Public lecture addresses Australian measures to address child sexual abuse

In 2012 the Australian government instituted a federal government inquiry into endemic child sexual abuse across the country. It had unprecedented scope, lasting five years and involving six Commissioners and funding of nearly $400 million.

The outcome of the inquiry was the publication of the Australian Government Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse report in December 2017. The report identified multiple revelations of endemic sexual abuse and cover-ups, especially in religious institutions.

The report made major recommendations for practice and reform, and these recommendations and the nature of the Royal Commission and its activities are the focus of a lecture to be delivered by our newly appointed Visiting Professor Ben Mathews at the University of Chichester on Wednesday 1 May.

In his lecture, Professor Mathews will focus on five major areas of progress and reform since the publication of the Royal Commission report.

These areas include explanations of the nature and operation of Australia’s National Redress Scheme; legislative reforms to civil statutes of limitation; legislative reforms to duties to report known and suspected child sexual abuse; reforms to the regulation of child and youth-serving organisations, and; the imperative to conduct a national study to generate benchmark data on the prevalence of child sexual abuse.

Ongoing research into the prevalence of child maltreatment in Australia recently received funding of $2.3 million from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. The study includes Dr Rosana Pacella from the University of Chichester, as well as researchers from the Queensland University of Technology, the University of Queensland, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Oxford, the Australian Catholic University and the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research.

Professor Ben Mathews is based at the School of Law at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and is Principal Research Fellow in the Faculty of Law. He is an internationally-recognised researcher on law and child maltreatment, with expertise in the prevention, detection, and response to child abuse and neglect by legal and social systems, within a framework of law, public health, social justice and children’s rights. Research expertise in child sexual abuse is a particular strength. He is Director of QUT’s cross-Faculty Childhood Adversity Research Program and Dr Rosana Pacella is an Adjunct Associate Professor at QUT and member of this group.

Health and law form a major focus for the University of Chichester’s development and its growing areas of research excellence, and this international collaboration will assist the development of the research agenda and pedagogies in both areas. It will also intensify research links with Dr Antonina Pereira and Chris Smethurst, who co-lead the University’s Institute of Education, Health and Social Sciences and their team, as well as Dr Rosana Pacella who is an academic member of the Institute.

This research is also well-aligned with the Institute’s child protection research led by Dr Kish Bhatti-Sinclair. Commissioned evaluation projects (such as early intervention within the UK’s Troubled Families initiative) have enabled Dr Bhatti-Sinclair to make recommendations directly to child protection agencies.  Her research questions professional ideologies and beliefs, and responses to child abuse within Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic families, cultural racism, anti-Muslim racism and Islamophobia.

Professor Mathews’ lecture is part of the University of Chichester’s Public Lecture Series and will take place in the Mitre Lecture Theatre, University of Chichester Bishop Otter Campus, on Wednesday 1st May from 12.30pm. There is a pay and display car park on campus and refreshments will be available from 12.00pm.

Attendance at this important lecture is free of charge but it is advisable to book a place by visiting https://lecture-professor-ben-mathews.eventbrite.co.uk.