National Redress Scheme for Victims of Institutional Child Sex Abuse a Bureaucratic Monster

By Jack the Inside
The Australian
October 6, 2018

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In little more than a fortnight, the federal parliament will host 800 guests, many of them victims of institutional child sex abuse.

An apology will be issued by Prime Minister Morrison and while it is long overdue, it promises to be a moment where symbolism overrides a rather bleak reality.

There are an estimated 60,000 people who suffered institutional sexual abuse as children since 1950. Our society had forgotten its children, failed to cherish them as its most valuable asset and ignored their basic right not to be subject to abuse.

Many commentators have made the mistake that as the Royal Commission examined a range of case studies, that this dark moment in our own social history is over, never to be repeated.

When we contemplate why certain adults are given to preying on children sexually, there is a clear danger of a recurrence. We could discuss the psychology of the causes of pedophilia forever and perhaps get stuck on the great myth that those offended against will one day become offenders themselves.

These sorts of ruminations are unhelpful. Let’s keep it simple. Child sexual abuse in an institutional setting is the expression of power over the vulnerable. When we understand that basic truth, we also understand that it is likely to happen again.