This week, the Australian public has borne witness to another devastating string of sexual assault allegations. While the alleged perpetrators vary in age – some are as young as 13 – they have something in common.

They are immersed in elite institutions like private all-boys’ secondary schools – places that can socialise entitlement, exceptionalism and impunity in those within them. Of course, to the extent charges have been or are laid in these cases, those accused must be entitled to the presumption of innocence.

My thoughts are with the girls and women who have alleged these crimes, and I wish them the best in the criminal process ahead, which we know is often traumatic for victims.

In Australia and the US, adolescent boys have now overtaken adult men as the most likely perpetrators of sexual violence against an under-18-year-old. The Australian child maltreatment study found that 18.2% of Australians aged 16 to 24 have experienced sexual abuse by an adolescent before age 18, while a comparative 12% have experienced sexual abuse by an adult.

This research solidified what was intuitive to us at Teach Us Consent when we called for, and then published, 6,700 testimonies alleging peer-on-peer sexual assault in teenage years.

Across the year, my team has heard from multiple criminal lawyers who all describe a stark drop in the age of defendants and complainants in the courtroom, alongside a rise in violent sexual behaviours including strangulation, anal tearing and other forms of physical harm in........

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