Amanda Lee Robertson

Sexual victimization of students endures—especially in secondary schools—and women’s perpetration in this setting is increasingly recognized. Nonetheless, our understanding of this population and contemporary cases remains limited, and research in the Australian context is lacking. This study contributes to the evidence base and represents the first Australian study of its kind. We draw on (1) legal documents ( N = 19) describing 18 established cases of female-perpetrated sexual abuse against 20 adolescent students (aged 13–17 inclusive) and (2) semi-structured expert interviews with professionals possessing specialized experience of female-perpetrated cases involving adolescent students ( N = 8). These data are integrated in a reflexive thematic analysis to identify the personal, contextual, and situational antecedents of female-perpetrated cases thereby exploring the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of their perpetration. Taken together, the results indicate a key interaction between individual emotional and relational needs, environmental opportunities, and contextual tolerance. Practical implications for targeting and disrupting these dynamics are discussed.

Reporting indicators of child sexual abuse is critical to intervention and prevention. However, guardianship and its mechanisms in educational settings have been empirically neglected. We address this gap by analysing a unique administrative dataset from an Australian jurisdiction that captures alleged improper sexual conduct by school employees against adolescents aged 13–17 years inclusive. We analysed 638 cases reported to an external oversight body in accordance with the New South Wales “reportable conduct” scheme between 2015 and 2019. These cases detailed information about the sources of allegations, including how allegations arose and who brought them forward. Results established school personnel and families as the key reporters and supported young people's potential as capable guardians. Guardianship was highly context-dependent and differed according to event, victim, and perpetrator characteristics. Recommendations for strengthening guardianship in schools are presented, including enabling reporting pathways for students, building contextual awareness through policy dissemination and training, and heeding indirect sources of information like rumours.

Criminological research in the media-crime nexus must critically engage with online communities focussed on influencing criminal justice outcomes. This commentary highlights the increasing diversification of such online communities and draws on the only Australian example of a media-led online wrongful conviction campaign – the Exposed Facebook group – to explore new developments in this space. This Australian example is so new that it has not yet been the subject of rigorous empirical criminological enquiry. As such, we pre-empt some of the potential impacts on the operation of the criminal justice system to generate critical thought on the issue and argue the need for further research to explore such impacts.