Browsing by Author "Mathews, B."
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Item Child sexual abuse and access to justice for civil claims: Reform of statutes of limitation in Canada, the USA and Australia(Australian Centre for Health Law Research, 2016) Mathews, B.2016 ISPCAN presentationItem Child sexual abuse and access to justice for civil claims: time to reform the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld)(Australian Centre for Health Law Research, 2015) Mathews, B.Fundamentally, this issue is about people’s right of access to the justice system. Changing the law to remove the time limit for these cases merely provides survivors with the chance to have their claim heard in court – it does not guarantee success. It is a fundamental tenet of a liberal democracy that people who suffer injury should be able to obtain access to the justice system to seek compensation for their injury and hold offenders accountable.Item Mandatory Reporting Laws and Identification of Child Abuse and Neglect: Consideration of Differential Maltreatment Types, and a Cross-Jurisdictional Analysis of Child Sexual Abuse Reports(Social Sciences, 2014) Mathews, B.Mandatory reporting laws have been created in many jurisdictions as a way of identifying cases of severe child maltreatment on the basis that cases will otherwise remain hidden. These laws usually apply to all four maltreatment types. Other jurisdictions have narrower approaches supplemented by differential response systems, and others still have chosen not to enact mandatory reporting laws for any type of maltreatment. In scholarly research and normative debates about mandatory reporting laws and their effects, the four major forms of child maltreatment—physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect—are often grouped together as if they are homogenous in nature, cause, and consequence. Yet, the heterogeneity of maltreatment types, and different reporting practices regarding them, must be acknowledged and explored when considering what legal and policy frameworks are best suited to identify and respond to cases. A related question which is often conjectured upon but seldom empirically explored, is whether reporting laws make a difference in case identification. This article first considers different types of child abuse and neglect, before exploring the nature and operation of mandatory reporting laws in different contexts. It then posits a differentiation thesis, arguing that different patterns of reporting between both reporter groups and maltreatment types must be acknowledged and analysed, and should inform discussions and assessments of optimal approaches in law, policy and practice. Finally, to contribute to the evidence base required to inform discussion, this article conducts an empirical cross-jurisdictional comparison of the reporting and identification of child sexual abuse in jurisdictions with and without mandatory reporting, and concludes that mandatory reporting laws appear to be associated with better case identification.Item A model law for the mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse in England and Wales: Submission to the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse(Queensland University of Technology, 2020) Mathews, B.The England and Wales Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is chaired by Professor Alexis Jay OBE. It was established in July 2014 in response to concerns that some organisations had failed and were continuing to fail to protect children from sexual abuse. The Chair and Panel of IICSA make recommendations to better protect children from sexual abuse which arise directly from their findings. Amongst a range of potential reforms, the Chair and Panel are considering the merits of a recommendation to consider the introduction of a duty to report child sexual abuse; namely a mandatory reporting law in child protection legislation. The author of this Model law delivered two invited presentations to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in 2019, on the nature and impact of these laws, and the merits of a mandatory reporting law for child sexual abuse in child protection legislation.Item Optimising implementation of reforms to better prevent and respond to child sexual abuse in institutions: Insights from public health, regulatory theory, and Australia’s Royal Commission(Child Abuse & Neglect, 2017) Mathews, B.The Australian Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has identified multiple systemic failures to protect children in government and non-government organizations providing educational, religious, welfare, sporting, cultural, arts and recreational activities. Its recommendations for reform will aim to ensure organizations adopt more effective and ethical measures to prevent, identify and respond to child sexual abuse. However, apart from the question of what measures institutions should adopt, an under-explored question is how to implement and regulate those measures. Major challenges confronting reform include the diversity of organizations providing services to children; organizational resistance; and the need for effective oversight. Failure to adopt theoretically sound strategies to overcome implementation barriers will jeopardize reform and compromise reduction of institutional child sexual abuse. This article first explains the nature of the Royal Commission, and focuses on key findings from case studies and data analysis. It then analyzes public health theory and regulatory theory to present a novel analysis of theoretically justified approaches to the implementation of measures to prevent, identify and respond to CSA, while isolating challenges to implementation. The article reviews literature on challenges to reform and compliance, and on prevention of institutional CSA and situational crime prevention, to identify measures which have attracted emerging consensus as recommended practice. Finally, it applies its novel integration of regulatory theory and public health theory to the context of CSA in institutional contexts, to develop a theoretical basis for a model of implementation and regulation, and to indicate the nature and functions of a regulatory body for this context.