ABSTRACT
In 1986 the National Advisory Committee on the Prevention of Child Abuse published guidelines for the investigation of child abuse, instructing police and welfare officials to assume that children reporting sexual abuse, and adults reporting children's stories of sexual abuse, were telling the truth. In such cases the alleged perpetrator should be removed from the home, the guidelines said, even if there was no physical sign of abuse and both parents denied anything had happened. The regulation of sexual activity was an important component of early human social organisation because survival in a pristine environment required high levels of cooperation both within groups and between groups. In all probability the incest laws, defining who can legitimately have sex with whom, date back at least to this time. An important component of violent sexual offending is ethnicity. Maori, comprising about 15 per cent of the national population, are heavily over-represented in all violence statistics, including sexual violence.
