bipacsa_final_report

1.2 Terminology
The focus of this Inquiry has been on the Aboriginal
peoples of the Northern Territory. The Inquiry does not
attempt to address the issues facing Aboriginal people or
Torres Strait Islanders residing in other parts of Australia,
although the findings are likely to have relevance. Thus,
when discussing issues or data relating to Australia’s
Indigenous peoples as a whole, the term, “Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islanders”, will be used. However, the
term, “Aboriginal”, will be used to refer to the Northern
Territory’s Aboriginal communities who are the subject
of this Inquiry.
For the purposes of this report, a “child“ is defined as
a person below the age of 18 years, as specified in the
Northern Territory Community Welfare Act and consistent
with the Northern Territory Criminal Code.
Defining “child sexual abuse”
In section 3(e) of the Community Welfare Act, “sexual
abuse” is defined very broadly as where:
he or she has been sexually abused or exploited,
or where there is substantial risk of such abuse
or exploitation occurring, and his or her parents,
guardians or persons having the custody of him or
her are unable or unwilling to protect him or her from
such abuse or exploitation.
A better definition was provided by the Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare (Angus & Hall 1996;
Broadbent & Bentley 1997), where child sexual abuse
was defined as:
any act which exposes a child to, or involves a child
in, sexual processes beyond his or her understanding or
contrary to accepted community standards.
Broader definition
How child abuse and neglect is conceptualised
and defined will determine policy and practice
responses (Goddard 1996). The present framework for
understanding child abuse and neglect is located within
the white Western world, where the vast majority of
research has taken place (Goddard 1996).
Within this framework, Kempe and Kempe produced a
widely used definition of child sexual abuse:
Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle “Little Children are Sacred”
the involvement of dependent, developmentally
immature children and adolescents in sexual activities
that they do not fully comprehend, to which they are
unable to give informed consent, or that violate the
social taboos of family roles (1978:60).
The importance of the definition lies in the
acknowledgment of the limitations of children to give
truly informed consent. Put simply, child sexual abuse
is the use of a child for sexual gratification by an adult
or significantly older child/adolescent. It may involve
activities ranging from:
• exposing the child to sexually explicit materials
or sexual behaviour
• taking visual images of the child for pornographic
purposes
• touching, fondling and/or masturbation of the child,
or having the child touch, fondle or masturbate
the abuser
• oral sex performed by the child, or on the child by
the abuser
• anal or vaginal penetration of the child (or making
a child engage in sexual penetration of the others)
(Tomison 1995).
Incest, on the other hand, has become progressively more
constrained, to the extent that it refers specifically to the
societal taboo of intercourse between immediate family
members (Goddard & Carew 1993).
Child sexual abuse has been further classified by some
academics and practitioners as sexual exploitation,
which involves touching the child and/or compelling the
child to observe, or be involved in, other sexual activity
(e.g. watching pornographic videos); sexual assault,
molestation, victimisation, and child rape.
Some (e.g. the Victorian Parliamentary Crime Prevention
Committee Report on Child Sexual Abuse, 1995)
recommended that child sexual abuse be referred to
as “child sexual assault” rather than by terms such as
“harm”, “injury”, or “abuse”. The report noted the term
“child sexual assault” would highlight the true nature of
the offence, avoid minimisation of the abusive acts and
compel or force the “abuse” to be considered as a criminal
assault and treated as such from the beginning of any
investigation of the abusive concerns.