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The Dominion Post
July 19, 2002
Child sex abuse: '8500 new victims'
by Glen Scanlon
More
than 8500 children in New
Zealand will be sexually abused for the
first time this year, a new study says.
Children's groups called the figure "absolutely horrifying".
The Massey University study found that the annual
cost to abuse victims was $900 million in lost earnings, extra health bills
and lost potential. The total cost to society was $2.4 billion a year.
The six-year study's author, Shirley Julich,
interviewed 21 sexual abuse victims, two jurors, a judge and two counsellors
to gauge the effect of sex abuse on them. Dr Julich
said just 7.5 per cent of adult victims reported childhood sexual abuse to
police compared with 90 per cent who reported a stolen car. By the age of 16,
25 per cent of girls and 9 per cent of boys would have been abused.
"Many children being abused today will join the ranks of adult survivors
who never report abuse to authorities, let alone confront their abusers. This
silence delays victims' recoveries and contributes to the cost to
society."
Dr Julich said she believed victims stayed silent
long after they were abused because of both Stockholm syndrome (where an
emotional bond builds up between a victim and aggressor) and because they
believed society would stigmatise them.
"Survivors said that as children they were threatened with their
families falling apart and loved ones going to jail if they told. In one case
a girl knew if she told anyone her mother would be beaten."
Dr Julich said that often when the victims told
police and other agencies they felt it brought them more trouble.
The result of childhood abuse was low self-worth, misuse of alcohol and drugs
and psychological problems.
"The cost of sexual abuse in New Zealand indicates its
prevention should be a priority. The findings have implications for justice,
health, social welfare agencies and the Accident Compensation
Corporation."
Women's Refuge national coordinator Roma Balzer
said she believed the 25 per cent figure was conservative but the estimate
that 8600 children would be abused for the first time this year was shocking.
The Press
July 19, 2002
Child abuse
Sexual
abuse of children costs New Zealand
$2.4 billion a year, a Massey
University study has
found. Of that total, $900 million is accounted for by adult survivors of
abuse in lost earnings, extra health bills, and unrealised potential.
Each year, 8600 children will be sexually abused for the first time. But just
7.5 per cent of adult victims report childhood sexual abuse to the police.
The figures come from a doctoral thesis of Shirley Julich
who spent six years on the study, and interviewed 21 adult survivors.
She said the cost of sexual abuse showed its prevention should be a priority,
and her findings had implications for the Accident Compensation Corporation,
and justice, health, and social welfare agencies.
Massey News
Massey University.
July 22, 2002
A costly silence on abuse
Sexual
abuse of children costs New
Zealand $2.4 billion a year. Of that,
adult survivors pay $900 million in lost earnings, extra health bills, and
unmet potential. The country pays the rest.
The figures come from the social policy doctoral study of Dr Shirley Julich and are based on the 1993 model for costing social
problems by economist Suzanne Snively and the Otago
Women’s Health Survey of 1991.
Dr Julich investigated the relationship between
justice and childhood sexual abuse and the maintenance of silence by adult
survivors.
“Each year in New Zealand
8600 children will be sexually abused for the first time. By the time they
reach 16, 25 percent of girls and 9 percent of boys will have experienced
sexual abuse,” she says.
Many children being abused today will never report abuse they have suffered
to the authorities, let alone confront their abusers. “Just 7.5 percent of
adult victims report childhood sexual abuse to the police whereas 90 percent
of people report a stolen car,” Dr Julich says.
“This silence delays victims’ recovery and contributes to the cost to
society, as well as to the victims.”
During her six-year study Dr Julich interviewed a
judge, two jurors, two counsellors, and 21 adult survivors (18 women and
three men), some of whom had not even told close friends or counsellors. To
ensure that survivors who had laid an official complaint were included in the
study, Dr Julich used various support agencies to find
them.
Her findings led her to believe adult victims kept silent long after they
could safely report abuse because they were affected by Stockholm Syndrome
and deterred by deeply entrenched societal attitudes that would stigmatise
them. She found that survivors wanting to break their silence favoured
restorative justice over the traditional justice system.
Dr Julich says Stockholm Syndrome became widely
recognised in the late 1970s as the emotional bond that occurs between a
victim and aggressor. It was noted after Swedish bank staff, taken hostage in
a robbery, refused to testify against their captors and even raised money for
their defence.
Its precursors are: the victims’ lives are threatened and they believe the
offender will carry out the threat, they cannot escape, they are isolated,
and the captor shows occasional kindness. To stay alive, victims develop
strategies to keep captors happy at the expense of their own feelings because
fear overrides all else.
“Survivors said that as children they were threatened with their families
falling apart and loved ones going to jail, if they told. In one case, a girl
knew if she told anyone, her mother would be beaten. These threats cause
emotional and psychological isolation of the child. Survivors said they
believed they could not escape because they thought other adults must know
but did not stop the abuse. The response of police and other agencies when
they did tell brought them more trouble so they didn’t tell anyone else.
Finally, abusers showed kindness by giving the children presents and ‘love’,”
she said.
The result of childhood abuse for many victims is low self worth, misuse of
alcohol and drugs, and ongoing psychological problems.
“The cost of child sexual abuse in New Zealand indicates its prevention
should be a priority. The findings of this research have implications for
justice, health and social welfare agencies and the Accident Compensation
Corporation.”
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The Dominion Post
July 25, 2002
Sex abuse bandwagon
Letter to the Editor
by Martin O'Cahill, Wellington
It is
with grave concern I read that we will have 8500 children sexually abused by
the end of the year, if we are to believe Shirley Julich,
of Massey University.
What alarms me is that again we have studies telling us how much in danger
our children are, while presenting little if any evidence. The article in
question concerns a six-year study based on only 26 interviews and then only
21 of them were "abuse victims". The massive flaw in this study is
that not all sexual encounters are abuse, but the tragedy is that the law
does not differentiate abusive and non-abusive sex.
From those few interviews we are asked to believe that 8500 people will be
abused. When 8500 cases don't materialise then these experts trot out all
sorts of psychobabble to justify their original estimates. Maybe the
estimates were wrong in the first place. At the time of the last Telethon in
1988, I seem to recall a previous "study" telling us that one in
four girls would be sexually abused. A study about the ensuing moral panic
might be more productive.
Following on the heels of the questionable decision to resume the $10,000 ACC
handouts, this study, I am sure, will lead to an appeal to the Government for
more taxpayers' money to keep the counsellors, detectives, psychologists,
doctors and all involved with the sexual abuse industry in their jobs.
When my taxes are going to be called on then I want better proof than this.
There are many other studies available that disagree with Dr Julich but no one wants to discuss those. Why?
This is just another case of jumping on the moral panic bandwagon.
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