Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Child abuse Australia'

This research analysed Australian filicide cases over a 16 year period. The results show that prior instances of child abuse could be considered a risk factor, particularly in cases where the perpetrator has a history of physical abuse and neglect towards the victim. Other notable results include children under the age of 5 being at higher risk and mothers committing filicide at higher levels than other perpetrator types.

Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Department of Anthropology, 2006.
"December 2005".
Bibliography: leaves 327-357.
Characteristics of ritual abuse discourse -- A plethora of theorists (and of differences between them) -- Defining ritual abuse: differences, disputes and bad faith -- Allegations, investigations and trials -- Abuse accomodation and recovered memories -- Moral panic and witch hunt -- Witch craze -- Outsiders, accusations and obligations -- Accusations of ritual abuse in Australia -- Witches and pedophiles -- Conclusion.
Allegations of "ritual abuse" were first made in North America in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was claimed that an extremely severe form of sexual and physical child abuse was being perpetrated by Satanists or the devotees of comparably unorthodox religions. Perpetrators were often supposed to be invloved in other serious criminal activities. Allegations were subsequently made in Britain, Holland, Australia and New Zealand. The thesis examines the bitter debates that these claims provoked, including the dispute about whether ritual abuse "really happens". -- The thesis also contributes to the debate by providing some anthropological insights into why these strange and incredible claims were made and why they were accepted by certain therapists, officials, journalists and members of the public. It is argued that the panic over ritual abuse was a panic about what anthropologists know as "witchcraft" and the thesis makes this argument through an analysis of the events (mainly discursive events) of the panic. The thesis in particular takes up Jean La Fontaine's argument about the similarities between accusations of ritual abuse and those made against "witches" in early modern Europe and in non-Western societies. The similarities between the kinds of people typically accused of perpetrating ritual abuse and those accused of practising witchcraft are considered, with a special emphasis on those cases where accusations were made by adult "survivors" and where alleged perpetrators were affluent and of relatively high social status. The thesis examines how supposed perpetrators of ritual abuse were denied the social support properly due to them and how accusations--and the persecution that followed--achieved certain political, professional and personal ends for survivors and their supporters. -- The thesis also considers similarities between "crazed" witch hunting and the recent spread of the panic about ritual abuse throughout much of the English-speaking West. The peculiar panic about witch-like figures that occurred in Australia -- especially in NSW--is examined. The thesis shows how, at a time when Australians had become very sceptical about claims of ritual abuse, activists were able to incite and affect the latest of a succession of homophobic panics in Australia.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
357 leaves ill

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychiatry, 1996.
Addendum and errata are pasted in onto back end papers & back pages. Copy of author's previously published article inserted. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 451-466).

Past research has illustrated that communily attitudes tend not to be reflected in crime legislation particularly when considering the victim-offender relationship and perceived seriousness of child sexual abuse. This study examined the effects of 4 different victimoffender relationships and the degree of trust within these relationships on perceptions of offence seriousness and emotional and physical harm, for the offence of indecently dealing with a 14-year old girl. One hundred and sixty community members used a 7- point scale to rate the degree of trust within these relationships, the seriousness of the offence and the emotional and physical harm suffered by the victim. Four two-way ANOVAs and one correlation were perfonned. Results showed that the victim-offender relationship failed to influence perceptions of offence seriousness, emotional and physical harm. Although the ratings of trust differed across the 4 relationship types, trust failed to significantly influence perceptions of offence seriousness, emotional and physical harm. Women were found to rate the offence as more serious and harmful than men. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.

Since the early 1980s the Church and society have been shocked and scandalised by incidents of child sexual abuse perpetrated by clerics and religious. During the past twenty years knowledge of sexual abuse has grown. With increased knowledge has come increased understanding of factors that affect offenders, that impact on the healing of victims. Church leaders in the church have not always responded well, to victims, to offenders and to communities. The Church has grown in understanding of how to respond to all who are affected by sexual abuse of children. Church and society continue to learn. In 1996, the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Australian Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes published Towards Healing, Principles and Procedures in Responding to Complaints of Sexual Abuse against Personnel of the Catholic Church in Australia. The following year, they published Integrity in Ministry: A Document of Ethical Standards for Catholic Clergy and Religious in Australia. The former document presents the principles and procedures for responding to complaints of misconduct and sexual abuse. The latter document presents standards for life and ministry for clergy and religious. The Catholic Church in Australia responded to sexual abuse within the context of the Australian society, as did the church in each country. In presenting an overview of the response to child sexual abuse of both society and church in several countries besides Australia, the possibility exists not only for identifying similarities and differences, but also for understanding the reasons behind them. In the 1980s knowledge of the complexities of sexual abuse and its impact on victims was very limited. Likewise familiarity with the church's penal law and related procedures was limited because it had not been used to any great extent. Increased and new usage of both penal law and procedural law identified areas that caused problems. At the heart of the church's response to sexual abuse is the goal of responding to the dignity of the human person. Hopefully, identifying differences and problem areas will result in increased understanding and the upholding of the dignity of all people affected by sexual abuse.

This thesis focuses on interagency coordination and collaboration in the management of child sexual abuse in Australia and in England. The impetus for the research arose from the experience of the author as manager and practitioner in the area of child sexual abuse, while working in these two countries. Problems regarding the management of interagency cooperation had become apparent in child protection practice and were also recognized in the literature. Personal experience, as well as a review of the literature, revealed that there was a need for the identification and validation of the key mechanisms and processes underlying effective interagency coordination and collaboration. This review of the literature also indicated that although existing models of operation had been identified, their value to practitioners had not been evaluated. The research underpinning the thesis set out to identify and validate key components contributing to effective interagency cooperation in the management of child sexual abuse that could be of international significance. This research is placed in the context of the evolving social construction of child abuse and child sexual abuse that is reflected in the rise in the incidence of the phenomena as well as in its expanding definitions. The nature of adult/child relationships are explored in terms of the sociological constructions of childhood and their periodisation. Specific attention is given to the rights of children and the professional regulation of child abuse and child sexual abuse in relation to the periodisation of modernity and postmodernity. Child abuse management operated mainly within the medical paradigm between the 1960s and the late 1980s. In England, child abuse tragedies occurred during the 1980s that resulted in official inquiries and culminated in various governmental reports that made recommendations for the improvement in services. The child sexual abuse scandal that occurred in Cleveland in 1986 was accompanied by a moral panic and a backlash in society against social workers and existing methods of professional regulation. As a consequence of Governmental efforts to remedy this situation, the medical paradigm that had dominated child abuse management' was shifted towards a socio-legal paradigm accompanied by the emergence of the discourse of `child protectionism'. However, challenges to the child protection discourse continued and these appear to be centred mainly upon the need for the adoption of a more subjectivist paradigm in the management of these phenomena. The debates and issues arising from these shifts in paradigm, particularly in relation to the operation of the interagency, multidisciplinary approach to the management of the problem, are discussed in the context of the self-referential, closed social systems involved in child protection network. Amidst these changes to service delivery paradigms concerning child welfare, the underlying multiagency interagency method of operation continued to be advocated. Existing research had pointed to the central role of this method of working in the management of child sexual abuse. An eclectically designed study was undertaken to validate the key mechanisms and processes underlying interagency coordination and collaboration. After their identification, it was found that they could be categorised into coordinating mechanisms, collaborative procedures and personal perspectives. These key components were then operationalised to form a questionnaire that was administered to a random sample of four-hundred and seven social worker practitioners and managers in both Australia and England. This was followed up with twenty in-depth interviews with a randomly selected sample of social work managers and practitioners from Australia and England chosen from those who had participated in the original survey. The major finding from a statistical analysis of the results of the survey, and discourse analysis of the in-depth interviews, indicated that the operationalised components were key mechanisms and procedures in the management of child sexual abuse in both Australia and England. A significant outcome from these findings has been the development and integration of the key mechanisms into a model of interagency coordination and collaboration. The model has been termed, the Interagency Model for the Management of Child Sexual Abuse (IAAC). The Model's functions are outlined, together with recommendations for its practical application for the planning of child protection services as well as the training of child protection teams. The final chapter contains specific recommendations for child protection practice, in the light of the research findings, together with their possible implications for the contemporary child protection discourse. Suggestions are made regarding future directions for child protection practice, also based on the research results, together with proposals for future research.

This thesis undertakes a legal analysis of historic child abuse claims, with reference to four critical issues, in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Australia from 1990 to 2014. The thesis acknowledges some important developments, legislatively and case-wise, after 2014. After summarising social science research about the effects of child abuse, the thesis analyses and synthesises relevant statutes and case law in the above jurisdictions, focussing on: limitation of time, duty of care, vicarious liability and non-delegable duty. After comparing and contrasting the jurisdictions, some conclusions are drawn, particularly that there is still considerable work to be done in achieving justice for survivors.

The field of child abuse and neglect contains a corpus of literature regarding teachers and child abuse and neglect. The literature, dominated by medical and scientific discourses, constructs the teacher's role, shapes what teachers should know, and influences policies and practices in care and education settings, and in the field of child protection. This thesis addresses a gap in this literature, particularly regarding authentic documentation of how teachers work in child abuse and neglect and what knowledge they apply in this work. This study is a multimethod qualitative inquiry into teachers' work and knowledge in child abuse and neglect. The research was conducted in three phases. In phase one, early childhood teachers were invited to participate in research about their experiences of working with children with a history of abuse or neglect. Teachers from 207 different early childhood settings, in a geographical area with a recognised high incidence of child abuse and neglect were approached. No teachers were willing or able to participate in the research - they were silent. Phase two investigated the reasons for this silence by using interview and survey methods to ask the teachers and other professionals in the field, to explain why the teachers were silent. Fourteen key informants and 80 early childhood teachers' views are presented in this phase. Phase three returned the focus of the study to teachers' work and knowledge, and presents the voices of eight early childhood teachers who were willing and able to speak in detail about their work and knowledge in child abuse and neglect when they were approached from within common professional networks, in which there were established relationships of trust. Paradoxically, in this study there was silence and there were voices. Using critical theories, this study reveals that research into child abuse and neglect was problematic because it was perceived to be sensitive and potentially damaging. The research was disenabled (silenced) in ways which protect existing relations of power which, in turn, benefit from both the conservation of silences about child abuse and neglect among early childhood practitioners, and maintenance of the conditions under which this silence was produced. When the teachers spoke about their work and knowledge, it appeared that their actions in relation to child abuse and neglect did not accord directly with the role that the literature ascribes for them, but reflected the broader characteristics of effective early childhood teaching practice. Early childhood teachers' work, therefore, may not be recognised easily by those outside care and education as constituting legitimate prevention and intervention in child abuse and neglect, and this has consequences for how early childhood practitioners are perceived in the field. This research explains teachers' apparent marginal positioning in the field of child abuse and neglect. It proposes that a more accurate representation of teachers' work in the field should reflect the concept of multiple roles rather than a singular role. This research refutes notions of teachers as incompetent and unknowledgeable regarding child abuse and neglect, but recognises that they are often absent from, and invisible within, the collective of professionals working to stop and prevent it.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) and its consequences constitute a serious social issue in Aboriginal and other communities throughout the world. As a result, a number of influential psychological theories about sexual offending have been developed. These theories suggest that the early socialisation and developmental experiences of offenders are implicated in the onset, development and maintenance of sexual offending behaviour. While these theories suggest that culture is important for understanding such behaviour, their specific role has largely been ignored in the literature. Given the paucity of research in this area the aim of this study was to understand the perspectives of an Aboriginal community in Western Australia about the role of culture in CSA in their community, how this could inform the cultural dimension in existing psychological theories of sexual offending, and the implications of this for applying these theories with such sex offenders. During the first stage the researcher undertook semi-structured, in-depth interviews to collect data from 11 Aboriginal adult female and four adult male members from the community. A thematic analysis of the transcribed interview data identified five primary themes: Misusing Power; Surviving the System; Evolving Culture; Fear of Repercussions; and Avoiding Exposure. During the second stage the researcher presented her results to six people at a local Aboriginal community forum for their feedback, insights and refinement of the results. The same, but refined, themes were then presented to a group of five non-Aboriginal people who work with Aboriginal people in child protection and family counselling, for their feedback and insights. On the basis of all the feedback a sixth theme, Holding Aboriginal Law, was added. Aboriginal Law provides specific information, and sets out rules and expectations about Aboriginal people’s lives, kinship structures, cultural traditions, spiritual beliefs, and restricted ceremonial practices, traditional medicine, education and specialised training. Taken together the results of this study suggest the themes Misusing Power; Surviving the System and Holding Aboriginal Law are relevant to understanding the onset, development, maintenance and response to CSA, that Evolving Culture is relevant to understanding the development and maintenance of CSA, and Fear of Repercussions and Avoiding Exposure make an important contribution to understanding factors that maintain the commission of CSA in this community. An important finding of this study is that, whilst the misinterpretation of Aboriginal Law plays a role in the onset, development and maintenance of CSA, a sound knowledge of Aboriginal Law can be used to prevent CSA and to respond to it. Policy developers should therefore have a sound knowledge of Aboriginal Law and take it into account when developing policies. They should also consider developing policies that will create opportunities for Aboriginal people to connect with and enhance their understanding of Aboriginal Law. Assessors and professionals working with Aboriginal CSA offenders should likewise have a solid understanding of Aboriginal Law, and consider developing treatment modalities which will challenge Aboriginal offenders’ misconceptions about Aboriginal Law, and provide them with opportunities to develop a sound understanding of its values, principles and practices.

Clergy-perpetrated child sexual abuse has emerged as a critical issue on the global stage, demanding widespread public attention and encouraging scrutiny of institutions like the Roman Catholic Church. This thesis uses the theoretical framework of techniques of neutralisation to explore how the Roman Catholic Church as an institution responds to cases of clergy-perpetrated child sexual abuse, and how that response changes over time, through the examination of two case studies – the Ellis case, and the Foster Family case.

'In Two Minds' is a novel of false beliefs. Set in contemporary Sydney, it deals with the relationship between two sisters in their late thirties, Kara and Linda Hille. Told in the second person singular from the point of view of the elder sister, Linda, it is based around the neurological delusion of the younger sibling, Kara. Kara wrongly believes that their mother, Stella, has been replaced by an impostor, 'Mrs. Whitegloves'. For the greater part, the narrative 'you' relates events in the sisters' lives and deals with issues such as the consequences of condoned child abuse, the dilemma of human cloning and the future of 'the brand' in the light of contemporary global marketing. Linda, an advertising executive, struggles with a formidable work-project, an account that is lost to a competitor, and the mistaken belief that she is responsible for her sister's plight. Shocking graffiti about herself, which appears at the same time as she wins an advertising award, proves to be the catalyst that brings beneficial change to her life. Through the tragedy of confronting her sister's devastation and her own challenges, Linda leaves her job, believing this will allow her to start again - differently. In the final chapter, the difference is registered in a shift from the second person to the consolidated first person method of narration. ABSTRACT EXEGESIS The dissertation 'A Singular Voice' documents aspects of authorial, psychoanalytical and literary significance in the creation of a fiction which draws on personal material confrontational to the writer. It also discusses some wider (non-fictional and other) uses of the narrative 'you' in order to establish the literary tradition in which the novel 'In Two Minds' may be situated. This disseration examines the use of the second-person singular pronoun 'you' as narrator, mainly in contemporary fiction. It concentrates on the ways in which the narrative 'you' was employed to achieve a 'cover', mask or persona for the 'I' behind the text in the novel 'In Two Minds', and explains why it was necessary to seek such subterfuge. It describes how certain grammatical and rhetorical resources were used to build and maintain 'cover', while at the same time allowing the narrative 'you' to express a particular aspect of the fictional protagonist, address the reader, and sustain the story of which it is the intradiegetic narratee. Related narrative elements include construction of the characters through the use of the narrative 'you', for example the narcissistic mother, Stella; the phantom double, 'Mrs. Whitegloves'; the sufferer of Capgras' delusion, Kara; and the ultimate bearer of the singular 'you' voice, the protagonist Linda.

This research project asserts the primacy of creative practice as a key method of enquiry and explores how fictional stories, re-imagined from historical events of the mid-twentieth century, may provide different ways of viewing a world which was inhabited by once-silenced children, now known as the ‘forgotten Australians’. To this end, the thesis is made up of a creative component in the form of a book-length collection of short fiction that is accompanied by a critical component positioning the thesis contextually, theoretically and methodologically. The research reveals overwhelming evidence of a culture of endemic abuse within Australian child welfare organisations whereby harm was done to children in the context of policies and programmes that were designed to provide care and protection. During this era, ideologies underpinning community beliefs were patriarchal, conservative and insular. It was purported that children were ‘committed’ to imposing, regimentally run institutions ‘for their own good’. The project draws on sources from disciplines including history, psychology and literary studies, as the investigation exposes the blurred boundaries which exist between fiction and nonfiction; personal and social memory; official and unofficial narratives; knowing and not-knowing the past. In doing so, it argues that although there can be no single narrative of history, fictional narratives provide another conduit into stories from the past and have the potential to act as agents for social change.

This thesis explored how Australian courts have dealt with a recent surge in international parental child abductions by primary carer mothers escaping domestic violence perpetrated by their children’s father. This area of the law is governed by the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention, implemented by Australia in 1986. A selection of reported cases decided between 2005 and 2015 where the “Grave Risk of Harm” defence was raised by the mother was analysed. The conclusion was that Australian courts generally apply the Convention narrowly to all cases, even domestic violence cases, and that this approach can adversely affect abused women and children.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2009.
A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis focuses on disclosure of sexual abuse by men who were sexually abused either as children or adolescents. The research questions that it set out to answer were 'why and how do males in Australia disclose to another person that they have been sexually abused?' Aims were to understand disclosure from the perspective of male survivors in Australia, identify the factors that inhibit, trigger and facilitate disclosure, and develop a theory of disclosure reflecting the processes involved.

The centrepoint of this thesis is an action research project, the Maternal Alienation Project (MAP), implemented during 2002 and 2003 in Adelaide, South Australia. Resourced by two government-funded community health services, it was established to improve organisations’ (health, welfare and legal) and systems’ responses to the newly termed ‘maternal alienation’. MAP was situated within a tradition of feminist participatory and action research. It was designed to work on three levels: practice, systems and policy-making, and research. The outcomes, processes and events of MAP at the different levels of its operation are examined in the thesis through the employment of a gendered analysis drawn mainly from materialist feminism and standpoint theories. Post-project interviews and focus groups provided further data to the fieldnotes written throughout MAP, and the project’s formal and informal documents. A recent example of a contested gendered concept, “maternal alienation” was first identified and named in 1999 as a component of gender violence (Morris 1999). It forms part of a spectrum of violence perpetrated in households, and had been identified within domestic violence and child sexual abuse. It is a term for the range of tactics used by mainly male perpetrators, predominantly the mothers’ intimate partners and the children’s fathers or step-fathers, to deliberately undermine the relationship between mothers and their children. The mother-blaming discourses and degrading constructions of mothers conveyed to children and those in the family’s orbit are strongly related to wider socio-cultural constructions of women and mothers. The thesis examines theories of gender, gendered organisations and gender violence. It develops the concept of an abusive household gender regime, characterised by perpetrators’ imposition of a coercive and abusive regime on household members, and particular patternings of gendered relations. Comparisons are made between household and organisational gender regimes, which are also viewed in relation to the local gender order at the time of MAP. It was found that services that lack an analysis of gender are likely to re-inscribe the dynamics of maternal alienation in their responses to families. Language was found to play a significant part in addressing maternal alienation, particularly in developing congruence between language and women’s and children’s “lived” experiences. The principles that were developed were founded on supporting mothers and rebuilding their relationships with children, and making visible the tactics employed by perpetrators, thereby reducing their power to coerce and increasing their accountability. The concept of maternal alienation and MAP itself were attacked by a coalition of men’s rights and Christian Right lobbyists. This compromised the operations of MAP, and of its key supporters, managers of feminist and gender-aware organisations. In many ways these attacks, played out at a macro level, reflected the techniques and dynamics of maternal alienation at a micro level. This thesis raises questions about the strategies that feminist organisations need to develop to more effectively pursue feminist agendas, and to re-invigorate a women’s movement.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2008

Addendum and errata are pasted in onto back end papers & back pages.
Copy of author's previously published article inserted.
Bibliography: leaves 451-466.
466 leaves ; 30 cm.
Deals with two issues: (1) teacher's implementation and utilisation of a personal safety program in South Australia (the Protective Behaviours program) and (2) what children learn about personal safety by participating in the program.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychiatry, 1996

In 2003 a panic was created about the introduction of a new model of sex education in South Australia known as the Sexual Health and Relationships Education (SHARE) project. This thesis explores the particular circumstances and conditions that enabled the SHARE project to emerge as a public problem in South Australia in 2003. It does this through analyzing the similarities and differences between the campaign against SHARE and others that have taken place against sex education in Australia and the US since the 1980s in terms of the organisations involved, the strategies used and the fears/moral panics invoked and evoked. I use the controversy created against the SHARE project as a starting point, not only to produce an historical account of a particular event in sex education in Australia but also to contribute to an understanding of the power dynamics that govern sexuality locally and in a broader global context. The methodological approach used in this thesis includes an analysis of ‘local discursivities’ relating to the SHARE project and the genealogy of those discourses. Following Foucault and queer and feminist applications of his work, the thesis particularly explores how discourses relating to ‘homosexuality’ and ‘child abuse’ were deployed in the campaign against the SHARE project. The thesis then identifies alternative discourses and approaches that can strengthen sex education programs in Australia based on the lessons learnt from the campaign against the SHARE project. To assist my analysis of the controversy about the SHARE project interviews were conducted with other educators who have produced sex education resources in Australia. These revealed that while there has been some opposition to sex education in Australia over the last 20 years this has not been well organised or sustained. The campaign against the SHARE project therefore represents a unique event in the history of sex education in Australia. The thesis argues that one major contributing factor to this event is the strengthening of the relationship between conservative political parties and evangelical activist groups in Australia and their use of tactics and materials developed by Christian Right groups in the United States. The thesis analyses the implications of this religious activism within the context of current Australian politics and assesses whether the ‘family values’ discourse, which was central to the controversy created about the SHARE project, is positioned any differently as a result of the recent changes in political leadership in Australia and the United States.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2010

Over the past 20 years, child sexual abuse has been recognized as a significant social problem in both Australia and other countries worldwide. In response to this increased concern, many preventive initiatives have been developed. Prevention programs in Australia have mainly focused on children in school settings and their teachers, with few programs targeting parents and other caregivers. Parents' role in prevention is critical as they are the primary protectors of children. However, there has been little Australian research to explore the issues and challenges faced by parents/caregivers as they manage the risk of child sexual abuse. The aim of this research is to identify the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of parents and primary caregivers in Australia that influence their management of this risk. This research also explores the ways in which parents access support, information and education on issues related to child sexuality and child sexual abuse. For this research, qualitative interviews with Australian parents of children aged 5-15 years were conducted using the Grounded Theory approach developed by Strauss and Corbin (1998), with each stage of sampling being analysed and used to inform subsequent stages of sampling and interviewing. The outcome of this research was the development of a theory which explains the ways in which parents manage the risk of sexual abuse to their children. The central theme of this theory is balance, reflecting the challenge faced by parents in balancing social relationships when the sexual boundaries of their children were crossed by another person. The theme is also reflected in the challenge parents face when providing their children with sufficient information to protect the children without frightening them. Findings from the research inform a number of recommendations for policy and practice aimed at preventing child sexual abuse. The development of alternatives to formal reporting when child sexual abuse is suspected was identified as important by parents in this study. Recommendations are made for programs which develop parental skills and knowledge in areas such as: the subtleness of grooming behaviours; the use of language that empowers children without scaring them; how to initiate child sexual abuse prevention discussions with their children; developing general communication skills; and developing strategies beyond relying on children to disclose.

This study investigates the relationship between workers' conceptualization of child sexual abuse and their handling of such cases, using a questionnaire to elicit usual case management, and an interview employing vignettes and controversial statements to examine the goals of, and the attitudes behind, case management strategies. The subjects of this research are 60 professionals from agencies in Canberra which deal with child sexual abuse - police, welfare, community health centres, mental health teams, schools and a group of non-government community agencies. The study focusses on intrafami1ial child sexual abuse , being the dominant type, and having quite different dynamics from sexual abuse of children by adults outside of the family unit. Child sexual abuse was originally conceptualized as a form of child maltreatment, as cases first came to notice in investigations of other forms of child maltreatment - notably physical abuse. More recently, some writers have included intrafami1ial child sexual abuse under the rubric of domestic violence, along with 'wife bashing' and marital rape - all three being seen as an attempt at perpetuation of the traditional patriarchal pattern, and as symptoms of the much described 'crisis' of the family. The effects of such disparate conceptualizations on the intervention strategies adopted by different professional groups, and by different agencies in Canberra, highlights the need for a consensus of approach, not only between different agencies, but by different professional groups working for the same agency. The result of a preliminary study of the incidence of reported child sexual abuse throughout Australia is included in this report, along with discussion of the status of national data collection, and possible reasons for the lack of progress so far. An 'Involvement Index', developed in this study, holds promise as an instrument for comparing the commitment and experience levels of professionals from different agencies, whose roles in dealing with child sexual abuse necessitate working in quite different ways. This study shows that, although child sexual abuse is acknowledged as a serious social problem by workers from all agencies sampled in Canberra, exposure of workers to these cases varies considerably amongst agencies, with doctors and community nurses seeing few cases, and police, welfare and mental health workers, and staff from non-governmental community agencies, being heavily involved. The implications of these findings are discussed, in relation to the introduction of the proposed new Child Welfare Ordinance (ACT).