"Community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves but for one another"
- Henry Nouwen
A new strategy aims to eliminate family and sexual violence without even using the word “perpetrator”. Will a plan focusing on healing and prevention be enough to turn our appalling statistics around? OPINION: If ever there was a poisoned chalice in…
Sexual abuse and sexual assault are complex phenomena that involve many factors (or correlates) and have many health and financial implications for individuals, families, and society. Every correlate needs to be studied in detail, individually and in relation to other…
John’s* life has been blighted by the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his Catholic school principal. Forty years on, he is having to appeal to the Marist Brothers for redress, the very institution who employed the perpetrator. John was…
Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is rapidly becoming more prevalent online (Bursztein et al., 2019) as the number of people accessing it is increasing. This problem has only escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has prompted an unprecedented increase in…
In Kansas City, six men who were sexually abused by Catholic priests as children collaborate with a film crew to tell their stories — but not in the way you might think. They don’t act as talking heads in the…
An independent review into the access and use of client information within ACC will be led by prominent lawyer Linda Clark. The review was announced after RNZ revealed a group of ACC staff shared and laughed at client information in a…
There is a widespread and systematic problem of ACC staff having inappropriate access to the files of sexual abuse survivors, advocates say. One advocate believed her own privacy had been breached about 30 times by ACC staff clicking into her…
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major social problem and health concern worldwide and remains an emotional and controversial topic. While few studies have been conducted with a focus on men’s experiences of victimisation from female partners there is now…
Historically, domestic violence programs were born from the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s to address the needs of female survivors, who still represent the majority of victims seeking services today. Generally, the domestic violence movement has framed its work…
Trauma-informed peer support helps create a shared understanding of trauma experiences, the different ways people cope, give and receive support, and recover. It fosters healing relationships, which negate the power and control of traditional therapies. Download PDF
OPINION: Never look a gift horse in the mouth. That’s the first phrase that sprang to mind when Dilworth School announced plans to compensate former students who were sexually abused by its teachers, over many decades. But Dilworth’s offer of money…
The head of the New Zealand Catholic church has asked the Vatican for permission to launch an investigation into the handling of complaints about a priest who groomed a teenage girl. Sateki Raass resigned from the priesthood after he was convicted…
