‘Urgent need to combat’ high levels of child sexual abuse

Girls are twice as likely to have experienced sexual abuse as boys, the research reveals, the landmark study reveals.

Girls are twice as likely to have experienced sexual abuse as boys, the research reveals, the landmark study reveals. Picture: istock

Child wellbeing must become a bipartisan policy priority, the ­nation’s children’s commissioner, Anne Hollonds, says, after a new study revealed almost three in 10 Australians say they were sexually abused as children, and more than 60 per cent say they ­endured child maltreatment.

The Australian Child Maltreatment Study also found girls were twice as likely as boys to have been subjected to child sexual abuse.

Based on responses from 8500 Australians, the study finds 32 per cent reported experiencing physical abuse at some point in their lives before turning 18, 28.5 per cent had suffered sexual abuse, 31 per cent emotional abuse, 9 per cent neglect and 40 per cent had been exposed to domestic violence between parents.

Most children who experienced maltreatment were subjected to more than one type.

“Child maltreatment is a much bigger problem than we thought, leading to serious negative lifelong harms for children, and massive costs to the community,” Ms Hollonds said.

“In a rich and developed country like Australia, high rates of child maltreatment are a sign of failed public service systems – poorly designed, fragmented, and lacking co-ordination across health, mental health, education, and social services.”

The study, published in the The Medical Journal of Australia, finds parental separation, family mental illness, family substance abuse problems, and family economic hardship doubled the risk of multi-type maltreatment.

Lead investigator in the study Daryl Higgins, director of Australian Catholic University’s ­Institute of Child Protection Studies, said 39.4 per cent of Australians experienced multiple types of child maltreatment before the age of 18 compared with a single type of maltreatment (22.8 per cent), and 37.8 per cent reported no child abuse or neglect.

“This is a very disturbing finding. We knew the experiences of multi-type maltreatment would be high, but we didn’t expect it to be as strong as it is,” Professor Higgins said. “Exposure to domestic violence goes hand in hand with other types of child abuse and ­neglect. We need to focus on the safety and wellbeing of children who are being exposed in enormously high levels to the harms of exposure to domestic violence.”

 

Another lead investigator, Ben Mathews, a research fellow at the Queensland University of Technology School of Law, said the results were “sobering.”

The national phone-based study shows 37 per cent of girls were sexually abused compared with 19 per cent of boys, and 36 per cent of girls suffered emotional abuse. For boys, it was 25 per cent. The report notes rates of physical and sexual abuse were lower for younger people, a sign that recognition of the issue and some policy measures may be having a positive ­effect.

Professor Higgins said Australia’s rates of abuse were broadly similar to, but perhaps at the higher end of, comparable developed countries.

The sheer scale of the abuse demanded urgent attention, Ms Hollonds said.

“Child wellbeing should be a bipartisan priority. Unlike other countries, we have no national strategy for child wellbeing with clear accountabilities. We have no reporting on budget allocations for child wellbeing. We have no minister for children. We have no vision, and we have had no ­urgency for change,” she said.

Professor Higgins said the findings demanded immediate attention from governments and authorities to better safeguard children and reduce poor health outcomes across their lives.