Child Sexual Abuse Within Institutions

During the 20th century, the estimated 50 million children were in out-of-home care in Australia. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (The Royal Commission) was founded in by the Australian government in 2013 to investigate how institutions like out-of-home care and school responded to allegations of child sexual abuse. Whereas the research of the Royal Commission focused on child sexual abuse, they were also interested in how recordkeeping practices can promote transparency and accountability and released a consultation paper Records and recordkeeping practices (consultation paper) which was advocated by professionals of records.

Sexual abuse is usually identified by disclosure to. Recognising potential signs of abuse with in the child’s behaviour is essential. Physical signs include pain or itching in the genital area, bruising or bleeding near genital area, sexually transmitted disease, vaginal discharge or infection, stomach pains, discomfort when sitting or walking, pregnancy. Changes in behaviour which can indicate sexual abuse include, sudden or unexplained changes in behaviour e.g. becoming aggressive or withdrawn, fear of being left with specific person or group of people, nightmares, running away, sexual knowledge beyond their age, sexual drawings or language, saying they have a secret they cannot talk about, not allowed to have friends, acting in a sexually explicit way towards adults.

In recent times safeguarding of children has once again come under spotlight with cases such as Madline McKan and the horrific murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells. Prior to this the Children’s act of 1984 and updated 2004 version highlighted that all professionals have an obligation to report suspected abuse. There was a public inquiry in 2000 to address the failure of the law which was not upholding the protection of vulnerable children. There was changes to the legislation and the government set up The Every Child Maters (ECM) initiative. This works in line with current legislation Working Together to Safeguard Children 2006 Act. This Act authorised guidance on how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in accordance with the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004. All organisations must have the succeeding policies and procedures:

Indicators of Sexual Abuse Can Include: Symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases; Injury to genital area; difficulty and/or pain when sitting or walking; sexually suggestive, inappropriate, or promiscuous behavior or verbalization. Another action can be expressing age-inappropriate awareness of sexual relations or sexual harassment of other children.

According to the article Child abuse intervention, the governments have translated this concern for children into laws that require the finding and reporting of child abuse by all those responsible for overseeing children. The school is an important institution that is well trained to make these discoveries and report. The social services agencies have the main task of child abuse control, they are responsible for following up and monitoring any and all cases reported. They are “the primary enforcers.

Indicators that sexual abuse may be happening to a person include, sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy especially in extremely vulnerable people, such as the elderly or people who lack mental capacity. Cuts, bruises or bleeding in the genital or anal areas from penetration or sexual contact. The person being abused may have changes in their demeanour and behaviour which is out of character for them. Damaged and stained underwear can also show signs that abuse is taking place and stained bedsheets,

All practitioners have a duty to ensure the safety of children in their care. Children (in most cases) are unable to tell anyone if they are being abused, either out of fear, shame or because they are too young. Some children may even not realise that what is happening to them is wrong or any different to what happens to everyone else. Three quarters of sexually abused children under the age of 16 do not tell anybody what was happening to them at the time and a third still had not

Working Together to Safeguard Children (2010) sets out the guidelines on how the setting and individuals should work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people. This is in conjunction with the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004. This document covers what to do when there are concerns about a child and the correct procedures to follow. In addition it states the roles and responsibilities of different agencies and practitioners, summary of the nature and impact of child abuse, training requirements for effective child protection and how to best operate best practice in child protection procedure.

Our society is caught in a struggle to do what is right for the victims of sexual abuse. The publics opinion of what is considered sexual abuse can vary, as does the laws of the states making up the United States. It is a little confusing, to me, how being considered an adult in one state does not guarantee that the same individual would be treated the same way in another state. But it is a fact of life, the laws are different. Merriam Webster dictionary defines sexual intercourse with a person who is below the statutory age of consent as statutory rape. The age that a person can legally give consent to sexual intercourse varies between states. In the state that I live in, North Carolina, the legal age of consent is 16 years of or older. The

According to the National Sex Offender Public Website, “Approximately 1.8 million adolescents in the United States have been the victims of sexual assault.” Most people are unaware of the magnitude of sexual assault in children; however, it is far more common than one might think. As stated by Darkness to Light, “About one in 10 children will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday.”

The definition of “child sexual abuse” has come a long way since its origin. Today, it is defined as any sexual act between an adult and a minor, or between two minors, when one exerts power over the other; this includes non-contact acts such as exhibitionism, exposure to pornography, voyeurism, and communicating in a sexual manner by phone or Internet. It is one of the most prevalent health problems children face today because of the serious physiological and physical damage it imposes on the victim. Statistically, if someone to interview

Sexual abuse is very common throughout the entire world. It happens to everyone, male or female. Sexual abuse is considered a crime. What is sexual abuse? How do you prevent it from happening? Or what to do if you were ever assaulted? Many people ask themselves these questions when hearing or talking about sexual abuse.

Sexual abuse to children happens across every socioeconomic status, ethnic, cultural, religion and education. Getting treatment for a victim of child sexual abuse is a difficult process because of the lack of trust by the child. When child sexual abuse occurs the victim’s family has a difficult time talking about the abuse, which leads to the family pretending the abuse never happened. Once the family

Research indicates that 1 out of every 4 children will be the victim of sexual abuse before reaching age 18

There are many forms of child abuse. Not only can children be physically abused, but they are also in danger of experiencing sexual abuse. In the more recent years, child sexual abuse has come to the attention of a larger part of society. As such, it is becoming more openly discussed. Child sexual abuse is a growing problem, and the stories that have begun to circulate around the world work to illustrate just how serious the problem is. Despite what society is lead to believe, the sexual abuse of a child is the least common out of all forms of child abuse. Out of the different types of child abuse, neglect is the most common, followed by physical abuse, and then sexual abuse comes at the bottom. Still, of all the cases of child abuse reported to and substantiated by authorities, approximately 15% of them concerned sexual abuse. ). It is possible that there are more cases of child sexual abuse, however, and they simply are not being reported. Due to the number of undisclosed cases of child abuse, researchers have conducted various prevalence studies over the years to determine the true number of sexual abuse of children. These studies have determined that around 20% of women and 5-10% of men in America in were sexually abused as children. A great deal of controversy surrounds the number of male victims of child sexual abuse, due to a lack of quality studies. The problem with prevalence studies is that they don 't all share the same definition of abuse, nor do they share