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Ultra-orthodox Jewish communities and child sexual abuse: A case study of the Australian Royal Commission and its implications for faith-based communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2019

Philip Mendes Open the ORCID record for Philip Mendes [Opens in a new window] ,
Marcia Pinskier ,
Samone McCurdy  and
Rachel Averbukh
Philip Mendes*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Work, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Marcia Pinskier
Affiliation:
Department of Social Work, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Samone McCurdy
Affiliation:
Department of Social Work, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Rachel Averbukh
Affiliation:
Department of Social Work, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
*
Author for correspondence: Philip Mendes, Email: philip.mendes@monash.edu
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Abstract

To date, little is known about manifestations of child sexual abuse (CSA) within ultra-orthodox Jewish communities both in Australia and abroad. There is a paucity of empirical studies on the prevalence of CSA within Jewish communities, and little information on the responses of Jewish community organisations, or the experiences of Jewish CSA survivors and their families. This paper draws on a case study of two ultra-orthodox Jewish organisations from the recent Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to examine the religious and cultural factors that may inform Jewish communal responses to CSA. Attention is drawn to factors that render ultra-orthodox communities vulnerable to large-scale CSA, religious laws and beliefs that may influence the reporting of abuse to secular authorities, and the communal structures that may lead to victims rather than offenders being subjected to personal attacks and exclusion from the community. Commonalities are identified between ultra-orthodox Jews and other faith-based communities, and reforms suggested to improve child safety across religious groups.

Keywords

Child sexual abuseAustralian JewsRoyal Commissionreligious and cultural factors
Type
Articles
Information
Children Australia , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 14 - 20
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Cambridge University Press

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