Title: Oversight and regulatory mechanisms aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse: Understanding current evidence of efficacy Summary: The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission) is required to inquire into, among other things, 'what institutions and governments should do to achieve best practice in encouraging the reporting of, and responding to reports or information about, allegations, incidents or risks of child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts'. Across Australia, oversight bodies enable monitoring of aspects of child welfare, particularly for children in the care and protection system. For this report, the Royal Commission examined oversight bodies including ombudsmen offices (including children's ombudsmen); reportable conduct schemes; children's commissions; community visitors schemes; child advocates and children's guardians; and crime and misconduct commissions. In some instances, these agencies facilitate oversight and responses to child sexual abuse; in other instances, this facility is an implicit or consequential aspect of their authority. These bodies differ across jurisdictions in their form, scope and power. In addition, various regulatory mechanisms exist in Australia. For this report, the Royal Commission has examined regulatory bodies including non-government schools' accreditation boards; early childhood and care regulators; and medical sector regulators. In some instances, agencies' express purpose is to prevent or minimise the likelihood of child sexual abuse; in other instances, this function is an implicit or consequential aspect of their authority. These bodies also have different features across jurisdictions. To assist the Royal Commission in addressing its terms of reference, the report initially focuses on understanding the nature of these oversight and regulatory bodies. This is presented in Part 2. The report then assesses the efficacy of these bodies in protecting children from sexual abuse, focusing on institutional contexts. To fulfil the aims of the study as stated by the Royal Commission, this report covers narrow efficacy and broad efficacy. The report has been informed by regulatory theory, and has used legal analysis, policy analysis and public health research methods, to review and analyse literature for its evaluative purpose. Appendix 2 explains in more detail the concepts of narrow efficacy and broad efficacy, and how they are measured. In sum, the evaluation of narrow efficacy explores the presence and nature of key requirements enabling the protection of children from child sexual abuse in institutional contexts; it does so through synthesis and doctrinal analysis. Broad efficacy is conceptualised as the effect in practice of the oversight or regulatory mechanism in protecting children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts. The evaluation of broad efficacy asks whether the oversight or regulatory body achieves the policy goal of improving protection of children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts. Accordingly, the report first analyses narrow efficacy using selected significant features and parameters of the relevant legislative and regulatory frameworks. This analysis is presented in Part 2, alongside the synthesis of the nature of these bodies. The report then analyses broad efficacy using a systematic review of literature, according to the normal conventions of social science and public health scholarship. This is presented in Part 3. A third, less central, aspect of the report is a summary of evidence about the efficacy of other innovative regulatory models for protecting children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts. This is presented in Part 4. A fourth, again less central, aspect of the report is a summary of models of regulation from other fields or industries that may be applicable or adaptable for protecting children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts. This is also presented in Part 4. Two additional substantial components of the project were added after parts 1-4 were completed. To assist the Royal Commission in addressing its terms of reference, Part 5 explores how components, structures and mechanisms from occupational health and safety regulatory models in Australia could be used to inform a regulatory approach to protecting children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts. Accordingly, Part 5 presents a synthesis of these occupational health and safety regulatory models. It also analyses whether and how their central concepts and mechanisms may inform a regulatory approach to protecting children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts. Finally, to assist the Royal Commission in addressing its terms of reference, and with special reference to different kinds of organisations that serve children and youths, Part 6 explores the regulatory models and approaches that could be used to ensure that smaller organisations with limited resources (namely, sporting, cultural and arts, and recreational groups) are not overburdened with regulation, while still keeping children safe from sexual abuse. As with Part 5, the completion of Part 6 involved research, synthesis and analysis, and the development of reform proposals informed by the relevant principles, theory and evidence. Details: Sydney: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, 2017. 258p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 11, 2017 at: http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/getattachment/f6d43e2a-48b2-4999-9867-3938dcbcdf7e/Oversight-and-regulatory-mechanisms-aimed-at-prote Year: 2017 Country: Australia URL: http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/getattachment/f6d43e2a-48b2-4999-9867-3938dcbcdf7e/Oversight-and-regulatory-mechanisms-aimed-at-prote Shelf Number: 144782 Keywords: Child Abuse and Neglect Child Institutional AbuseChild MaltreatmentChild ProtectionChild Sexual Abuse Child Welfare |
Author: Parkinson, Samantha Title: Child Abuse in Institutional Contexts: The reliability of police data, nature of allegations reported to police, and factors driving reporting rates, Summary: In 2014, the Australian Centre for Child Protection (University of South Australia), Social Policy Research Centre (University of NSW) and the Australian Institute of Criminology completed the research project Child sexual abuse in Australian institutional contexts: Findings from administrative data 2008-13 (hereby referred to as the 'administrative data report'; Bromfield, Hirte, Octoman & Katz, 2017). The report used administrative data to estimate the incidence of child sexual abuse (CSA) in institutional and other contexts, focusing on 'recent allegations' reported to police between 2008 and 2013 and that occurred within five years of reporting. Rates of CSA differed considerably, with NSW having a much higher rate than other jurisdictions. The administrative data report raised questions about data reliability and quality that required further exploration. For example, there was a considerable difference between the nature of contemporary institutional CSA and historical trends (Katz, Jones, Newton & Reimer, 2017). The nature of, and circumstances surrounding, allegations were not discernible from the administrative data. Therefore, other fields (proxy indicators) had to be used to differentiate between CSA in institutional contexts and CSA in other contexts. These fields included 'location of abuse' and 'relationship of victim to person of interest (POI)'. Accordingly, the administrative data report concluded: A follow-up study subjecting a small sample of allegations to a case file review, to determine additional details; address some of the questions pertaining to data quality; and provide greater certainty to the Royal Commission regarding the estimates provided in the [administrative data report] study. (Bromfield et al., 2017, p 215) The purpose of the current report was to determine: - the accuracy and reliability of the data and proxy indicators used to categorise reports as institutional child sexual abuse (ICSA) or non-institutional child sexual abuse (NICSA) in the administrative data report - the nature of, and circumstances surrounding, reports to police concerning ICSA compared to NICSA - the factors that drive different reporting rates for CSA in Australian jurisdictions. The project comprised three phases: 1. a literature review to ascertain what is already known about why the number of reported allegations of CSA may vary across Australian police jurisdictions 2. consultations (qualitative interviews) with data custodians and operational police across the eight Australian jurisdictions to determine if there are any differences in police recording practices and whether these could account for the variation across jurisdictions in rates of CSA reported to police; identify the information held by police that was most relevant for analysis in the project's final phase; and determine the feasibility of extracting this data from the jurisdictions 3. a case file review of a random sample of ICSA and NICSA reports to police in two large jurisdictions to establish: a. the accuracy and reliability of the dataset used in the administrative data report b. the nature of, and circumstances surrounding, reports to police concerning CSA in an institutional context compared with other contexts c. the factors that drive different reporting rates for CSA in Australian jurisdictions Details: Sydney: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, 2017. 97p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 11, 2018 at: http://search.ror.unisa.edu.au/record/UNISA_ALMA11151668220001831/media/digital/open/9916170511501831/12151668210001831/13151658470001831/pdf Year: 2017 Country: Australia URL: http://search.ror.unisa.edu.au/record/UNISA_ALMA11151668220001831/media/digital/open/9916170511501831/12151668210001831/13151658470001831/pdf Shelf Number: 149625 Keywords: Child Institutional AbuseChild ProtectionChild Sexual AbusePolice Practices and Policies |