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Adult Female Survivors of Intra- Familial Child Sexual Assault Envisioning Justice and Resistance in Australian Criminal Justice Systems

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Adult Female Survivors of Intra- Familial Child Sexual Assault Envisioning Justice and Resistance in Australian Criminal Justice Systems Speaking through the silence: Adult female survivors of intra- familial child sexual assault envisioning justice and resistance in Australian criminal justice systems Myvanwy Hudson A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of New South Wales School of Social Sciences Faculty of Arts and Social Science September 2013 2 3 4 Table of contents Table of contents Page Acknowledgements 8 Chapter 1: Introduction Defining child sexual assault 12 Features of intra-familial CSA 16 Consequences throughout the life course 18 Finding one‘s ―no‖: adult resistance 21 The role of criminal justice 23 Chapter 2: Literature Review The impact of CSA: the dynamics of trauma throughout the life course 30 The experience of CSA: silence and denial 35 What we know about reporting CSA: experiences with the police 37 What we know about formal justice: experiences with the court process 42 What do we know about potential reform of CSA? 48 Chapter 3: Theoretical Framework Understanding intra-familial CSA survivors‘ justice needs 68 Understanding intra-familial CSA survivors‘ choices 71 The family as institution and institutional denial 75 Reframing the debate (i) the concept of resistance 80 Reframing the debate (ii) Hudson‘s innovative justice 83 Expansion of Hudson‘s justice principles 94 5 Chapter 4: Methodology Introduction 101 Research Design 102 Critically engaging feminist research epistemology 104 Feminist methodology and constructivism 105 Method 1: Questionnaires 109 Method 2: Narrative Interviews 111 Method 3: Semi-structured ‗expert‘ interviews 115 Limitations of the research design 117 Coding and analysis 121 Sample Characteristics 124 Chapter 5: Disclosure and Denial Introduction 132 Disclosure 133 Theorising the context of disclosure: Biderman‘s (1956) typology 139 Sykes and Matza‘s discursive techniques of denial 150 Official reporting and disclosure 166 Chapter 6: Speaking through the silence Introduction 180 Resistance through critical spaces and symbolic protest 181 Resistance through alternative identities and sites of belonging 190 Resistance through the insurrection of subjugated knowledges 202 6 Chapter 7: Envisioning Justice Part 1: Justice Needs 211 The foundation of the justice tree 212 Identity reaffirmation: confirmation of human dignity 216 Part 2: Perceptions of justice reform 235 Specialist courts 235 Restorative Justice 245 Chapter 8: Discussion and future directions Specialist Courts 259 Validation through voice: entering into the circle of discourse 263 Validation through voice: the right to be heard and the duty to understand 271 Returning to restorative justice 275 Situating restorative justice 280 Expansion of community RJ programs 282 Cross fertilisation: using RJ to inform specialist court initiatives 285 Transformative justice 287 Directions for future research 292 References 296 Appendices 343 7 Acknowledgements This thesis was made possible through the ongoing support of my supervisors, Dr Jane Bolitho, who has stuck by me throughout the good, bad and ugly, and Professor Julie Stubbs, whose expertise has pulled me over the finishing line. Thank you for your persistence and faith in me, Jane and Julie. Also, many thanks to Dr Sanja Milivojevic and Dr Leanne Weber for your early contributions and foundational guidance. Anyone who has written a thesis knows that a PhD is an all consuming process. It is like growing a baby, from an embryonic thought to its expulsion from the birth canal. Like a baby, a thesis flourishes in a safe and nourishing environment. Thank you to my friends who provided me with ongoing emotional and social support. In particular, thank you Tanya Thaweeskulchai , Shirley Kent, Lisa Hobden and Nola Martin for your constructive feedback and loving support. Thank you to Emma Farrell and Dr Michael Salter for your professional feedback on methodology and recruitment. A PhD written in isolation is a PhD written in deprivation. Thank you to my fellow PhD students who have provided me with a special kind of support that only those who are suffering the same fate can provide. Tera Bok, Holly Champion, Shalini Nadaswaran, Miri Jassey and my other lovely colleagues of Room 311L. Thank you also to people who have provided me with professional and therapeutic support: Dr Dominic Fitzsimmons, Dr Claudia Sannibale, Dr Jacinta Crimmins and Dr Richard Ng, during those dark but inevitable moments. Thank you to the following agencies for assisting me with this research project: Advocates of Survivors of Child Abuse (ASCA), Liverpool Women‘s Resource Centre, Bankstown Women‘s Health Centre. Lastly, this thesis would not have been possible without all the survivors who generously shared their experiences with me. Thank you for breaking the silence. 8 Chapter 1: Introduction In 2009 a ‗family matter‘ in rural Victoria, Australia, made national headlines when a young woman shot her step-father in the head before dismembering his body and burying his body parts in their backyard and nearby bushland. At her committal hearing, 10,000 digital images of the young woman experiencing sexual abuse were tendered as defence evidence. Similar evidence revealed that from the age of 14, the young woman had experienced continuous sexual slavery over a four year period, at the hands of her stepfather. Images of oral and vaginal rape and bondage were among the images tendered as evidence (Johnston, 2009). She told police she had to do what her stepfather had ordered when he was alive because "I was his". Asked what would have happened if she had not shot him, she said: "I probably would have killed myself … 'cos I couldn't live the way I was‘." (Johnstone, 2009) Such a news item is salient due to its visceral appeal and salacious content: sexual slavery, dismemberment, brutality, not to mention the contentious defensive homicide laws. Yet for a researcher, other aspects of the case appear in sharp relief to a plot that could easily become a contender for Law and Order SVU‘s next storyline. Most unsettling was the fact that family members, friends and neighbours had expressed earlier concern for the girl‘s wellbeing, revealing an awareness of the sexual abuse to which the girl was subjected. However, no intervention in the way of a police report or child protection report was made, despite the fact that the girls‘ teachers and school counsellor were informed and various neighbours suspected the abuse. Two aspects of this news item raise concern. The fact that in 2009, a young woman shot her stepfather to release herself from sexual slavery (among other motivations) raises questions in need of further research. Firstly, one must question how other adult survivors of intra-familial child sexual abuse (CSA) might manage the consequences of chronic and severe sexual abuse. The other area of concern is that in a contemporary Western society where awareness of child abuse, particularly child sexual abuse, is commonplace, child protection legislation mandates that teachers report suspected child abuse and stories of CSA 9 pervade the entertainment media, nobody took action to prevent the adolescent in question from being subjected to ongoing harm. This case is clearly not isolated, and historical precedence dates back to the famous Kitty Genovese case (Darley and Latane, 1968) which inspired a new research field in the discipline of social psychology in the form of bystander research, pro-social behaviour and altruism (Darley and Latane, 1968, 1969). However, there has been limited inquiry in social science and criminology regarding the actions of adult survivors of intra-familial sexual assault who have experienced situations of captivity such as that described above. Little is known about the decision making factors that influence adult survivors or the way in which disclosure to family or community bystanders hinders or facilitates further help seeking, such as seeking assistance from the police or health agencies. The consequences of abuse for adult survivors are not simply reflected in such extreme and seemingly anomalous cases as the one detailed above. Drawing from contemporary issues, another vignette regarding CSA becomes instructive and raises further questions about CSA. At the time of writing, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has revealed the consequences that victim-survivors have suffered at the hands of the clergy. Precipitating the current parliamentary inquiry was the revelation that forty adult survivors of institutional child abuse committed suicide between the 1960s-1980s (McKenzie and Baker, 2013). Yet unlike institutional clergy CSA, institutional CSA within the family home is unlikely to warrant the same attention. Parallels between the institution of the church and the institution of the family abound, including bystander complicity, collusion and denial all contributing to the ongoing abuse for victims (Cohen, 2001). However, public policy has given insufficient attention to chronic or multigenerational CSA that occurs in the family as social institution, and the ramifications for adult survivors. As Cowburn and Domminelli (2001) argue, social constructions of the dangerous sex offender as a stranger can mean that intra-familial child sex offenders, and by extension, the experiences of intra-familial survivors are overlooked by hegemonic constructions of the offender as ‗deviant‘ or ‗other‘, a predator at the margins of society possessing aberrant sexual proclivities. Too many women and children have been and are being abused within the allegedly safe boundaries of their homes by men they know and trust (Cowburn and Domminelli, 2001:2). 10 Moreover, while considerable research attention has been given to the constructions of hegemonic masculinity within the family, and the way in which child sexual abuse occurs on a spectrum of gendered violence (Herman, 1977; Rush, 1980; Driver, 1989) limited attention has been given to the family as an institution which facilitates abuse as well as ongoing silence.1 Arguably, discourses of the family operate to construct the family as an ideal, foundational social institution which is incapable of facilitating acts of harm such as child sexual abuse.
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