An organisation representing people abused as children in group homes and orphanages wants police commissioners across Australia to apologise for not acting when children revealed crimes.
Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) says there is growing evidence that children suffering abuse and mistreatment were disbelieved, humiliated, put into prison cells, assaulted by police and returned back to the perpetrators and abusers with no investigations undertaken.
CLAN's chief executive Leonie Sheedy said children in orphanages, children's homes and foster homes ran away to escape sexual, physical and emotional abuse and neglect.
"We know that police would be notified by the orphanage or children's home and police in every state and territory kept records of these events," Ms Sheedy said.
"We also know that when children were caught by police they were often beaten and abused, adding to the beatings they had been trying to escape.
"The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard evidence that police failed in their duty of care towards these children.
"We seek an apology from police commissioners in every state and territory for the additional suffering they caused these children.
"This is a dark chapter in our history and the police contributed to the trauma experienced by these children."
A CLAN-funded study of Victoria Police gazettes spanning 51 years last century found 3505 Victorian children ran away from 86 church and charity run homes and 4015 children ran away from 31 government homes.
"An apology would be an important acknowledgement that what happened to these children was not only cruel but also a failure of proper police procedure."
Ms Sheedy told AAP she believed an apology would encourage more care leavers to come forward.
Many of them mistrusted police because of their earlier experiences and this would help them overcome that, she said.
On Friday, the commission will publish a consultation paper on compensation for child sex abuse victims and changes to civil litigation in those cases.