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The NSW Ministry of Health is developing clinical guidelines and standards for responding to children under the age of 10 with problematic or harmful sexual behaviour. The Sax Institute brokered this Evidence Check to identify current best evidence about effective models of service delivery for the treatment and prevention of problematic or harmful sexual behaviour in children under 10. While there have been a number of recent reviews into best practice for treatment and prevention of problematic or harmful sexual behaviour in children that have provided some information about what may be effective, there is limited research relating to children under 10. Additionally, most of these reviews have focused on discrete therapeutic interventions rather than a holistic approach to ascertain what model of service delivery optimises outcomes. Each of these reviews acknowledges the importance of family/caregiver involvement, which is widely recognised as critical to providing consistency in behaviour change strategies and as such directed one of the key criteria components of this review. This Evidence Check aims to build on and complement these existing reviews by exploring effective models of service delivery for children under 10 with problematic or harmful sexual behaviour. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

While awareness of institutional child sexual abuse has grown in recent years, there remains limited understanding of its occurrence and outcomes as a distinct form of abuse. Drawing on research commissioned by the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, this article presents a rapid review of available evidence on the impacts of institutional abuse on victim/survivors. Literature searches identified 75 sources spanning international peer reviewed work and reports to Government that document or quantify the impacts of mostly historical child sexual abuse occurring in religious, educational, sporting and residential or out-of-home care settings. Consistent with child sexual abuse in other contexts, institutional child sexual abuse is found to be associated with numerous, pervasive and connected impacts upon the psychological, physical, social, educative and economic wellbeing of victims/survivors. Further, institutional child sexual abuse is associated with vicarious trauma at the individual, family and community level, and with impacts to the spiritual wellbeing of victims/survivors of abuse that occurs in religious settings. The identified literature suggests the trauma of institutional child sexual abuse may be exacerbated by the interplay of abuse dynamics in institutional settings, which may reduce or impede circumstances supporting disclosure, belief, support and protection from future harm. Acknowledging the limitations of the present study and the available evidence, this narrative synthesis provides insights into the complex impacts of institutional child sexual abuse. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The NSW Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) Office of the Senior Practitioner commissioned the Australian Centre for Child Protection to work in partnership with FACS to provide evidence from the research literature to inform the development of an updated FACS policy on neglect and other practice resources. Specifically, the Australian Centre for Child Protection were contracted to provide a brief report comprising two components:1. An overview of the key concepts in defining neglect; and2. A systematic review of reviews investigating the common risk factors for neglectSimultaneously, the NSW FACS Office of the Senior Practitioner will undertake a review of the literature on the impacts of neglect. As the purpose of this report is to inform NSW FACS, the focus (particularly within Section 1: Key definitional concepts) is on identifying issues of particular relevance to statutory child protection and their implications for practice. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This report explores the data reliability and quality of the 2014 study, 'Child sexual abuse in Australian institutional contexts: findings from administrative data 2008-13'. That study had been conducted by the Australian Centre for Child Protection, the Social Policy Research Centre, and the Australian Institute of Criminology to estimate the incidence of child sexual abuse in institutional and non-institutional contexts. The study found that rates of reported abuse differed considerably between jurisdictions, with indications that the nature of current institutional abuse differed considerably from historical trends in regards to time to disclosure, victim gender, and offender age patterns. It concluded with the need for a follow-up study. This new report follows up the questions raised. Drawing on a case file review, consultations, and a literature review, it investigates: the accuracy and reliability of the data and proxy indicators used to categorise reports as institutional or non-institutional; the nature of, and circumstances surrounding, reports to police; and the factors that drive different reporting rates across Australian jurisdictions. Though some errors are identified - potentially affecting some data - overall this review supports the main findings of the original report and indicates that police datasets can be relied upon.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission) is inquiring into how institutions have engaged with and responded to allegations and instances of institutional child sexual abuse. Key to this inquiry is the need to generate an understanding of the extent of child sexual abuse in Australia. Determining the prevalence of child sexual abuse, and institutional child sexual abuse in particular, provides valuable contextual information to inform the work of the Royal Commission. While thousands of people have come forward to testify in private and public sessions, it is not known whether these victims/survivors are representative of the population of victims of child abuse, how the prevalence and type of abuse has changed over the decades, or what effect past policies have had in addressing these issues. In response to this gap in the knowledge base, the Royal Commission appointed a team of researchers to scope the research design, methodology, cost and governance structure of two studies investigating the prevalence of child maltreatment in Australia, including the prevalence of institutional child sexual abuse. The first study would estimate the prevalence of child maltreatment in a representative sample of Australian adults, while the second study would estimate the prevalence among Australian young people. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle ("the Principle") was developed in recognition of the devastating effects of forced separation of Indigenous children from families, communities and culture. The Principle exists in legislation and policy in all Australian jurisdictions, and while its importance is recognised in many boards of inquiry and reviews into child protection and justice systems, there are significant concerns about the implementation of the Principle. Recent estimates suggest the Principle has been fully applied in as few as 13% of child protection cases involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The purpose of this paper is to explore the contemporary understanding of the Principle, and review the multiple and complex barriers at the policy and practice levels which are impeding its implementation. Promising approaches that might address these barriers are also examined.

Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) develop when unborn children are exposed to alcohol prenatally. As a result of this exposure, children with FASD exhibit a range of social, behavioural, cognitive and even physical deficits that can impede their life-long development. These deficits can be influenced by maltreatment and the instability resulting from being placed into out-of-home care, and/or multiple foster-care placement breakdowns. The aim of this article is to increase awareness amongst child welfare professionals of how prenatal alcohol exposure impacts on children's social development. Social deficits include problems with social cognition and social information processing, which result in issues in social problem solving, processing social cues, social judgement, and developing and maintaining relationships. These deficits leave children with a FASD vulnerable to victimisation, exploitation, peer pressure and, as a result, interaction with the criminal justice system. Deficits are life-long and become more pronounced with age, although early detection and intervention appears to improve social skills deficits. Such interventions need to be explored further as they could potentially mitigate some of these deficits by capitalising on the neuroplasticity of a child's developing brain and pave a more positive trajectory for these children's future. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Children can display a range of neurocognitive and psychosocial deficits resulting from being exposed to alcohol prenatally – frequently attracting a diagnosis of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). This article discusses the cognitive and social impairments exhibited by children with FASD, the challenges these present for the criminal justice system, and offers suggestions for addressing these challenges. Difficulty in understanding and producing oral language, in particular, may infringe on the child’s basic rights to a fair trial by limiting their understanding of proceedings and decision-making. Custodial sentences may lead to a range of negative outcomes including victimisation and exploitation by peers. Cognitive deficits need to be taken into account throughout the criminal justice process to obtain the optimal outcome for all parties. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Obtaining reliable estimates of the extent of child maltreatment in the community is a problem for researchers. Young people are highly desirable participants, albeit difficult to contact, for maltreatment research (Savage & McCarron, 2009). Common methods for recruiting representative community samples of young people include classroom sampling (Chen, Dunne, & Han, 2004); household sampling (Cawson, Wattam, Brooker, & Kelly, 2000); and telephone interviews (Finkelhor, Turner, Ormrod, & Hamby, 2010). Changes in the ways young people communicate represent an opportunity to explore alternate methods of participant recruitment (Steffens, Tonelli, & Davidsson, 2011). This study investigates the feasibility of using online social media to recruit young adults as participants in child maltreatment research. Refereed/Peer-reviewed