How sexual attraction to a disabled body is about more than just desires of the flesh.
George Pell’s evidence, which implied that children’s complaints of abuse were widely disbelieved ‘back then’, overlooks the long history of successful prosecutions.
AAP/Jeremy Piper
George Pell told the royal commission into child sex abuse the Catholic Church was predisposed not to believe children’s complaints. But, when abuse was reported, police and the courts believed them.
Nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, Spotlight has won over critics with its compelling story and strong cast featuring Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo.
Entertainment One Films Australia
If you haven’t seen Oscar winner Spotlight yet, go. It tells the true story of how decades of abuse in one city was finally uncovered - followed by revelations worldwide, including in my home town.
Some UN peacekeepers stand accused of sexual offences against children in the Central African Republic. An overhaul of the UN’s peacekeeping operations is needed to tackle the problem.
Reuters/Media Coulibaly
A UN report has found that in half of 12 country studies done on child sexual exploitation during armed conflict, the arrival of peacekeeping troops resulted in a rapid rise in child prostitution.
The bouquet held by Bolshy Divas member Jackie Softly represents the people with disability whose accounts of violence and abuse the Senate inquiry heard in Perth, but these are just the tip of the iceberg.
AAP/Sarah Motherwell
Accountability for the violence and abuse that people with disability experience begins with recording the offences. In fact, we have long ignored crimes against vulnerable members of our community.
The number of child street hawkers is on the rise in Nigeria.
Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
Children who hawk goods on their heads on Nigeria’s streets face an array of health hazards and physical dangers. The government must take steps to reduce this practice.
Why should astronomy be different from any other field when it comes to sexual harassment?
Flickr/PROnate
South Africa’s violence against women ranks as one of the worst in the world. As much as 40-50% of women in the country have suffered intimate partner violence.
Sex ed curricula that tie premarital sex to shame are especially unhelpful, and even harmful, for youth who have been sexually abused.
A diagnostic label such as borderline personality disorder, with its stigma and propensity to invalidate the person’s suffering, clearly has many negative impacts.
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Diagnostic labels usually describe symptoms, attempt to answer the question of what is wrong, and lead to a treatment plan. But “borderline personality disorder” fails on all three counts.
A woman holds up a poster as part of a protest against the the rape of women, children and babies. The protest followed the rape of nine-month-old Baby Tshepang in 2001.
Juda Ngwenya/Reuters
A study examining why paedophiles sexually abuse young children highlights their own childhood adversities and socio-cultural factors as some of the reasons.
In recent months, the UK has been gripped by cases of widespread organised child abuse – in Rotherham, Oxford, Rochdale and even Westminster. The police’s slow and incompetent reactions (and even complicity…
A mechanism of independent scrutiny – such as a royal commission – remains the best way forward for alleviating defence abuse.
AAP/Alan Porritt
As I was showering five or six senior [others] attacked me – they turned off the lights, tied my hands behind my back and proceeded to do things to me. I was held down whilst one of them put his penis…
Child protection is everyone’s responsibility.
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The recent string of major child sexual assault scandals, in Australia and other countries, can create a feeling of disgust and an urge to look away from an ugly reality. Yet we must confront and take…
Sporting codes need to maintain their stand opposing violence against women.
Gui Seiz/Shutterstock
Male sports stars perpetrating violence against women is a phenomenon that, sadly, seems to cross both international and sporting borders. In the most recent high-profile case, NFL player Ray Rice was…