Monsters and horror in the Australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse

Crofts, P

Monsters and horror in the Australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse

Crofts, P

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Law and Literature, 2018, 30 (1), pp. 123 - 148
Issue Date:: 2018-01-02

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Crofts, P https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6018-7159	en_US
dc.date.issued	2018-01-02	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Law and Literature, 2018, 30 (1), pp. 123 - 148	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1535-685X	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/116595
dc.description.abstract	© 2017 by The Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University. This article analyses how the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Reponses to Child Sexual Abuse negotiates the figure of the pedophile as monster through the horror genre. It analyses the resonance of the category of pedophiles as monsters or monstrous and the ways in which this impacted upon witnesses’ responses to sex offenders, based on assumptions that monsters are outsiders or strangers who are instantly recognizable. I go on to explore the claim that one of the main effects of regarding sex offenders as monsters is that these offenders are construed as having extraordinary powers so that ordinary measures to stop them would be ineffective - accordingly, this reading underplays the significance of institutional responsibility. I conclude that although the Royal Commission consistently undermines and rejects the idea of sex offenders as monsters, a horror reading is still appropriate and insightful. The true “horror” of the Royal Commission is aroused not by the figurative monsters but by the institutions themselves, and their failures.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Law and Literature	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1080/1535685X.2017.1346959	en_US
dc.title	Monsters and horror in the Australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	1	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	30	en_US
utslib.for	1801 Law	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Law
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.issue	1	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	30	en_US

Abstract:

© 2017 by The Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University. This article analyses how the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Reponses to Child Sexual Abuse negotiates the figure of the pedophile as monster through the horror genre. It analyses the resonance of the category of pedophiles as monsters or monstrous and the ways in which this impacted upon witnesses’ responses to sex offenders, based on assumptions that monsters are outsiders or strangers who are instantly recognizable. I go on to explore the claim that one of the main effects of regarding sex offenders as monsters is that these offenders are construed as having extraordinary powers so that ordinary measures to stop them would be ineffective - accordingly, this reading underplays the significance of institutional responsibility. I conclude that although the Royal Commission consistently undermines and rejects the idea of sex offenders as monsters, a horror reading is still appropriate and insightful. The true “horror” of the Royal Commission is aroused not by the figurative monsters but by the institutions themselves, and their failures.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/116595