Introduction: Setting the Context

Abstract

Redress for institutional abuse of children is a new field of knowledge, spawned by a spate of inquiries and redress schemes in the 1980s and 1990s, and a cascade in the first two decades of the 21st century. When I began this research in 2010, I wanted to learn more about the responses to Canadian and Australian cases of historical institutional abuse. In time, my interests grew. I wanted to understand why institutional abuse emerged as a social problem and what adult survivors’ memories of institutions were. Institutions for children include orphanages, homes, farm schools, training schools, hostels, facilities for those with mental and physical disabilities, and youth detention.