Sexual assault and abuse in the church takes place in a unique social context. This presentation will outline issues that are key to understanding the occurrence and prevention of sexual assault and abuse in the church. Drawing on an independent investigation into responding to adult sexual assault and reporting child sexual abuse in the Anglican Church of Adelaide, South Australia, the presentation will look at the broader church culture that sexual assault and abuse takes place within, how the church has responded to these issues in the past, how it is has responded more recently, and the opportunities that exist for effective responses and prevention in the future.

Zoë is the Co-ordinator of the Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault, at the Australian Institute of Family Studies. She has worked at the Victorian Law Reform Commission recommending changes to family violence laws, at Monash University reporting on what helps women succeed in academia, and was commissioned by the Anglican Church in Adelaide to investigate issues of adult sexual assault and child sexual abuse. Zoë’s research has worked to understand and address issues of social injustice. She did her PhD at Oxford University, UK, on ‘social exclusion’, and worked at Oxford as a college lecturer in Human Geography and Gender Studies. Her most recent research in the sexual assault field has looked at the ‘ripple effects’ of sexual assault, vicarious trauma, and how families respond to the sexual assault of a family member.