Perceptions of Childhood and Institutional Child Sexual Abuse: Illegitimacy and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

This thesis examines the ways in which Western society since the seventeenth century have understood, treated and perceived children, and subsequently how these historical perceptions shaped the way children in twentieth century Australia were treated in institutional settings, specifically how they were targeted for sexual abuse, as well as how they were handled and treated by others following their ordeal. Childhood is understood in different ways depending on factors such as race, class, gender and location, and this subsequently impacted they ways in which children were treated as victims of sexual abuse. This presentation focusses in on the perception of illegitimate children in Australia between the 1940s and 1980s, to showcase how these specific views of children made them targets for abuse in institutional settings, with reference to case studies from the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.