It is not just the alcohol and poverty to blame

 A report last week found child sexual abuse rife in aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.  The report’s authors said they had found incidents of child sex abuse in each of the 45 communities they visited as part of their inquiry.

The 316-report report found that children were being abused by both indigenous and non-indigenous adults. Children as young as five were found to have contracted sexually-transmitted diseases. Girls were being prostituted for drugs - including for petrol, a substance reported to be commonly sniffed by youths in Aboriginal communities. Young children were being exposed to pornography and imitating the sexual behaviour among themselves.

Poverty and high levels of alcohol abuse were largely to blame.  According to one of the report’s authors,

“A river of grog is killing people and destroying our communities,” she said.

“Spiritually, socially, psychologically, there is a total breakdown in families where people are drunk most of the time - the children are not safe.”

I don’t doubt that poverty and alcohol play a large part, but there’s got to be more than this that causes such depraved behaviour to be so widespread.  There is something sick with the culture in these communities, where children are not valued, are seen as sexual objects, where blind eyes are turned to protect the perpetrators.  Without these sort of preconditions, children are more likely to be protected by their parents and relatives, and the abusers less able to conceal and get away with their depravity.  Regardless of how drunk people are, and how poor, that is not in any way an excuse for abusing children like is apparently happening.  These acts are just wrong, plain and simple, no excuses!

While the poverty and alcohol (and drug) abuse need to be addressed, the cultural issues need to be addressed as well, else more (shitloads of) money will get thrown at aboriginal health/social/crime problems for little payoff.