Prestigious award for landmark study

Congratulations to ACU Professor Daryl Higgins and the team behind the landmark Australian Child Maltreatment Study who have won a Queensland Child Protection Week Award.

Professor Higgins, the Director of ACU’s Institute of Child Protection Studies, accepted the prestigious Queensland award on behalf of the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) research team at a ceremony at Parliament House. The award category is Professional (Non-Government): Outstanding contribution to promoting child protection issues in their capacity as a professional working in the child protection (or related) field.

“This award really shows how important this research is beyond academia,” Professor Higgins said.

“It’s tangible evidence of the way that governments, policymakers, and service providers see our data as being vital for informing their strategies to better prevent, and respond to, the widespread problem of child maltreatment and its impacts.”

The ACMS surveyed 8500 Australians about their experiences of physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence during childhood.

Among the key findings, the Australian-first research revealed 62.2 per cent of Australians aged over 16 experienced child maltreatment, with almost two-thirds of those impacted experiencing more than one type of abuse.

Ongoing analysis of the ACMS – led by QUT School of Law principal research fellow Professor Ben Mathews alongside chief investigators Professor Higgins, Professor Rosana Pacella, Professor James Scott, Professor David Finkelhor, Associate Professor Franziska Meinck, Dr Holly Erskine, Dr Hannah Thomas, Professor David Lawrence, Professor Michael Dunne and project manager Dr Divna Haslam – continues to make groundbreaking revelations.

We are especially proud that this recognition coincides with National Child Protection Week with the theme: Every conversation matters. With the spotlight on ACMS through this Queensland award, we encourage our colleagues at ACU working across a variety of disciplines – such as health, education, early childhood, sports, local government – to support the use of evidence-based, non-violent parenting practices, to build the capacity of parents and young people themselves to know about their bodies, their sexuality, and to have robust and regular conversations about consent, respect, safety. Such conversations help prevent abuse by giving adults and young people tools to talk about their questions and their concerns.

Professor Higgins said he hoped the award would reinforce the need for governments, service providers and individual practitioners across a range of sectors to commit to the goal of child maltreatment prevention.

“The ACMS sheds a light on where we need to invest our time, our resources, and our skills to ensure that future generations of children and young people grow up safe in their families, the organisations they encounter, their communities, and online,” he said.

“I hope we can see child maltreatment, in all its forms, as a preventable problem.”

Read more about the ACMS

Read more about ACU’s Institute of Child Protection Studies