Reconceptualising Child Sexual Assault in the 1980s

Featherstone, Lisa

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-73310-0_7

Lisa Featherstone⁴

Part of the book series: World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence ((WHCCV))

422 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter explores the explosion of interest in child sexual abuse that occurred in the 1980s, across governments, the criminal justice sector, medicine and the mainstream media. It was a period of heightened awareness, including emerging concerns over homosexual men and organised paedophile networks. Most commentators increasingly understood child sexual abuse within a trauma model. Nonetheless, practical support remained difficult to access, and by the end of the decade there was a ‘backlash’ which included considerable critique of a victim-centred approach. The 1980s was a decade of transformation, but also of apathy and resistance to change.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic

EUR 32.99 /Month

Get 10 units per month
Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
Cancel anytime

Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter: EUR 29.95; Price includes VAT (Germany)

eBook: EUR 96.29; Price includes VAT (Germany)

Softcover Book: EUR 128.39; Price includes VAT (Germany)

Hardcover Book: EUR 128.39; Price includes VAT (Germany)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
Paul Wilson, The Man They Called a Monster: Sexual Experiences Between Men and Boys (North Ryde, NSW: Cassell Australia, 1981), cited at https://www.ipce.info/host/wilson/ch_6.htm, 4 August 2017.
2.
‘The Secret Public Service Inquiry’, Courier Mail, 10 December 1984.
3.
‘The Secret Public Service Inquiry’, Courier Mail, 10 December 1984.
4.
Wilson, The Man They Called a Monster.
5.
Wilson, The Man They Called a Monster.
6.
Andrew Kos, ‘Queensland Criminologist Paul Wilson Found Guilty on Child Sex Charges’, ABC News, 23 November 2016, www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-23/queensland-criminologist-paul-wilson-guilty-child-sex-offences/8051180.
7.
Andrew Kos, ‘Paul Wilson Sentencing: Attitudes Toward Child Sex Offending “Different in the 1970s”’, Defence Lawyer Says’, ABC News, 24 November, 2016, www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-24/queensland-criminologist-paul-wilson-sentence-child-sex-offences/8053398.
8.
Taken from statistics in Department of Family and Community Services, ‘The Profile of Child Abuse and Neglect in NSW’, Child Abuse and Neglect Programme, Paper No. 2 (1989), 3.
9.
New South Wales Government, Report of the NSW Child Sexual Assault Task Force, March 1985 (]\: Government Printer, 1985), 1, 15.
10.
Family Law Council, Child Sexual Abuse Report September 1988 (Canberra: Commonwealth Government, 1988), 3.
11.
See for example, H. M. North, ‘On the Management of the Juvenile Sex Offender’, Medical Journal of Australia (MJA), 28 April 1956, 686.
12.
Report of the NSW Child Sexual Assault Task Force, 16.
13.
E. A. Mulligan, Mothers Speak Out on Child Sexual Abuse (South Australia: Southern Women’s Health and Community Centre, 1986), 2–4.
14.
New South Wales Department of Health, ‘Child Sexual Assault Centres, 1987 Statistics’, Health Services Information Bulletin 10 (1988): 14.
15.
See, for example, the very detailed study of cases that went to trial in NSW in 1984, Alix Goodwin, Child Sexual Assault: The Court Response (Sydney: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, 1989), 16.
16.
Edie Carter, Aboriginal Women Speak Out About Rape and Child Sexual Abuse (Adelaide: Adelaide Rape Crisis Centre, 1987). On sexual assault on Indigenous children, see amongst others Pam Greer with Jan Breckenridge, ‘“They Throw the Rule Book Away”: Sexual Assault in Aboriginal Communities’, in Crimes of Violence: Australian Responses to Rape and Child Sexual Assault, ed. Jan Breckenridge and Moira Carmody (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1992), 189–195; Judy Atkinson, Trauma Trails: Recreating Song Lines (Melbourne: Spinifex, 2002); Hannah McGlade, Our Greatest Challenge: Aboriginal Children and Human Rights (Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2012).
17.
The interviewer was given a list of 647 addresses from the Aboriginal Funded Unit, and she chose to approach 200 households from the list at random. She introduced herself as a worker at the Rape Crisis Centre, and members of 120 households agreed to be interviewed in person, with a questionnaire filled out. Edie Carter, Aboriginal Women Speak Out.
18.
Carter, Aboriginal Women Speak Out, 16.
19.
Carter, Aboriginal Women Speak Out, 27.
20.
Carter, Aboriginal Women Speak Out, 31.
21.
Adelaide Rape Crisis Centre, Child Sexual Abuse: A Report Based on the Adelaide Rape Crisis Centre Incest Phone In, March 1983 (Adelaide: Minister for Health, 1984) 63.
22.
See amongst many others, Derryn Hinch, ‘Saving 2,000 Youngsters’, The Sun-Herald, 21 July 1985; ‘It’s Evil’, The Sun, 5 July 1985; ‘Teacher Admits to 2000 Sex Attacks’, Daily Mirror, 5 July 1985.
23.
In the terminology of the day, intrafamilial sexual abuse was termed ‘incest’. While now the term ‘incest’ might refer to both non-consensual sexual abuse and consensual sex between adult relatives, in the 1980s it was understood as the sexual assault of a child. In this chapter I have used the 1980s definition, drawing on the primary sources.
24.
Adelaide Rape Crisis Centre, Child Sexual Abuse, 34.
25.
NSW Department of Health, ‘Child Sexual Assault Centres, 1987 Statistics’, 21.
26.
Women’s Liberation House Collective, Open Letter to Ita Buttrose, June 1980, 2.
27.
Cathy Waldby, Breaking the Silence: A Report Based Upon the Findings of the Women Against Incest Phone-in Survey (Haberfield, NSW: Women Against Incest, c1985), 47.
28.
Adelaide Rape Crisis Centre, Child Sexual Abuse, 41.
29.
‘Incest—The Hidden Crime You Want Brought into the Open’, Australian Women’s Weekly (AWW), 30 April 1980, 16-25.
30.
Waldby, Breaking the Silence, 32–33.
31.
Adelaide Rape Crisis Centre, Child Sexual Abuse, 37; Carol O’Donnell and Jan Craney, ‘Incest and the Reproduction of the Patriarchal Family’, in Family Violence in Australia, eds. Carol O’Donnell and Jan Craney (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1982), 159.
32.
Rosemary Munday, ‘Rape: The Victims’, AWW, 3 May 1978, 18; Brian Bolton, ‘Mr Nice Guy’, Sunday Sun, 18 October 1981.
33.
Waldby, Breaking the Silence, 33; Adelaide Rape Crisis Centre, Child Sexual Abuse, 28-32; ‘Understanding Child Abuse’, Advertiser (Geelong), 12 May 1982.
34.
Carter, Aboriginal Women Speak Out, 33; ‘Sex Victims’, Daily News, 31 July 1985; ‘Sex Abuse Victims “Hidden”’, Courier Mail, 29 July 1988; ‘Many Boys are Abused’, The Courier (Ballarat), 10 February 1986. See also Jenny Marsh, Step** Out: Incest Info for Girls (Sydney: Millenium Books 1988), 7.
35.
Waldby, Breaking the Silence, 44. See also Ian W. Heath, Incest: A Crime Against Children (Melbourne: Director of Public Prosecutions, 1985), 64; ‘Sex Victims’, Daily News, 31 July 1985.
36.
New South Wales Child Sexual Abuse Task Force, Community Consultation Paper (Sydney, NSW: Government Printer 1984), 6; ‘Sexual Abuse of Children’, The Advertiser, 20 July 1985.
37.
NSW Child Sexual Abuse Task Force, Community Consultation Paper, 6.
38.
NSW Child Sexual Abuse Task Force, Community Consultation Paper, 21.
39.
‘Sexual Abuse: Could your child be a victim?’, Woman’s Day, 2 December 1985.
40.
NSW Child Sexual Abuse Task Force, Community Consultation Paper, 2.
41.
NSW Department of Health, ‘Child Sexual Assault Centres, 1987 Statistics’, 3. One centre at Blacktown Hospital was closed in 1986.
42.
NSW Department of Health, ‘Child Sexual Assault Centres, 1987 Statistics’, 5.
43.
Waldby, Breaking the Silence, 49.
44.
NSW Child Sexual Abuse Task Force, Community Consultation Paper, 12; Lesley Hewitt, Child Sexual Assault Discussion Paper (Melbourne: L Hewitt, 1986), 111–118.
45.
Waldby, Breaking the Silence, 5.
46.
Waldby, Breaking the Silence, 10; Hewitt, Child Sexual Assault Discussion Paper, 44.
47.
New South Wales Department of Health, Sexual Assault Services: Service Development and Activity Report 1986-7 (Sydney: Department of Health, 1987), 14.
48.
NSW Department of Health, Sexual Assault Services Report, 15.
49.
‘Major Child Abuse Unit’, The Courier Mail, 20 June 1985.
50.
‘CSV “Can’t Handle Child Abuse”’, The Age, 12 August 1988.
51.
Children’s Protection Act Amendment Act (No 49 of 1969) (SA).
52.
Child Protection Act 1974 (Tas); Child Protection Amendment Act 1986 (Tas).
53.
Child Welfare Amendment Act 1977 (NSW); Children (Care and Protection) Act 1987 (NSW).
54.
Health Act Amendment Act 1980 (Qld); Child Protection Amendment Act 2000 (Qld).
55.
See Ben Mathews, ‘Mandatory Reporting Laws for Child Sexual Abuse in Australia: A Legislative History’, Report for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Sydney: Commonwealth of Australia, 2014), 8–10.
56.
Ferry Grunseit, ‘Child Abuse’, MJA, 26 November 1983, 527.
57.
Ferry Grunseit, ‘Silence on Child Abuse Alleged’, Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), 25 September 1980.
58.
Robert Adler, ‘Doctors and the Sexually Abused Child’, MJA, 6 October 1986, 305; Grunseit, ‘Child Abuse’, 527.
59.
Helen R. Winefield and Sally N. Castell-McGregor, ‘Experiences and Views of General Practitioners’, MJA, 6 October 1986, 312.
60.
Winefield and Castell-McGregor, ‘Experiences and Views of General Practitioners’, 285; NSW Department of Health, ‘Child Sexual Assault Centres, 1987 Statistics’, 25.
61.
Munday, ‘Rape: The Victims’, 18; Dr T. Donnell, ‘Sexual Abuse’, in Interdisciplinary Conference on Child Neglect and Abuse, 14 to 28 September 1980: Conference Papers (Sydney: Department of Youth and Community Services and Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education, 1980), 283.
62.
RW Medlicott, ‘Parent-Child Incest’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 1 (1967): 180. See also discussion of social workers in Beth Pengally, ‘A Feminist Critique of the Idea of Incest as a Product of the Dysfunctional Family’, in Incest and the Community: Australian Perspectives (Perth: Centre for Western Australian History, UWA 1991), 184–197.
63.
Dorothy Scott, ‘Incest—A Matter of Models’, Australian Social Work 36:4 (1983): 27.
64.
Lisa Featherstone and Andy Kaladelfos, ‘Hierarchies of Harm and Violence: Historicising Familial Sexual Violence in Australia’, Australian Feminist Studies 29:81 (2014): 306–324.
65.
Brian James Fotheringham, Report to the Minister of Community Welfare In South Australia on the Sexual Abuse of Children (Adelaide: Department of Community Welfare, 1981), 20; see also Family Law Council, Child Sexual Abuse Report, September 1988 (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1988), 5.
66.
‘Child Sex Abuse “Ignored by Police”’, The Mercury, 5 February 1986.
67.
‘Child Sex Abuse “Ignored by Police”’, The Mercury, 5 February 1986; Brian Bolton, ‘Mr Nice Guy’, Sunday Sun, 18 October 1981; Jacqueline Rees, ‘Problem of the Violent Family’, Bulletin, 26 February, 1980; ‘“Stranger Danger” Warning Fails’, Courier-Mail, 10 July 1985.
68.
Organised Criminal Paedophile Activity: A Report by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority (Canberra: Commonwealth Government, 1995).
69.
Mary de Young, ‘The Indignant Page: Techniques of Neutralization in the Publications of Paedophile Organisations’, Child Abuse and Neglect 12 (1988): 583–91. See also examples including Tom O’Carroll, Paedophilia: The Radical Case (London: Peter Owen, 1980).
70.
As asserted in Organised Criminal Paedophile Activity Report, 3.6–3.9. There is forthcoming work from Yorick Smaal and myself on this.
71.
Organised Criminal Paedophile Activity Report, 3.10.
72.
The use of this slogan was reported in the press, including Tony Koch, ‘Child Rapes Unreported, Say Police’, Courier Mail, 2 July 1984; Fiona McGill, ‘Victims of Secret Vice’, Daily Telegraph, 10 July 1984.
73.
‘Mr ‘W’, 64, Tells Why He is a Paedophile’, The Age, 2 July 1984.
74.
‘Paedophiles: We Love Children’, SMH, 1 November 1987, 3.
75.
‘Paedophiles: We Love Children’, SMH, 1 November 1987, 3.
76.
Brett Wright, ‘Child-Sex Task Force Snared in Legal Web’, The Age, 2 July 1984; ‘Deeds, Not Words, Are the Crime’, Age, 11 July 1984. Soon after, this charge was removed from the legislation.
77.
‘The Paedophile Paradox’, The Age, 1 March 1989.
78.
Brett Wright, ‘Child-Sex Task Force Snared in Legal Web’, The Age, 2 July 1984.
79.
Claude Forell, ‘Deeds, Not Words, Are the Crime’, Age, 11 July 1984. See for example Letter to the Editor, Andrew Cornish (tutor in Legal Studies, La Trobe University), The Age, 7 July 1984.
80.
Claude Forell, ‘Deeds, Not Words, Are the Crime’, Age, 11 July 1984.
81.
Claude Forell, ‘Deeds, Not Words, Are the Crime’, Age, 11 July 1984.
82.
‘Child Abusers Leave a Grim Trail’, The Sun, 11 January 1986.
83.
‘The Men of Evil Who Prey on Children’, Courier Mail, 10 December 1984.
84.
‘Shock Over Reports of Child Abuse’, Post-Times, 26 February 1985.
85.
‘Our Kids and Pornography’, News (Geelong), 2 December 1982.
86.
See amongst others ‘Man on 156 Sex Charges’, The Sun, 30 June 1989.
87.
‘Protest’, The Australian, July 10 1989; ‘Outrage over “Baldy”’, The Sun, July 10 1989.
88.
See amongst many, ‘Children “Exorcised”’, The Border Mail, 5 July 1989.
89.
Dan Morrison, ‘Snide Story of Paedophiles’, Letter to the Editor, Clarion, 4 July 1984.
90.
Dan Morrison, ‘Snide Story of Paedophiles’.
91.
See Steven Angelides, ‘The Homosexualization of Pedophilia: The Case of Alison Thorne and the Australia Pedophile Support Group’, in Homophobias: Lust and Loathing Across Time and Space, ed. David Murray (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), 64–81.
92.
‘Homosexual Rally Draws Police Attention to Child-Sex Forum’, Age, 2 July 1984.
93.
‘“Gay” Conference a Misuse of University’s Facilities’, Courier Mail, 31 August 1984.
94.
See for example Andrew Landsdown, ‘Pedophile Liberation and the Radical Homosexuals’, Quadrant (September 1984): 47–53.
95.
See for example Betty Hounslow, ‘Their Struggle is Our Struggle: A Feminist View’, Gay Information 14-15 (1984): 63–4.
96.
Graham Willett, ‘Roger Moody: Talks out about Man/Boy Love’, Gay Community News (GCN) 4:5 (1982): 26. Archives of Sexuality & Gender, http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/5mWYuX. Accessed 12 Jan. 2018.
97.
Adam Carr, ‘Delta Squad’s “Child Sex Ring,”’ Outrage, December/January 1984–1984, 6
; Danny Vadasz, ‘Court Dumps Delta’, Outrage, 14 June 1984, 5.
98.
Garry Dowsett, ‘Monsters or Mentors’, Outrage, 2 May 1983.
99.
Willett, ‘Roger Moody: Talks out About Man/Boy Love’, 27.
100.
William Ward, ‘The Issues Behind the Delta Trials’, Outrage, 14 June 1984, 36.
101.
Adam Carr, ‘Paedophilia: Where to From Here’, GCN, 4:1 (1982): 36.
102.
See, for example, Emu Nugent, ‘The Raid on the Pedophile Support Group’, Gay Information 14–15 (1984): 58.
103.
Carr, ‘Paedophilia: Where to From Here’, 35. See also Bill Beaumont, ‘On Boys with Men’, Gay Information 12 (1982–3): 53.
104.
Beaumont, ‘On Boys with Men’, 53.
105.
‘Homosexual Rally Draws Police Attention to Child-Sex Forum’, Age, 2 July 1984.
106.
Bill Beaumont, ‘On Boys with Men’, Gay Information 12 (1982-3): 54.
107.
‘Gays Slam Gross Act’, Truth, 24 March 1984.
108.
‘Bid to Stop Gay Meeting’, Telegraph, 30 August 1984.
109.
See Shirleene Robinson, ‘Homophobia as Party Politics: The Construction of the ‘Homosexual Deviant’ in Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s Queensland’, Queensland Review, 17:1 (2010): 35–6.
110.
‘Boycott by Locals’, Courier Mail, 31 August 1984. See also ‘Bid to Stop Gay Meeting’, Telegraph, 30 August 1984.
111.
‘Joh Blasts Gays’, Australian, 8 August 1984.
112.
Tony Koch, ‘Uproar Over Homosexual Conference’, Courier Mail, 31 August 1984.
113.
Shirleene Robinson, ‘Homophobia as Party Politics’, 36.
114.
‘Joh Blasts Gays’, Australian, 8 August 1984.
115.
‘Freedom Undefiled’, Sunday Mail, 2 September 1984.
116.
Heath, Incest: A Crime Against Children, 18.
117.
Adelaide Rape Crisis Centre, Child Sexual Abuse, 17; Report of the Child Sexual Abuse Task Force, 9; ‘Praise for Child Abuse Inquiry’, Weekend News (Perth), 17 January, 1981; Jocelynne Scutt, ‘Forward’, in Adelaide Rape Crisis Centre, ii. See also Heath, Incest: A Crime Against Children, 1; ‘Victim’s Plea’, Daily News, 21 August 1985.
118.
‘Sexual Abuse: Could Your Child be a Victim?’, Woman’s Day, 2 December 1985.
119.
See Philip Jenkins, Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain (New York: Walter de Gruyter Inc, 1992), 133–150.
120.
‘Let’s Avoid the Witch-Hunts’, Sun-Herald, 17 July 1988.
121.
‘A Confused World’, The Age, 22 June 1988. See also ‘Hazards’, The Age, 15 June 1988.
122.
‘The Secret Crime’, The Weekend Australian, 2-3 July 1988.
123.
See also ‘Parents Cry Foul’, The Weekend Australian, 2–3 July 1988.
124.
‘Child Honesty’, Daily Sun (Brisbane), 23 July 1985.
125.
Patrick Parkinson, ‘The Child Sexual Abuse Controversy’, in Family Law, Child Sexual Abuse and The Family Court (Sydney: University of Sydney Law School, 1989), 2.
126.
Parkinson, ‘The Child Sexual Abuse Controversy’, 2.
127.
Parkinson, ‘The Child Sexual Abuse Controversy’, 1.
128.
‘Allegations Against Child Sex Abuse Centre’, The Advertiser, 4 July 1988.
129.
‘Rage at Abuse Article’, The Australian, 9 June 1988.
130.
‘Half of Child Sex Claims Not True’, The Herald, 15 June 1988.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Lisa Featherstone

Authors

Lisa Featherstone
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lisa Featherstone .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Featherstone, L. (2021). Reconceptualising Child Sexual Assault in the 1980s. In: Sexual Violence in Australia, 1970s–1980s. World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73310-0_7

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73310-0_7
Published: 29 July 2021
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-73309-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-73310-0
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics