“She would say to me all the time, ‘I forget that I’m talking to a child’,”
I keep seeing this sentence, or a very similar one: “you are very/too mature for your age”. I wonder if most abusers kind of need to justify the abuse in the same way.
Or are they immature themselves.
This one, I can’t remember what study it was but something like half of all child sexual abusers were not attracted to children but instead had very stunted social skills (usually disabled or otherwise mentally ill) and struggle to connect with anyone with more advanced social needs than children. This results in them praying on the most vulnerable which is usually children. Seems to fit the article well as she seemed to like working with special needs or abused children
I always assumed this was a common step in the grooming process, tell them they’re super mature for their age so that when they proceed to try to establish an adult relationship it feels to be less shockingly inappropriate to the victim
I work in residential therapy. Abusers always find some means to justify and normalize their abuse so the vulnerable youth just go along with it thinking they are the ones at fault. It’s infuriating and heartbreaking how many youth I work with that have to be deprogrammed from this kind of thought while simultaneously taught healthy boundaries for other youth and adults. Nothing claws at your soul more than reading about all the awful shit an abuser did or put a child through only for that child to be crying at night begging for a chance to talk with their abuser again.
Five years, eligible for parole in 2. I don’t often scoff at the legal system, I want to have full trust in it, but she trapped this person for nearly ten years and it will take so many more for them to get past what happened. That’s an absolute joke.
It seems like the guilty plea and reaching a conclusion was the most important part of the process for the victim, so hopefully the short sentence isn’t as troubling for them.
That’s shocking. I’d have thought the CSAM charges alone would attract that penalty. I normally tend to err on the side of supporting shorter sentences, but just thinking about the number of different charges that would have been applicable here it’s hard to see how this is right.
It said the other charges were dropped with the guilty plea.
Again, probably because she is a woman. Also, “probability to reoffend” is a bullshit reason to give less time. She harmed this kid for 10 years and only pays 5 for it? Messed up…
There are 4 factors that a judge needs to consider.[1^] Punishment, rehabilitation, deterrence, denunciation[2^], and protection of the community.
Probability to reoffend is relevant to rehabilitation and deterrence. So no, it’s not a bullshit reason.
[1^]: I Victoria. I assume Queensland has a very similar list. [2^]: I don’t know exactly what this is, only that the judge in Erin Patterson’s case mentioned it as one of his factors.
Edit ah fuck. I can’t figure out this syntax. Whatever, it’s clear enough what I meant.
edit again: ah. It turns out I had the syntax right the first time, before I tried editing. But I was doing it on my phone, and Jerboa doesn’t display it like lemmy-ui does.
I don’t mind the interactive story mode known as Odyssey that the ABC publishes some articles with, especially some science and climate/enviro pieces. But this one really threw me for a spin because the subject matter is so intense and the screen on my phone was constantly competing for my attention.
Maybe the ABC knows it’s audience better than I do. Maybe using the Odyssey format for this story will help it reach the people who need to read it.
I went looking for a reader mode option in the ABC News app (I set ABC links to default to opening with this on my phone) but couldn’t find one. I opened the article in a browser and hit reader mode and noticed it looked off and I think some html/CSS elements were stripped out or were missing.
I’m going to submit a request to ABC for a reader mode for all Odyssey format content. I found a couple of options to do so:
There is this App feedback form that the app links to.
There appears to also be mobilefeedback@abc.net.au
If anyone else thinks this is a good idea please submit a similar request.
I thought the same thing with a previous article, I don’t remember which, maybe about the bushfires. I didn’t know the format had a name, now I wonder how accessible it is for people needing screen readers.
ETA: Firefox’s reader mode seems to digest it well.
Agreed. This sort of thing works well for when there is something difficult to visualise like maps of a warzone or how a budget is being divided. All it does here was make the article harder to read.
I just can’t believe the Dept of Ed did pretty much nothing. In Vic, when a teacher gets caught messaging students on social media, they will likely lose their teaching license. The principal had a duty of care to report that teacher and the department should’ve done a full investigation. Disgusting.
This is one of two really well articles I read this week. One from ABC and one from The Age.
Good work to the journalists who know how to research and put an article together.
The age is part of the problem.
