Myth: Acts like fondling, french kissing, or touching are not really sexually abusive, and don't really harm the young person.

Fact: Any form of direct or indirect sexual contact with a young person by an adult, an older child, or a sibling who is more mature, is abusive. Every individual has a unique reaction to sexual abuse regardless of the type, extent or duration of the abuse.

Question:

Should we castrate someone who french kissed a child?

What constitutes sexual assault?

I'm asking these questions because they go to the heart of the matter of how society and the law should understand the problem that it is and then act upon it.

Its very complex as every here appears to agree.

As the fact above states "Every individual has a unique reaction to sexual abuse regardless of the type, extent or duration of the abuse."

Is this simply a crime and punishment issue?

What about the victim? How should we care for him or her?

What is restorative for individual cases just and how is this enabled?

Rainer; I won't shy away from that one.

YES! we should. You refer to French kissing. Any adult who stick their tongue down the throat of a child is NOT innocent. It is an overt and abusive act. It is something that the adult DOES NOT DO to a CHILD!!

I feel no need to reiterate my feelings on this. They ARE strong.

You would have set me more of a dilemma if you had not referred to this type of kissing. There is no dilemma there.

"It’s interesting to note that there is a higher level of suicide (proportionally) for young boys in rural areas and I wonder if there is a connection with abuse."

Posted by Rainier

The Invisible boy;an examination of abuse of male children published by National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Canada
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ncfv-cnivf/familyviolence/html/nfntsxinvisible_e.html

'Giving boys a ray of hope: masculinity & education'
http://menshealth.uws.edu.au/documents/Maculinity_Education.pdf

The article below makes for some very interesting reading.

Tip of the Iceberg: Social deteminants and male suicide (.doc) Paper presented by Professor John Macdonald at the 6th National Men's Health Conference, October, 2005.
http://menshealth.uws.edu.au/documents/Tip%20of%20the%20iceberg.doc

Other articles here
http://www.menshealthaustralia.net/

If one draws a time line of the increase in male suicide which began to increase in the 1960's, which occurred in parrallel with the rise of feminism. This maybe just coincidence.

There was one author who was interviewed on ABC radio who drew the parrallel, but I cannot remember who it was, as it was over a decade ago and I never did buy or read his book.

RObert death or castration did not figure in my wishes re sentencing.
Deterrent did, I can not claim to be interested in intellectual debate on the subject, I do however see the destroyed lives.
How do we stop it? step one must be considering why we let so many get away with it.
Yes many have been victims, but why let them destroy whole lives of others?
Step parents seem to be over represented here as do the areas I spoke of earlier.
Tell me I am too focused on punishment , but I do see one broken child very often, that child cried for help long before becoming a victim.
No punishment came to the father that destroyed a life.
We can debate forever how to stop it bad parenting even porn if you wish but as a nation we must one day ask why we punish the victims even not hearing the calls for help.
I will leave the thread, not in spite or heat , thanks for having me , but my driving aim is for a fair go for the kids not remembering some who do this once had been victims yet did it to others.

Belly: "I do see one broken child very often, that child cried for help long before becoming a victim."

Perhaps the confusion here is what punishment is. The situation that you're talking about appears to be that the boy asked for help but was not believed. This is the subject of the report that sparked this debate. Why wasn't the boy in your case believed? Or was he, and was the father caught and let off?

As I understand it, the punishment issue is decided in two arenas:
1. by parliament, in the relevant Act, which specifies max and min punishment
2. by the judiciary in court, who give what they believe is an appropriate sentence.

I don't even know what the max and min is? Anybody? (Sorry, to busy to look up myself.)

Belly, Vanilla, others,

I found this article interesting in that it explains the psychological and structural processes that often exists when authorities are assessing child abuse cases.

Titled "The child abuse accommodation syndrome" it lists the following 5 components of this syndrome as:

The five categories of the syndrome are:

1.Secrecy
2.Helplessness
3.Entrapment and accommodation
4.Delayed, conflicted and unconvincing disclosure
5.Retraction

I particularly found Entrapment and accommodation interesting as it suggests children become resilient under siege.

Its states: "If the child did not seek or did not receive immediate protective intervention, there is no further option to stop the abuse. The only healthy option left for the child is to learn to accept the situation and to survive".

This makes me wonder how many government agencies are not acting on clear evidence of prolonged abuse but depending on the Childs own resolve to survive.

I can think of many cases where the abused child has been returned back into the unsafe environment from where they came because the case manager[s] thought they were safe.

But what informed this assessment of safety? Was it because the child said they felt safe (able to survive?)

Take for instance, the case in Aurukun.

See the article here: http://www.secasa.com.au/index.php/workers/25/31