Executive Summary
This is the final report of a mixed method research project aimed to support the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Royal Commission) in better understanding the life journeys of victim/survivors of child sexual abuse within institutions. ("Institutions," in this report, refers to "any public or private body, agency, association, club, institution, organisation or other entity or group of entities of any kind"). The research was conducted by the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and staff members of the Royal Commission.
Aims
The aim of the research was to better understand the experience of victims/survivors of institutional child sexual abuse over their life course, using qualitative and quantitative information gathered from private sessions. In particular, the Royal Commission was interested in better understanding differences in victims’ experience across three periods in history (prior to 1970; 1970 to 1989; 1990 to 2015) in terms of:
- the nature of the abuse they experienced
- their experience of disclosure (by the victim or by others)
- their experience of victim and family support mechanisms
- the relationship between abuse and wellbeing through the life course.
