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The Christchurch Civic
Creche Case |
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Sexual abuse, a subject that tends
to make people uncomfortable, has been in the headlines a lot recently. It is
likely that it will be again soon but, this time, over the issue of
Government compensation. Justice Minister Phil Goff
recently caused consternation when he introduced legislation to reduce the
age of sexual consent to 12 years of age. There was a storm of protest. He
defended the move on the basis that the current law is haphazardly enforced,
and that we are criminalising a large number of teenagers. Mr Goff seems to
want to send a loud message on sexual offending, but is unsure which one -
last year he suggested that rapists should be castrated.
The previous National Government
stopped the lump sum payments to sexual abuse victims because the system was
difficult to control fairly. Labour has reintroduced the potential for lump
sum payments. I recently asked some Parliamentary Questions of ACC Minister
Ruth Dyson, to see what sort of sums were being paid in weekly compensation.
I asked what the top 10 amounts of ongoing compensation in relation to sexual
abuse claims were: the top two people received $1,418 per week, followed by
$1,388, down to the tenth highest payment of $1,168 per week. By comparison,
the top gross unemployment payment per week is $917 (including $375 family
support and $100 accommodation supplement). The top Sickness Benefit payment
(gross) per week is $936 and highest DPB payment $988 per week (gross). I also asked: "Since 2000,
what are the 10 largest payments approved for backdated compensation in
relation to claims of sexual abuse?" When you also take into account
the fact that Labour has abolished the need for claimants to identify or
prove that sexual abuse actually occurred, the scope for abuse of the system
is obvious. There is no doubting that sexual abuse ruins people's lives, but
compensation is supposed to be an Independence Allowance and cover the cost
of appropriate treatment. At the moment, sexual abuse cases
attract compensation, but other forms of abuse do not. This seems a strange
incongruity.
Without question, the most
controversial sexual abuse charge in recent years in New Zealand has been the
case of the Christchurch Civic Creche. This case has been the subject of the
book "A City Possessed",
by Lynley Hood, who likens the case to the witch hunts of old. In 1992,
allegations of sexual offending at the creche resulted in a long police
investigation and several creche workers were charged. Most of the workers
were women, and sexual offending by women is uncommon. Doubts were raised
about the validity of the techniques used to interview the children. I am
told that children are very difficult to interview. Sometimes they don't want
to be interviewed at all but, even when they are talkative, they watch the
interviewer's face to see how the interviewer reacts. It is, therefore, easy
to coach children toward the "desired" response without even being
aware of it. In any event, all of the charges
against the women were dropped - as were some of the charges against the only
man charged, Peter Ellis. One of the theses of "A City Possessed" is that Peter Ellis was badly served by
the selective dropping of charges, because many of them were so incredible
that - had they been read out in court - the whole case would have collapsed.
Ellis was convicted, has served
his sentence and has been released. Many people remain concerned about the
validity of the processes involved in the investigation and want a Commission
to review Ellis' conviction. A petition has been signed to request this. It
has received support from some notable people, including National Leader Dr
Don Brash. The "Sunday Star-Times"
ran a Don Brash article last year arguing for an inquiry. As a counterpoint,
the paper published an article by Jeffrey Masson, from the Department of
Philosophy in Auckland. Masson argued that sexual abuse has long been denied,
and then neglected - although he wasn't talking specifically about the Ellis
case. The two arguments weren't exactly counterbalanced, as it was quite
possible to accept Masson's argument in general, but to also accept Dr
Brash's argument on the Ellis case. Masson's career is intertwined
with the history of the understanding of sexual abuse, and he is well worth
exploring in further detail. Masson is a Canadian who trained in Sanskrit,
but who also underwent and trained in Freudian psychoanalysis. Developed by
Freud around 100 years ago, to explain people's unconscious motivation,
psychoanalysis has proved enormously influential. When, for example, people
talk about someone having a "big ego" they are, usually without
knowing it, using a Freudian term. What is not discussed much today, however,
is that Freud placed a heavy emphasis on childhood sexuality as a driver of
human behaviour. This theory stood unchallenged within psychoanalytic circles
for many years until Masson happened along. Masson was promoted through the
psychoanalysis ranks until he was admitted to the inner sanctum in London
where he had access to Freud's personal library, which is not available to
the general public. What he learned there, he published in a book "The
Assault on Truth". In 1896, Freud had given a lecture on a series of
young people who had presented with unexplained neurological symptoms that
were thought psychological in origin. Freud pointed out that they had all been
victims of sexual abuse. However, Freud was subsequently isolated - both
professionally and personally - so he felt he had to relinquish. He said that
the sexual memories had just been fantasies. When Masson revealed this, he
became - to put it mildly - extremely unpopular in psychoanalytic circles. I welcome Dr Masson's decision to
live and teach in New Zealand, but his work demonstrates how tenuous our
understanding of the subject of sexual offending remains. |
