Civil justice and redress scheme outcomes for child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church

Abstract

ABSTRACT Procedural differences between civil justice and redress schemes are well known, but knowledge gaps stymie an ability to compare monetary outcomes. This paper advances the field of institutional abuse of children by analysing outcomes for 4563 civil justice and redress scheme claims of sexual abuse of children received by 36 Australian Catholic Church authorities (CCAs) over 35 years. The authorities are archdioceses, dioceses and male and female religious institutes. As expected, average civil justice payments are higher than those for redress schemes. However, there is huge payment variation and a good deal of overlap between the two, especially at the lower end of the payment spectrum. We explain payment variation by a generally lower, average or higher paying orientation of the CCAs, coupled with a strong lower paying orientation of the female religious institutes. Victims and survivors of institutional child abuse require information on outcomes of civil justice and redress scheme claims, rather than the siren song of large civil payments. We join others in calling upon all relevant actors to ‘show the data’ on settled claims.