One of the most controversial recommendations from the Royal Commission is that child abuse disclosed in confession should be mandatorily reported. But the matter is more complex than it might appear.
Childhood adversity is linked to social and mental health problems later in life. New research suggests brains that aren’t as good at recognizing rewards and responding to change may be to blame.
Children listen to speakers during an immigration family separation protest in Phoenix, Arizona.
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Donald Trump’s policy to separate children from their migrant parents lays bare his fascism. The time has come for Americans to resist this act of domestic terrorism.
Traumatised children can go on to lead better lives.
Photo by Bruno Nascimento/Unsplash
An evaluation of a therapeutic foster care program has shown significant improvements in children previously thought too complex and challenging for foster care.
Aboriginal demonstration in Brisbane in 2014.
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A damning inquiry has revealed the extent of the abuse suffered by British children sent abroad between 1920 and 1970. But it skirts around Aboriginal cultural genocide.
No other government redress scheme has included children who were abused both in care and not in care.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
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.
The royal commission has presented a socially and historically contextualised understanding of child sexual abuse.
AAP/Lukas Coch
By placing institutional abuse within its larger context, the royal commission has made the prevention and identification of child sex offending a collective responsibility.
In light of the church’s catastrophic failures of care, documented in this report, its survival as a public institution is dependent on responding adequately to this historic commission.
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The commission’s final report revealed the staggering scale and nature of abuse uncovered in Catholic institutions.
In this 2008 photo, Liam Gallagher of Oasis performs during a concert in Los Angeles. Noel is seen on the screen behind him. The brothers have a notoriously dysfunctional relationship. Could their father’s documented abuse of their mother explain the animosity?
(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
The famous feuding Gallagher brothers of the rock band Oasis illustrate what research shows: Kids who grow up in homes where there is domestic violence often grow up to have troubled relationships.
Parents killing their children is uncommon, but there are some risk factors around the crime such as mental illness, previous abuse and domestic violence.
Repression is a defensive process where the mind forgets or places events, thoughts and memories we cannot acknowledge or bear elsewhere.
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