Rural Aboriginal people and child sexual abuse
-
Upload
jon-willis -
Category
Health & Medicine
-
view
489 -
download
2
Transcript of Rural Aboriginal people and child sexual abuse
A public health perspective
Jon Willis
May, 2008
Rural Aboriginal people and child
sexual abuse
Some Background Between 2001 and 2007 Australia has been
occupied with an extended moral panic about the issue of family violence, particularly child sexual abuse.
The perpetrators demonised by this moral panic have often been personified in male public figures. Most prominent were two cases.
The Australia Governor General and former Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, Peter Hollingsworth, was implicated in concealing the abuse of children by priests under his authority, and forced to resign as the Australian head of state in 2004.
The second case involved Geoff Clark, the first elected chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), who was sued in 2002 by two women who alleged that he, among others, had raped them in the
Geoff Clark‟s case(s) The lawsuits failed, as had criminal
prosecutions of Mr Clark in both cases, but not before Mr Clark‟s behaviour was put to an extended examination in the media.
The public and political frenzy surrounding Mr Clark‟s case was accompanied by an unprecedented groundswell of public discussion of Aboriginal men as rapists and abusers of women and children
This frenzy included policy discussion and shifts in relation to
services to Aboriginal women and families
in early 2005 the total dismantling of ATSIC, which had been responsible for provision of a range of Government services to
I did a study of the Australian print media portrayal of Aboriginal men and their sexuality from mid-2002 to mid-2003, at the height of the moral panic. A Lexis-Nexis search of all Australian newspaper from
the period on the search terms Aborigines and Sex returned an (astonishing) 445 articles, letters and editorial pieces addressing the issue of Aboriginal men as rapists and sexual abusers of children.
Although many of these pieces focus on or allude to the ongoing public spectacle of Mr Clark‟s rape cases, they also discuss a range of other prominent sexual abuse accusations around the country, many implicating senior Aboriginal men previously viewed as leaders of their people and even non-Aboriginal public servants working in Aboriginal policy portfolios.
The media content of this moral
panic is fuelled by centuries-old
characterisations of black men as sexually suspect and dangerous
it serves the continuing disempowerment of Aboriginal people by characterising them as perpetrators or victims of sexual violence and therefore degraded in comparison to European Australians
the moral panic was cynically manipulated by the Ministers of the Howard Government to achieve their policy goal of dismantling ATSIC, destabilising the authority of the Northern Territory Government, and attacking Land Rights through the compulsory re-acquisition of Aboriginal land for Government purposes
Aboriginal child sex numbers „put in
perspective‟Margaret Wenham, May 19, 2008, Courier Mail
ONLY 39 of nearly 7500 Aboriginal children
examined from remote Northern Territory
communities were assessed as at risk of serious
neglect or abuse.
The Commonwealth Health Department figures of
those examined after the Howard government's
indigenous intervention, and released to The
Courier-Mail yesterday, raised questions about the
true level of child-sex abuse in indigenous
communities. A departmental spokesman said the
0.5per cent of cases was not necessarily for
suspected sexual abuse but could include
emotional or physical abuse or neglect.
In contrast, nearly 40 per cent of the children
examined were referred to dentists and ear, nose
and throat and pediatric specialists for basic health
Sunrise Health Service chief executive Irene Fisher
said the figures brought a "welcome perspective back to the
whole issue".
"We screened 1100 of the children and less than a handful
were suspected of being sexually abused," she said.
"Since June 21 (last year) I've been really concerned
about the perpetuation of negative stereotypes about
Aboriginal people.
"Not only has it been made to seem like every male is a
perpetrator of abuse, but communities have been labelled
neglectful, when they just live in poverty.“
Mr Howard said in June last year that
the innocence of childhood in
indigenous communities was "a myth".
He ordered a widescale "intervention
in the Northern Territory in response to
allegations of shocking
neglect, including child health
checks, controls on spending of
welfare money and alcohol bans.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny
Macklin said it was important to
balance the "reality" which showed
indigenous children were five times
more likely to be abused than non-
indigenous children, with the need to
Recent Evidence
The Mullighan Commission of Inquiry into
Children on APY Lands reported 2 weeks ago on
abuse and neglect issues in the far north-west of
SA
The Commissioners found “evidence of sexual
abuse relating to 141 children living on the Lands
where it was reasonably possible that they had
been sexually abused”.
http://www.service.sa.gov.au/ContentPages/sagovt/mullighaninquiry_apy.aspx
The case summaries The case summaries that relate to each child who
was reasonably likely to have been sexually abused have been put into categories based on the relationship between perpetrator and victim and the nature/reason for the sexual abuse. The categories are: extra-familial – men abusing girls (mostly 13-15 year old
girls, and 17-19 year old boys) Sex for petrol, food or cannabis, money and gambling Promised wife
extra-familial – juvenile on juvenile So-called „consensual‟ sex between juveniles No consent
intra-familial abuse (11 cases, including abusers with intellectual disability, or petrol sniffers)
offender unknown (mostly extra-familial)
Why so
many?
There appear to be significant changes in Pitjantjatjara sexual culture over the last 10 years (e.g. sexual repertoires and scripting, availability of pornography) without concomitant changes in education about relationships and sexual risk
There have been considerable disruptions to family and community life over the past 2 generations (missionaries arrived here in 1938)
Neglect of older kids, and substance misuse
Communalisation and the provision of Western-style housing has had a significant and disruptive effect on the management of privacy, and particularly on the supervision and surveillance of adolescents
Community standards differ, including what is categorised as a child, and what constitutes a sexual offence. In the last
Why we worry: the consequences of
child sexual abuse Sexual abuse touches every life when it leads to
losses of trust, decreases in self-esteem and development of shame, guilt and depression.
Sexual abuse touches every life when it leads to eating disorders, substance abuse, suicide, promiscuity/prostitution and other psycho-behavioural problems
Victims of child sexual abuse report more substance abuse problems. 70-80 per cent of sexual abuse survivors report excessive drug and alcohol use
Young girls who are sexually abused are three times more likely to develop psychiatric disorders or alcohol and drug abuse in adulthood than girls who are not sexually abused
Among male survivors, more than 70 per cent seek psychological treatment for issues such as substance abuse, suicidal thoughts and attempted suicide. Males who have been sexually abused are more likely to violently victimise other
Children who have been victims of sexual abuse exhibit long-term and more frequent behavioural problems, particularly inappropriate sexual behaviours
Women who report childhood rape are three times more likely to become pregnant before age 18.
An estimated 60 per cent of teen first pregnancies are preceded by experiences of molestation, rape or attempted rape
Victims of child sexual abuse
are more likely to be sexually
promiscuous
More than 75% of teenage
prostitutes have been sexually
abused
Adolescents who suffered
violent victimisation are at risk
for being victims or
perpetrators of felony assault,
domestic violence, and
property offence as adults
Nearly 50% of women in prison
state that they were abused as
children
Some strategies for moving
forward
As Public Health practitioners
Support versus control
Hold back expertise unless invited
The difficulty is empowerment, or providing an
enabling environment
Barriers include personal and community history,
and current personal circumstances
Sometimes the same things work or don‟t work in
different situations, but when they don‟t work you
don‟t get the chance for critical reflection with the
group on what went wrong
Sensitivities finding the right person to talk to
elders
organisations
ignorance about community structures can make it
hard to manoeuvre (in the way you would with a non-
Indigenous community)
use local workers/connections to talk to the right
people, meet the requirements of local protocols
permission
sometimes being rigid about structures causes
problems – eg working with young people where they
have conflicts with elders
Time frames
develop trust
staff turnover – problem with long project time
lines
long time to develop foundation networks
National focus means different approaches with urban, rural and
remote communities but
need to work through local networks, and with local people
gender is important, though there is flexibility
managing and meeting expectations is important – not good
to surprise people
other issues can intervene in relation to gender (for eg
young gay men in one place didn‟t want to be seen by a
straight male health worker)
Service Delivery
flexibility (outside of hours, outside of clinic)
may cause problems over visible “work hours”
men sometimes need to know women‟s stuff, and
women sometimes need to know men‟s stuff
Shame
Difficult to understand cross-
culturally
Includes different understandings
of the implications of different
parts of interaction (such as
looking/staring and touch)
Aboriginal people may not be
experienced with dealing with
white people
Shame reactions might include
withdrawal or anger
Sensitivity to levels of abuse in the
community
make counselling available
make sure people feel free to leave
be conscious of and prepared for the emotional
content of these issues
Partnerships
need to normalise processes of dialogue with
organisational cultures
include Aboriginal people prior to the
development of the process
the importance of advisory structures, especially
being involved from the start
formal mechanisms sometimes lack the flexibility
need to allow partnerships to move forward, or
get in the way of the work of the partnership
Equality
mutual respect needs to be articulated
expectations between workers and managers go
both ways
Interviews
May be difficult to ask direct questions without
giving the person time to think
Sometimes hypothetical scenarios are a better
way to go (not as personal)