ACSSA wrap, 2011, 10: 1-19

This article published by ACSSA (Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault) outlines key issues in institutional and care settings with identifying and responding to women's recent and past experiences of sexual assault. This paper draws together the common or shared elements of various institutions identified in th eliterature. The authors consider the historical socio-political contexts of women's institutionalisation. Then they consider the prevalence of sexual assault, both current and historical, withn various institutional settings and explore some of the barriers to disclosing and responding to sexual assault within these settings. Finally the authors discuss the relevance of cultural and structural issues in responding to and addressing sexual assault within institutional settings.
The types of institutions specifically referred to in ths paper are: psychiatric inpatient units, jevenile justice centres and prisons, detention centres, aged care facilites, and diability residences.
The authors note that: "We acknowledge that men in institutional settings may also be particularly vulnerable to sexual assault, that there may be some commonalities in experience and issues, and some learnings from this paper could apply to men. However, the focus of this paper is on women."