Research findings from a study of 500 cases carried out as part of a doctoral thesis will be outline. They demonstrate the clear connection between those families whose children are notified in relation to all kinds of child abuse (including sexual abuse) and poverty, unemployment and family disruption. The multi-factorial nature of the influences which create this connection are examined. The long held belief that child sexual abuse is not related to class or poverty is challenged by these findings, pointing to the need to reconceptualise this, as well as all types of child abuse, if prevention is to be an achievable goal.

Comprehensive research undertaken in 1995 and 1997 clearly establishes the educational needs of at-risk young people. Research by Webber and Hayduk (Leaving School Early) and Brooks et al (NYARS report Under-age School Leaving) establishes indicators contributing to under-age school leaving which are discussed in relation to the responsibility of schools in meeting the needs of at-risk students. Without revisiting the tenets of the deschooling movement which have been canvassed in detail in the pages of many books and education journals, the discussion explores the validity of alternative models to mainstream schooling. The paper assumes a certain inability of schooling to meet the needs of at-risk student; indeed it could be argued that the purpose of schooling generates and selects at-risk students. In a schooling culture which propagates the ideology of integration, the paper suggests the validity of an alternative and exclusion-based model of education. One such model has been established in 1997 in the Australian Capital Territory and this alternative education program is evaluated.

This paper presents and examines issues pertaining to young lesbian wimmin in an Australian setting, with particular emphasis on the ‘coming-out’ process. Stereotypes as presented by Western culture are examined. Society’s honouring of the masculine at the expense of the feminine and the effect this has on young lesbian wimmin, and the development of non-heterosexual adolescents in general, is also discussed. Specific examples of episodes from a research project using memory-work methodology are used to highlight the experience many young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people encounter as they come to terms with their sexuality in a heterosexual culture.

The theme of this paper is the central role of consumer groups in promoting greater accountability in child protection systems. In recent years, numerous Australian authors have drawn attention to the failings of our State child protection systems. Particular concern has been expressed about the potential ‘systems abuse’ of children in care, and the failure of statutory systems to engage or adequately consider the perspectives of biological parents. One of the principal reasons for these deficits appears to be the absence of formal consultation mechanisms with consumers of protection services. This paper considers the recent rise of consumer groups of both young people in protection and care, and their parents/caregivers, in relation to the above concerns, with particular reference to Victoria. Attention is drawn to both the strengths and weaknesses of the better known groups such as the Australian Association of Young People in Care and their State affiliates, and the Parent Inquiry into Child Protection. The author believes that the role of consumer groups as a ‘watchdog’ will become even more important with the intended privatization of some State child protection systems.

This article attempts to identify and discuss the most crucial factors in child sexual abuse intervention. Parieto’s 80/20 rule is used to identify the two individual and two family factors which have the greatest potential to effect significant change when issues around father/daughter sexual abuse are being addressed.

This article is about program evaluation for child and family services. It sets out to offer some basic frameworks for thinking about program evaluation and about the issue of program effectiveness. A rationale for the emphasis on effectiveness is identified and then linked to three areas of possible measurement. These areas, changes in user/client condition, quality of services provided and user/client satisfaction, are then considered in more detail. Finally, it is argued that service users/clients will gain from program evaluation exercises. The evaluation of services contributes potentially to an improvement in the effectiveness of child and family services so service users/clients obtain benefit from such evaluations.

I was born in NSW and was apart of the assimilation policies of the late 1960s onwards. My experiences with this have always been negative, but I have managed somehow to stay positive with life. This, I believe, is where my identity has given me strength, my dreamtime has supported me and life generally has been a rollercoaster ride.

The abuse of children in residential care has been one of the major scandals of the 1990s. This paper examines the largest child abuse inquiry ever held in Britain, the public inquiry into abuse of children in Children’s Homes in North Wales. The story, it is suggested, is almost too large to comprehend and too scandalous to absorb. One major lesson to be considered is that hundreds of victims each had his or her own story to tell but few people were prepared to listen.

Translating great novels to the small or large screen inevitably involves the loss of some of the insights gained from the written word and the creation of a new world. Some novels appear to be written with screen translations in mind. Others appear to be impossible to translate. In this article The Kiss, by Kathryn Harrison, is reviewed. The book provides beautifully written insights into the painful world of emotional and psychological child abuse, anorexia and bulimia. There are other important messages in the work, not the least being those that we can learn about the isolation that an abused child can suffer. Such abuse can prepare (or groom) children for later abuse as an adult.