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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
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5 results foundAuthor: Kezelman, Cathy Title: The Cost of Unresolved Childhood Trauma and Abuse in Adults in Australia Summary: Executive Summary Childhood trauma including abuse affects an estimated five million Australian adults. It is a substantial public health issue with significant individual and community health, welfare and economic repercussions. Unresolved childhood trauma has short-term and life-long impacts which substantially erode both national productivity and national well-being. It needs to be seen as a mainstream public health policy issue and responded to accordingly. Pegasus Economics estimates that if the impacts of child abuse (sexual, emotional and physical) on an estimated 3.7 million adults are adequately addressed through active timely and comprehensive intervention, the combined budget position of Federal, State and Territory Governments could be improved by a minimum of $6.8 billion annually. In the population of adult survivors of childhood trauma more broadly i.e. a figure of 5 million adults, this estimate rises to $9.1 billion. These figures represent a combined effect of higher Government expenditure and foregone tax revenue. If adult survivors of childhood trauma and abuse experienced the same life outcomes as nontraumatised adults, the collective budget deficits of Australian governments would be improved, at a minimum, by an amount roughly equivalent to the entire Government outlay on tertiary education. These estimates, based on a conservative set of assumptions, indicate extraordinary cost savings. On different, but still plausible assumptions, the annual budgetary cost of unresolved childhood trauma could be as high as $24 billion. While child abuse includes sexual, physical and emotional abuse, childhood trauma is a broader more comprehensive category. For each, the common element is the powerlessness of the child, due to age and dependency, to prevent or minimise it. Early life trauma and abuse affect the developing brain and have many possible impacts on daily adult life. These include the coping strategies children adopt to minimise overwhelm. Such strategies, highly creative and potentially effective in the short-term, may still be used in adult life. Perpetuated when the underlying trauma is not resolved, these coping strategies are associated with health risks in adulthood. Reducing costs of childhood trauma -- Addressing child sexual, emotional and physical abuse alone could lead to a potential minimum gain of $6.8 billion for the combined Federal, State and Territory Government budgets. The minimum gain from addressing the problem of childhood trauma more generally is $9.1 billion. Active timely and comprehensive intervention, with appropriate support, resources, services and treatment enables adult survivors to participate more fully and productively in the Australian community. Governments are currently exploring a range of revenue measures and expenditure cuts to restore the budget position. As Australia's population ages the long-term prognosis for the budget is for continuing strain; the main driver of deteriorating finances is forecast health expenditures. The Commonwealth Government's most recent inter-generational report (Swan, 2012) showed the major future stress on government expenditures to be in health outlays. As a percentage of GDP, health expenditure is forecast to rise from 3.9% in this current year to 7.1% in 2049-50 (an almost doubling in proportional expenditure). Progress in reducing the impact of childhood trauma and abuse in adults can make a positive contribution not only to the health budget challenges that lie ahead but also to those related to the welfare and criminal justice systems and the lower taxation revenue associated with the impact. Active timely comprehensive intervention will help address childhood trauma and abuse in adults Active investment in specialist services Specialist services are needed to spearhead policy and practice responses to adult childhood trauma and abuse survivors. Active investment to support a coordinated comprehensive model of care, including continued and increased access to effective help lines and online services, is needed. Timely active comprehensive intervention including appropriate support, counselling, resources and services promotes recovery. When survivors comprehensively overcome their trauma they and their children are freed to live productive, healthy and constructive lives. A key by-product of addressing the impacts of childhood trauma in adults is a financial benefit to Federal, State and Territory Government budgets. People affected by unresolved childhood trauma incur significant costs on taxpayers. This occurs through higher Government expenditure on health spending, welfare support and criminal justice costs, as well as via lower taxation revenue. More and better trained treating practitioners - counsellors/therapists Unfortunately our public health system has evolved in a way which means that adult mental health services focus on addressing immediate health issues (such as depression and alcoholism) rather than identifying and addressing underlying causes (such as prior childhood trauma and abuse). A convenient and failsafe pathway to treatment - No wrong door Frontline practitioners: General Practitioners and nurse practitioners will inevitably see people who have been impacted by childhood trauma including abuse, on a daily basis. These contacts provide an opportunity to facilitate a process whereby the person who presents can start receiving the right support, either directly or through targeted referral including specialist counselling, ideally from an accredited practitioner. Training is needed to enable primary care practitioners to identify trauma survivors and to respond appropriately. System, service and institutional improvements - Trauma-informed practice Benefits can also be achieved by raising awareness around the possibility of unresolved trauma in people who seek diverse services across health and human service systems, agencies, organisations and institutions. Adults who experience the ongoing impacts of unresolved childhood trauma will necessarily need to access various services. Broad-based implementation of trauma-informed practice and responses will help minimise the impact of trauma and the risk of re-traumatisation of people who have experienced childhood trauma including abuse. Details: Milson's Point, New South Wales, Australia: Blue Knot Foundation, 2015. 71p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 16, 2019 at: https://www.blueknot.org.au/Portals/2/Economic%20Report/The%20cost%20of%20unresolved%20trauma_budget%20report%20fnl.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Australia URL: https://www.blueknot.org.au/Portals/2/Economic%20Report/The%20cost%20of%20unresolved%20trauma_budget%20report%20fnl.pdf Shelf Number: 154214 Keywords: AbuseAdult SurvivorsChild AbuseChildhood TraumaCounsellingEmotional AbusePhysical AbusePublic HealthSexual AbuseSurvivorsTraumaVictim AssistanceVictim Services |
Author: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Title: Consultation Paper: Criminal Justice Summary: The importance of a criminal justice response Criminal justice for victims In Chapter 2, we discuss the importance of a criminal justice response for victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. Criminal justice involves the interests of the entire community in the detection and punishment of crime in general, in addition to the personal interests of the victim or survivor of the particular crime. Survivors have told us of a variety of responses they have sought from the criminal justice system, and they have expressed a range of views on what they would have regarded as 'justice' for a criminal justice response. We recognise that a criminal justice response is important to survivors not only in seeking 'justice' for them personally but also in encouraging reporting of child sexual abuse and preventing child sexual abuse in the future. Past and future criminal justice responses In private sessions and in personal submissions in response to Issues Paper No 8 – Experiences of police and prosecution responses (Issues Paper 8), we have heard accounts from survivors of their experiences with police, particularly from the 1940s onwards, and of their experiences with prosecutions from the 1970s and 1980s onwards. Survivors have told us of both positive and negative experiences with police and prosecution responses. In general terms, many of the negative experiences we have been told about were experienced in earlier periods of time through to the early 2000s. In our policy work on criminal justice responses, our main focus must be on understanding the contemporary response of the criminal justice system to institutional child sexual abuse and on identifying how it can be made more effective. Criminal justice and institutional child sexual abuse The criminal justice system is often seen as not being effective in responding to crimes of sexual violence, including adult sexual assault and child sexual abuse, both institutional and noninstitutional. Research identifies the following features of the criminal justice system's treatment of these crimes: - lower reporting rates - higher attrition rates - lower charging and prosecution rates - fewer guilty pleas - fewer convictions. There are also features of institutional child sexual abuse cases that may affect the ability of the criminal justice system to respond effectively to these cases. These include: - 'word against word' cases, where there are no eyewitnesses to the abuse and no medical or scientific evidence - the importance of the complainant being willing to proceed, particularly where their evidence is the only direct evidence of the abuse - lengthy delays, where many survivors take years, even decades, to disclose their abuse. This can make investigation and prosecution more difficult - particularly vulnerable victims may be involved, including young children or people with disability. There are also many myths and misconceptions about sexual offences, including child sexual abuse, that have affected the criminal justice system's responses to child sexual abuse prosecutions. The myths and misconceptions have influenced the law and the attitudes jury members bring to their decision-making. The following myths and misconceptions have been particularly prominent in child sexual abuse cases: - women and children make up stories of sexual assault - a victim of sexual abuse will cry for help and attempt to escape their abuser – that is, there will be no delay in reporting abuse and a 'real' victim will raise a 'hue and cry' as soon as they are abused - a victim of sexual abuse will avoid the abuser – that is, a 'real' victim will not return to the abuser or spend time with them or have mixed feelings about them - sexual assault, including child sexual assault, can be detected by a medical examination – that is, there will be medical evidence of the abuse in the case of 'real' victims. Operation of the criminal justice system There has been much academic debate about what might be said to be the purposes of the criminal justice system. In addition to the purpose of punishing the particular offender, the criminal justice system also seeks to reduce crime by deterring others from offending. The criminal justice systems in Australian jurisdictions function through an 'adversarial' system of justice, where the prosecution (representing the Crown) and the defence (representing the accused) each put forward their case and any evidence in relation to whether the act was committed, by whom, and with what intent. Theoretically, this 'contest between the parties' is designed to produce the most compelling argument as to what the truth of the matter is. Given that the investigation and prosecution of criminal matters is undertaken by the state, there is seen to be an imbalance between the prosecution and the accused. In recognition of this imbalance, a number of principles have emerged through the development of the common law to ensure that trials are conducted fairly. These include the following: - The prosecution must prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the accused committed the crime or crimes charged. The corollary of this principle is that the accused is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. - The accused has a right to silence. This means that the accused cannot be compelled to give evidence or confess guilt. - The criminal trial should be conducted without unreasonable delay. - The accused has the right to examine witnesses in order to test the credibility of the witness and their testimony. - The prosecution is obliged to act independently and impartially and to conduct the case fairly. - If an accused is charged with a serious offence and lacks the financial means to engage legal representation, he or she should be provided with a lawyer. Many survivors have told us that they feel that the criminal justice system is weighted in favour of the accused. Some survivors who have participated as complainants in prosecutions have told us that they felt almost incidental to the criminal justice system and that they had little control over matters that were very important to them. Recognition of victims has increased over the last 50 years. States and territories introduced victims' compensation schemes from 1967 onwards. In the 1990s, emphasis shifted towards providing greater support services for victims. Victim impact statements were also introduced, and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) guidelines required prosecutors to consult with victims. In 2013, Australia's Attorneys-General endorsed the National Framework for Rights and Services for Victims of Crime. Other responses to institutional child sexual abuse A number of stakeholders have argued that the Royal Commission should consider the use of restorative justice approaches (involving a range of processes to address the harm caused to victims) in connection with, or instead of, traditional criminal justice responses to institutional child sexual abuse. It appears that restorative justice may not be available for or of assistance to many survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, including: - because of the power dynamics and seriousness of institutional child sexual abuse offending, restorative justice approaches may only be suitable in only a small number of these cases. - many survivors do not wish to seek a restorative justice outcome with the perpetrator of the abuse - given the frequent delay before reporting, many offenders will be unavailable or unwilling to participate in restorative justice approaches. The Royal Commission provided for elements of restorative justice approaches in institutional child sexual abuse through the 'direct personal response' component of redress. The recommendations we made in our Report on redress and civil litigation (2015) are not intended as an alternative to criminal justice for survivors. Ideally, victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse should have access to justice through both criminal justice responses and redress and civil litigation. Some survivors have also told us that they found real benefit in state and territory statutory victims of crime compensation schemes because the decisions made by the relevant tribunals or administrators gave them official recognition of the crimes committed against them. Our approach to criminal justice reforms It must be recognised that the criminal justice system is unlikely ever to provide an easy or straightforward experience for a complainant of institutional child sexual abuse. However, we consider it important that survivors seek and obtain a criminal justice response to any child sexual abuse in an institutional context in order to: - punish the offender for their wrongdoing and recognise the harm done to the victim - identify and condemn the abuse as a crime against the victim and the broader community - emphasise that abuse is not just a private matter between the perpetrator and the victim - increase awareness of the occurrence of child sexual abuse through the reporting of charges, prosecutions and convictions - deter further child sexual abuse, including through the increased risk of discovery and detection. We also consider that seeking a criminal justice response to institutional child sexual abuse is an important way of increasing institutions', governments' and the community's knowledge and awareness not only that such abuse happens but also of the circumstances in which it happens. We consider that all victims and survivors should be encouraged and supported to seek a criminal justice response and that the criminal justice system should not discourage victims and survivors from seeking a criminal justice response through reporting to police. We are satisfied that any necessary reforms should be made to ensure that: - criminal justice responses are available for victims and survivors who are able to seek them - victims and survivors are supported in seeking criminal justice responses - the criminal justice system operates in the interests of seeking justice for society, including the complainant and the accused. Regulatory responses to child sexual abuse However, it is unrealistic to expect that all true allegations of institutional child sexual abuse will result in a criminal conviction of the accused, even if the criminal justice system is reformed to achieve these objectives. We recognise the importance of ensuring that regulatory responses focusing on child protection can interact effectively with criminal justice responses, particularly in cases where there is no criminal conviction. These regulatory responses include reportable conduct schemes, Working with Children Check schemes and industry regulation. Details: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, 2016. 709p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 20, 2019 at: https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/consultation-papers Year: 2016 Country: Australia URL: https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/Consultation%20Paper%20-%20Criminal%20justice.pdf Shelf Number: 154273 Keywords: AbuserAustraliaChild AbuseChild Sexual AbuseDirector of Public ProsecutionsInstitutional ResponseNational Framework for Rights and Services for VicRestorative JusticeSexual AssaultSexual ViolenceSurvivorsTestimonyVictim |
Author: Victoria State Government Title: Victorian Government Response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Summary: Introduction The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse uncovered tragic and widespread abuse of children who were in the care of government and non-government institutions. Children reporting abuse were not believed and their allegations were ignored. We acknowledge the findings of historical abuse within Victorian Government institutions and the ongoing psychological and physical harm suffered by survivors. As part of the inquiry, survivors shared stories of the profound trauma they suffered while in the care of government and non-government institutions and spoke of the extent to which this trauma impacted their lives as children and into adulthood. We acknowledge your strength, resilience and courage and we thank you for your bravery in coming forward to make sure the abuse of children was brought to light. It is thanks to the courage of survivors of historical child sexual abuse that the Royal Commission was able to do its important work and we acknowledge your vital contribution. The Victorian Government is taking responsibility to make sure no child is failed again and the wrongs of the past are never repeated. We are also making sure the needs of survivors are treated with the priority and importance they deserve. As well as making important recommendations for governments and institutions, the Royal Commission provided essential support for survivors of abuse in Australia so their voices could be heard. We welcome the release of the Final Report and thank the Royal Commission for its commitment and dedication in these important tasks. We are continually working to improve the ways we protect children, and the recommendations of the Royal Commission will be instrumental in guiding laws and practice to better protect children from abuse. This includes building cultures across the community that give children and young people a voice, empower them to raise concerns, and making sure that our responses to their concerns are effective and appropriate. We are committed to working with other jurisdictions to protect all children from abuse and implement more than 50 recommendations requiring intergovernmental collaboration. The Victorian Government is consulting with the Australian Government and state and territory governments to progress these recommendations. The Victorian Government is determined to make sure these failures to protect children never happen again and survivors are given the care and support they need. Our response to the Royal Commission reflects these commitments. For the next five years, the Victorian Government will report annually on its progress in building better protections for children. Details: Victoria, Australia: Victoria State Government, 2018. 15p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 23, 2019 at: https://www.justice.vic.gov.au/institutionalchildsexualabuse Year: 2018 Country: Australia URL: https://www.justice.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/embridge_cache/emshare/original/public/2018/07/68/2f98acaab/Vic_Government_Response_Royal_Commission_into_Child_Sexual_Abuse_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 154363 Keywords: Australia Child Abuse Child Maltreatment Child Sexual Abuse Children Royal Commission Survivors |
Author: Stoever, Jane K. Title: Transforming Domestic Violence Representation Summary: The dominant theories used in the law to explain domestic violence, namely, the Power and Control Wheel and the Cycle of Violence, provide only limited insight into intimate partner abuse. Both theories focus exclusively on the abusive partner's wrongful actions, consistent with recent decades' concentration on criminalization, but fail to educate about the survivor's needs and efforts to end violence. The Stages of Change Model, conversely, reveals that domestic abuse survivors seek an end to relationship violence through a five-stage cyclical sequence and identities the survivor's needs and actions at each stage. This critical information should inform the representation of abuse survivors; however, this model remains unknown in the legal profession, and this article is the first scholarship to apply this model to lawyering. This article evaluates the contributions and shortcomings of the dominant models. It examines how the Stages of Change Model fills a significant void and how insights from the Stages of Change Model can transform the representation of abuse survivors. Domestic violence representation presents unique challenges to lawyers as they struggle with limited conceptions of their role, assumptions about abuse victims and how they should respond to violence, and feelings of fear and frustration when clients return to abusive partners. The Stages of Change Model can concretely illuminate the general client-centered model of legal representation and suggest multiple lawyering lessons for representing domestic violence survivors. The Stages of Change Model is widely accepted in the field of psychology, has been validated by numerous social science studies, and has the potential to achieve more client- centered legal representation with greater safety outcomes. As I explore the enormous implications this model has for client representation in domestic violence law, I draw on my experience teaching domestic violence clinics and the transformation my students report when they learn and apply this model. Details: Irvine, Californnia: University of California, Irvine School of Law, 2013. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 19, 2019 at: https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1126&context=faculty Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://scholarship.law.uci.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1035&context=faculty_scholarship Shelf Number: 156508 Keywords: Attorneys Domestic Violence Family Violence Intimate Partner Violence Legal Representation Sexual Abuse Sexual Violence Survivors |
Author: International Justice Mission Title: Child Trafficking into Forced Labor on Lake Volta, Ghana: A Mixed Methods Assessment Summary: Background and Introduction: Past studies have demonstrated the presence of child work, child labor, and child trafficking within Lake Volta's fishing industry - highlighting that many children live outside the legal safeguards Ghana has established to protect child welfare - and have also documented the hazards and hardships faced by these children. However, prior to this mixed-methods baseline study, the extent of child trafficking into forced labor on Lake Volta could only be inferred. The purpose of this baseline study was to document the scope and nature of child trafficking in Lake Volta's fishing industry. Methodology: IJM conducted two primary data collection efforts: 1) an operational assessment in the southern region of Lake Volta in 2013; and 2) a qualitative research study in destination and source communities in 2015. 1. Operational assessment in the southern region of Lake Volta: In 2013, IJM conducted an operational assessment on Lake Volta to determine the scale of child trafficking into forced labor. This assessment was conducted in IJM's intended project area (the southern portion of the lake, which ranges from south of the Abotasi fishing village and east of the Akosombo Dam). Over the course of 17 days during June and July, data collectors conducted interviews with children and/or adults in a total of 982 occupied boats (canoes) classifying the trafficking status of all children interviewed or observed. 2. Qualitative study in destination and source communities: In 2015, IJM hired a local Ghanaian research firm to conduct in-depth qualitative research in the top three destination and top three source communities identified by the southern operational assessment. In total, the study team conducted 32 focus group discussions with targeted community members involved in Lake Volta’s fishing industry - including young adults who had worked in the fishing industry as children; men in the fishing industry; women in destination communities who host children; and parents/guardians who send children to Lake Volta - and interviewed 51 key informants. To further triangulate information, the study team documented five accounts with survivors of trafficking and profiled six fishing villages in which focus group discussions were conducted. Results: Findings from the distinct yet complementary studies in 2013 and 2015 reveal that the majority of children working in Lake Volta's fishing industry are 10 years old or younger. This shows that the majority of children are too young to legally conduct the hazardous tasks inherent in many aspects of the fishing industry. Although the 2013 operational assessment overwhelmingly found boys working on Lake Volta (99.3% of children on the southern region of the lake were boys), the 2015 study found that girls also work in - and are trafficked into - the fishing industry. The findings demonstrate that girls have different roles in the fishing industry, completing most tasks somewhere onshore or further inland instead of on the lake where the 2013 assessment occurred. The 2015 study also revealed that both boys and girls have physically demanding, and sometimes hazardous, roles in Lake Volta’s fishing industry. The 2013 operational assessment found that more than half (57.6%, 444/771) of children working on southern Lake Volta's waters were trafficked into forced labor. In 2015, each of the fishing communities sampled during the qualitative study confirmed the presence of child trafficking. Across destination communities, most respondents estimated that 60% or more of the children working in the fishing industry were born in other communities. In source communities, most respondents estimated that between 20-50% of children leave the community specifically to work in Lake Volta's fishing industry. Data collection in 2013 and 2015 found that children trafficked into the fishing industry had contractual agreements for their exploitation, which were frequently between the trafficker and the child's parent/guardian. The 2015 study found that while many perpetrators may be low-income fishermen themselves, they do not use trafficked children merely to survive. In fact, exploiting trafficked children enabled them to send their biological children to school and provide better accommodations and clothing for their own family. One male survivor accounted that, "We were more or less like house slaves, because their own children did nothing." Thus, several factors distinguished trafficked from non-trafficked children, including: access to education, working conditions - such as working longer hours and being assigned more intense, hazardous, or difficult tasks - and improper clothing and shelter. Physical violence committed against children was widespread in Lake Volta's fishing industry, with parents/guardians in source communities reporting that children were "beaten like goats." While trafficked children overwhelmingly experienced violence, this was not unique to trafficked children due to the cultural acceptance of physical discipline in Ghana. Qualitative data in 2015 revealed that traffickers controlled children through violence and limiting access to food; and sometimes kept older boys in their employment through sexual rewards and marriage. The latter control tactics rendered girls in the fishing industry vulnerable to multiple forms of victimization. These means of control combined with the working and living conditions affected trafficked children, with key informants citing that survivors displayed signs of trauma and underdeveloped social skills. Further, although everyone acknowledged that there are government programs in place and NGOs that serve trafficking survivors, the service needs of trafficked children far exceeded the availability and accessibility of services. Recommendations: The study's results revealed the need for a holistic, multidisciplinary anti-trafficking intervention which includes: 1) prioritizing the arrest, prosecution and conviction of perpetrators of child trafficking into forced labor and the related psycho-social support of trafficked children; and 2) reducing vulnerability through increased access to education and through economic empowerment. The information in this report can help inform strategies for the identification and investigation of cases of child trafficking, including: methods to reach hidden populations and routine monitoring of trafficking hotspots. Once identified, trafficked children must be provided with appropriate services by the Ghanaian government as well as other community and non-governmental stakeholders. Findings demonstrate the need for strong trauma-informed recovery services for survivors and reintegration support. Details: Washington, DC: International Justice Mission, 2016. 98p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 21, 2019 at: https://www.ijm.org/documents/studies/ijm-ghana-report.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Ghana URL: https://www.ijm.org/documents/studies/ijm-ghana-report.pdf Shelf Number: 156561 Keywords: Child Labor Child Trafficking Fishing Industry Forced Labor Ghana Human Rights Abuses Labor Exploitation Modern Day Slavery Survivors |