scholarly journals Where is the evidence in evidence-based law reform?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Chin ◽  
Shinichi Nakagawa ◽  
Malgorzata Lagisz
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Open Science ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Institutional Responses ◽  
Disciplinary Diversity

Law reform bodies frequently express a commitment to evidence-based law and policy recommendations. They also readily endorse the importance of the transparency and democratization of their processes. They do not, however, connect these two goals of evidence-based policy and transparency. This stands in contrast to the ongoing revolution in several fields of research towards open science and synthesis, which envisions transparency and open access as a means to improve the reliability of science. In this article, we suggest that several recent concerns and controversies surrounding evidence-based law reform, such as allegations of bias among officials, can be addressed through open science and synthesis. We include a novel study of 22 research syntheses commissioned by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, finding uneven adoption of even the most basic transparency measures. We end with five proposals that advance transparent evidence-based law reform, including law reform bodies requiring that commissioned reports follow basic reporting guidelines and greater disciplinary diversity among law reform staff.

Media Hierarchies of Attention: News Values and Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Waller ◽  
Tanja Dreher ◽  
Kristy Hess ◽  
Kerry McCallum ◽  
Eli Skogerbø
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
News Values ◽  
Institutional Responses

When “Culture Trumped Safety”, Developing a Protective Weave in Child Welfare Organisations: A Case Study

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Menzies ◽  
Lyn Stoker
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Staff Development ◽  
Young People ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
Institutional Responses ◽  
Culture Of Fear

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has uncovered evidence that organisations sometimes provide opportunity for the sexual abuse of children. How do organisations go about preventing this? The authors of this paper consider the case of an out-of-home care (OOHC) agency which failed to protect children. By identifying gaps in practice and culture in this case, the authors suggest that protecting children in OOHC requires a “weave” of organisational structures, staff development and cultural competence. In this case, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the organisation was able to create an opportunity for access to vulnerable young people by using strategies we can now identify as grooming behaviours. He did this by using his positional power. He ignored standards, isolated protective adults and therefore children and young people, rewarded compliance, discouraged reflective practice, used his culture to avoid scrutiny from funding and oversighting agencies, and created an organisational culture of fear and secrecy. In effect, he used culture to trump safety. Even in the stressful conditions of managing an OOHC service, good practice is important, not only because it meets the standards and legislation, but because this is how services maintain the safety of children and young people in care.

scholarly journals Legal Irresponsibility and Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Penny Crofts
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Catholic Education ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Sex Abuse ◽  
Institutional Responses ◽  
Child Sex Abuse

The current Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has demonstrated serious long-term failures to prevent and adequately respond to child sexual abuse by institutions. Rather than regarding the law as a system of responsibility, this article argues that it can be read instead as organising irresponsibility, drawing upon Scott Veitch’s ideas in Law and Irresponsibility. His key argument is that legal institutions operate as much to deflect responsibility for harms suffered as to acknowledge them. This article focuses on the ways in which the criminal justice system is complicit in organising irresponsibility for systemic failures through an analysis of the Royal Commission Case Study No 6: The responses of a primary school and the Toowoomba Catholic Education Office to the Conduct of Gerald Byrnes. Through concrete examples, this article analyses the ways in which criminal law organises irresponsibility through the individuation of responsibility and the emphasis upon subjective culpability. These practices ensure irresponsibility for actors for systemic failures.

Constructing a Child Protection Policy to Support a Safeguarding Children Culture in Organisations and Institutions

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Tucci ◽  
Janise Mitchell ◽  
Deb Holmes ◽  
Craig Hemsworth ◽  
Leonie Hemsworth
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Young People ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Protection Policy ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
The Past ◽  
Institutional Responses ◽  
Child Protection Policy

Thousands of hours of evidence of trauma, pain and culpability presented to the current Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have left no doubt that organisations have always been and continue to be responsible for enacting a culture that ensures that their own staff and volunteers do not harm, abuse or exploit children who are involved directly or indirectly with the activities or services provided by the organisation. In the past 6 years, through its Safeguarding Children Accreditation Program, the Australian Childhood Foundation has worked with more than 100 organisations nationally and internationally to strengthen their capacity to protect children and young people. Our experience has highlighted that substantial confusion exists about how to construct a child protection policy that frames the expectations and responsibilities of individuals who work, volunteer or use the services/activities of an organisation. In this paper, the authors offer a blueprint for considering the critical elements of a child protection policy that organisations can use to evaluate and possibly reconfigure or formulate their own. The paper outlines the function of the child protection policy in an organisation; the principles for constructing the policy; and an example of content for a child protection policy. The authors conclude that, if constructed with heart and sensitivity, a child protection policy can shape and define the very narrative about what the organisation stands for in relation to the safety of children and the responsibilities of adults to fulfilling the rights of children and young people more broadly.

scholarly journals Catholic Church Responses to Clergy-Child Sexual Abuse and Mandatory Reporting Exemptions in Victoria, Australia: A Discursive Critique

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 58-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Andre Guerzoni ◽  
Hannah Graham
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Mandatory Reporting ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Reporting Requirements ◽  
Institutional Responses ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Church Responses

This article presents empirical findings from a critical discourse analysis of institutional responses by the Catholic Church to clergy-child sexual abuse in Victoria, Australia. A sample of 28 documents, comprising 1,394 pages, is analysed in the context of the 2012-2013 Victorian Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations. Sykes and Matza’s (1957) and Cohen’s (1993) techniques of, respectively, neutralisation and denial are used to reveal the Catholic Church’s Janus-faced responses to clergy-child sexual abuse and mandatory reporting requirements. Paradoxical tensions are observed between Catholic Canonical law and clerical practices, and the extent of compliance with secular law and referral of allegations to authorities. Concerns centre on Church secrecy, clerical defences of the confessional in justification of inaction, and the Melbourne Response compensation scheme. Our research findings underscore the need for greater Church transparency and accountability; we advocate for mandatory reporting law reform and institutional reform, including adjustments to the confessional ritual.

Diocesanism versus Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Alison M. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Strong Form ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Anglican Church ◽  
Institutional Responses

Abstract This article examines the contribution of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to the ecclesiology of the Anglican Church of Australia (ACA). The focus is on diocesanism – the strong form of diocesan autonomy that exists in the ACA. The article concludes that the Royal Commission identified diocesanism and the associated dispersion of ecclesial authority as key factors constraining the ACA’s responses to child sexual abuse, and actively sought to modify its impact. The article also points to the significance of the Royal Commission’s findings to ACA ecclesiological understandings and change.

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