Australian child sexual abuse attitudes, knowledge and response study: Tasmania report released

The Tasmania-specific data from the Australian child sexual abuse attitudes, knowledge and response study has today been released. The Tasmanian report was created by the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse through the oversampling of Tasmanian data during the 2023 wave of the national Australian child sexual abuse attitudes, knowledge and response study.

The Tasmanian report presents the initial results and analysis of the Tasmanian data obtained in the first wave of the study and gives an indication of the current status of community attitudes, knowledge, and capability in the Tasmanian context. 356 Tasmanian adults of various ages and demographics participated in the study.

The national study and the Tasmanian data both point to community awareness that child sexual abuse is a significant and prevalent social issue that needs to be addressed. While the data shows that many Tasmanians want to protect children from child sexual abuse, the study also uncovered troubling misconceptions and victim-blaming attitudes, including and revealed concerning gaps in adults’ abilities to identify risks to children’s safety. Some adults also had limited understanding of the widespread and long-term impacts of child sexual abuse, low confidence and willingness to intervene, and didn’t know how to appropriately respond to child and adult victims and survivors.

The Tasmanian data will be used to inform local strategies and efforts to enhance community capacity in preventing, identifying, and responding to child sexual abuse. It will also provide a baseline to measure the effectiveness of any future initiatives against. The study is due to be repeated in December 2025.

Find out more about the Tasmanian data, attitudes, knowledge and capability in the Australian child sexual abuse attitudes, knowledge and response study: Tasmania report.