Showing papers by "Kathleen Daly published in 2014"

Redressing Institutional Abuse of Children

Abstract: What constitutes institutional abuse of children? What is redress? What do survivors want? In this book, Kathleen Daly explores major cases of historical institutional abuse of children in Canada and Australia. Drawing from first-hand accounts of survivors, the book documents their memories growing up in institutions and their experiences with redress, to examine whether justice interests - for participation, voice, validation, vindication, and offender accountability- are achieved. Redress for institutional abuse includes civil litigation, public inquiries, and redress schemes. Daly analyzes these areas, paying close attention to redress schemes and asks whether, from a victim's perspective, there is an optimal redress process and outcome. With significant attention worldwide towards identifying effective responses to historical institutional abuse, this text provides a timely, lively, and authoritative resource.

Conceptualising Responses to Institutional Abuse of Children

Abstract: Institutional abuse of children was 'discovered' in the 1980s, with concept diffusion in the 1990s. I explain why it emerged as a social problem and what factors triggered a response by authorities that 'something must be done' to address it. Some have argued that the 1980s was a time of a 'moral panic' about child sexual abuse, in particular, that fears of abuse were exaggerated and misdirected. Drawing from 19 major cases in Canada and Australia and those in other countries, I find that a moral panic analysis is not apt in understanding responses to institutional abuse. Although concern with sexual and physical abuse of children was important, additional factors motivated government and church officials to respond; and in some cases, child abuse was secondary to other identified wrongs against children. I identify distinctive types of institutional abuse cases, the 'core' and the 'core-plus' cases, which moved into the public arena for different reasons and in different ways. Implications are drawn for comparative research and theoretical developments in the area.

Evaluation of replication of variants associated with genetic risk of otitis media.

Abstract: The first Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) of otitis media (OM) found evidence of association in the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) study, but lacked replication in an independent OM population. The aim of this study was to investigate association at these loci in our family-based sample of chronic otitis media with effusion and recurrent otitis media (COME/ROM). Autosomal SNPs were selected from the Raine OM GWAS results. SNPs from the Raine cohort GWAS genotyped in our GWAS of COME/ROM had P-values ranging from P=0.06–0.80. After removal of SNPs previously genotyped in our GWAS of COME/ROM (N=21) and those that failed Fluidigm assay design (N=1), 26 SNPs were successfully genotyped in 716 individuals from our COME/ROM family population. None of the SNP associations replicated in our family-based population (unadjusted P=0.03–0.93). Replication in an independent sample would confirm that these represent novel OM loci, and that further investigation is warranted.

Responding to everyday rape in Cambodia: rhetorics, realities and somroh somruel

Abstract: This paper analyses a dilemma for victims of ‘everyday rape’ in Cambodia: their community's preferred response is somroh somruel, a customary dispute resolution process, but pressure is exerted by the state and by international and local NGOs to use the criminal justice system, which is corrupt and inaccessible to all but an elite. Drawing from interviews with NGO staff and field research by NGOs, we find a clash between human rights rhetoric and the realities faced by rape victims and their families. Human rights and other western donor organisations need to consider multiple meanings of justice, particularly in rural areas in countries like Cambodia, where ‘justice’ situates morality within the restoration of social harmony and the repair of aggrieved relationships. Greater attention should be given to supporting and improving somroh somruel, alongside developing more accessible and accountable conventional criminal justice responses.

Introduction: Setting the Context

Abstract: Redress for institutional abuse of children is a new field of knowledge, spawned by a spate of inquiries and redress schemes in the 1980s and 1990s, and a cascade in the first two decades of the 21st century. When I began this research in 2010, I wanted to learn more about the responses to Canadian and Australian cases of historical institutional abuse. In time, my interests grew. I wanted to understand why institutional abuse emerged as a social problem and what adult survivors’ memories of institutions were. Institutions for children include orphanages, homes, farm schools, training schools, hostels, facilities for those with mental and physical disabilities, and youth detention.

Sibling Sexual Abuse: Offending Patterns and Dynamics in Conferences

Abstract: Debate on the appropriateness of conferences in cases of gendered violence has been occurring since the mid 1990s. Critics are concerned with power imbalances of victims and perpetrators in face-to-face meetings and the potential for re-victimizing victims. Others see benefits, including a victim's ability to voice the story of her victimization and its impact, and to be validated and believed by others. We see two problems with the debate. First, it ignores huge variability in victimization contexts and relationships. Second, there is little empirical evidence on actual practices and outcomes or on victims' experiences. We advance the discussion by analyzing a particular type of gendered violence, sibling sexual abuse, and by presenting new research on court and conference responses to it.