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Demanding a tailored approach to preventing and intervening with different forms

Proposal Summary

There has been a growing trend of referring to “family and sexual violence” but sexual violence perpetrated against adults and children must not be addressed in the same way.

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There has been a growing trend of referring to “family and sexual violence” as a collective issue, when this flattens a range of (often interconnected) varied forms of violence: non-sexual forms of violence in a family and domestic setting, as well as sexual violence against adults, and sexual violence against children. This is a problem because each of these injustices require unique prevention and intervention strategies, and so therefore the government must commit to better defining and using these terms, as well as tackling each of them separately (as part of wider, holistic efforts).

Australian Childhood Foundation is concerned that conceptual slippage is occurring within the government’s response to what it often refers to as “family and sexual violence”. Other, non-sexual forms of violence against adults – often women – and children require different prevention and intervention strategies as compared to sexual violence. Additionally and critically, sexual violence perpetrated against adults and children must not be addressed in the same way, as these issues come with significant distinctions. The Foundation is particularly concerned that children are being lost in this conceptual slippage. 

Conor Pall is a young person with lived experience of family violence advocating for change, who expresses this issue by referring to children and young people as often ignored “invisible victims”, often not considered victims in their “own right”. 

Child sexual abuse is common, with 28.5% of Australians experiencing this form of abuse according to the Australian Child Maltreatment Study. We know sexual abuse against adults is also very common, with change to reduce the rate of abuse not changing fast enough for either population of people. Therefore, we advocate that the government ensure the issue of child and adult sexual abuse are differentiated in policy and funding, so that the needs of both groups are visible, clearly acknowledged and responded to. 

This proposal is one that can and should coexist alongside other proposals which Sexual Assault Services Victoria may advocate for.

• Child sexual exploitation and abuse
• Sexual violence in the context of family violence