AUSTRALIA
SNAP Australia
Issues Paper 6
Redress Schemes
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse …
Abuse of Power/Power Imbalance
Despite being sexual crimes, the core of child sexual abuse is an abuse of power by adults in positions of authority over children. Children are targeted because of their vulnerability, powerlessness, lack of credibility, and ease of manipulation and coercion.
Which particular child is chosen as prey is often more closely related to special vulnerability than any other factor, even availability. Many predators go to great lengths, and expense, to groom a particular child.
Once successful in manipulating the child into a position where the child feels unable to avoid or stop the attacks, the abuse can continue for years, with little fear of the child being able to understand they have a right to complain, far less of actually making a complaint.
A particularly poignant example of this is the US case of Father Lawrence Murphy, who sexually abused at least 200 deaf boys, particularly targeting those unable to speak, and thus even less able than most child victims to ask for help to stop their abuse.
Once the sexual contact has ended, often after years of torture, the abuse of power, inflicted by the institution protecting and enabling the sexual predator, continues. Additional harm is inflicted through minimisation, disbelief, community ostracisation, threats, blaming and shaming, and denial of access to justice or assistance to recover.
The significant additional damage inflicted by this campaign of often deliberate re-abuse is traditionally ignored or underestimated.
When the few victims who manage to speak out about our abuse demand justice or redress, our needs are once again subjugated by manipulative, authoritative, well funded attempts to evade financial, moral and criminal responsibility, and publicity and public scrutiny, by the abusive institution.
All of these additional abuses of power push victims ever further along the path of self destruction that the sexual abuse set us upon. Far too many reach the ultimate destination of suicide.
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