At the Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey assured girls that the harassment scandals of 2017 will eventually lead to a brighter future. But deep workplace issues will have to be addressed first.
The royal commission has performed its task with distinction – now it is up to governments and institutions to ensure those efforts are matched with a redress scheme.
By placing institutional abuse within its larger context, the royal commission has made the prevention and identification of child sex offending a collective responsibility.
There are some online child sex abuse offences in Australia for which a defendant’s claim that they were purely fantasising could excuse criminal liability.
Nondisclosure agreements are getting a bad rap these days because they’ve been used to prevent victims of sexual harassment and abuse from speaking out. But not all are nefarious.
After Fifty Shades of Grey there was debate about its romanticisation of an abusive relationship. The sequel confirms that this wasn’t a misconception.
I conducted interviews with 26 young women in alcohol and drug treatment services in Victoria. More than half of them disclosed a history of sexual abuse and 20 spoke about cutting themselves.
Military institutions and militarised cultures seek to generate a unity of people and purpose. Initiation rituals have been a historically stable strategy to achieve this.
The Victorian government will bring its laws up-to-date with new forms of exploitation and abuse of children and young people that are associated with communications technologies.
One of the most important lessons we have learnt from George Pell’s royal commission appearance is the Catholic Church was – and still is – in a state of denial over child sexual abuse.
The sexual abuse of children is, understandably, a key concern for the public. But misperceptions about those who perpetrate it abound in public debate.