Male victim/survivors' experiences of disclosing institutional child sexual abuse

Institutional child sexual abuse has come to public attention in recent decades due to persistent advocacy by victim/survivors and their supporters. Disclosure is often a critical step, and victim/survivors' lived experience is central to informing policy and practice.

We studied the narratives of male victim/survivors who spoke with the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Royal Commission) to understand the experience of their abuse over their life course.

De-identified narratives of 412 male victim/survivors from four institutional types - armed forces, religious, sport and recreation, and youth detention - where abuse occurred in the 1970s and 1980s - were reviewed, coded and analysed.

A qualitative content analysis approach allowed for an examination of the data. Inductive coding was the method used to develop categories from the data - survivor narratives - emerging from the Royal Commission.

Survivor narrative comments were grouped into three categories: (1) the abuse; (2) reporting/not reporting the abuse; and (3) the institutions. This article focuses on the analysis of the second category, finding several reasons for victim/survivors not talking about their abuse at the time, primarily that they would not be believed, concerns about their parents' possible responses, and threats from perpetrators. Frequently, victim/survivors adopted a strategy of shut it down/shut it out.

Victim/survivors who spoke about their abuse following the event commonly reported negative responses. Implications particularly with respect to understanding and responding to disclosure are discussed, as are strengths and limitations of this research.