What 31 survivors want us to understand
In November 2024, InterCountry Adoptee Voices (ICAV) published Sexual Abuse in Intercountry Adoption, a Perspective Paper bringing together the experiences of 31 adult intercountry and transracial adoptee survivors.
Their contributions reveal experiences that are too often hidden: sexual abuse within families and environments assumed to be safe, difficulties speaking out, failures to protect children, and consequences that can continue throughout adulthood.
The paper also highlights a serious gap in intercountry adoption systems: the lack of ongoing, independent follow-up to check whether adopted children are safe and supported.
This page presents six important messages from the survivors’ collective experiences, practical recommendations, and a growing collection of international resources.
Being adopted does not guarantee a child is safe. Every adoptee deserves protection, to be believed, and access to appropriate lifelong support.
Content note: This page discusses childhood sexual abuse, trauma and systemic failures. It does not include graphic descriptions. Please read at your own pace, skip sections or return when you feel ready.
Six Key Messages from Adoptee Survivors
These themes bring together experiences and recommendations shared in ICAV’s 2024 Perspective Paper. They reflect the contributors’ experiences and do not suggest that every adoptee has experienced abuse.
01 · Safety
Adoption does not guarantee safety
Children may experience abuse in families and environments that have been assessed and approved as safe. Adoption should never remove the responsibility to check on a child’s wellbeing.
What needs to change
Independent follow-up and continuing child protection responsibilities after adoption.
02 · Silence
Why adoptees remain silent
Fear of rejection, dependency on adoptive families, pressure to be grateful and uncertainty about whom to trust can make disclosure particularly difficult.
What needs to change
Safe, confidential opportunities for adoptees to speak with trusted people outside their families.
03 · Disclosure
When survivors are not believed
Contributors described being ignored, dismissed or blamed when trying to communicate their experiences. Such responses can deepen trauma and damage trust.
What needs to change
Professionals and families who recognise disclosures, respond without blame and act to protect children.
04 · Lifelong Impacts
The effects can continue lifelong
Sexual abuse may affect identity, bodily autonomy, relationships, trust and wellbeing. For intercountry adoptees, these experiences can intersect with separation, displacement, racism and cultural loss.
What needs to change
Recognition that support needs can emerge and change throughout life.
05 · Support
Survivors need appropriate support
General sexual abuse services may not understand adoption-related experiences, while adoption services may lack expertise in sexual trauma. Survivors can be left without appropriate help.
What needs to change
Independent, trauma-informed and adoption-informed support, shaped by survivors’ choices.
06 · Accountability
Adoption systems must be accountable
Protecting children must not end when an adoption is finalised. Governments and adoption systems need effective safeguards, accountability and ways for adoptees to seek protection and redress.
What needs to change
Independent oversight, safe reporting pathways, professional education and lifelong assistance.
An Adopte Perspective: Adoption, Abuse and Self Worth
A Conversation with Tanya Kaanta
Korean intercountry adoptee Tanya shares her perspective in this short ICAV interview exploring adoption, abuse and self-worth.
Video interview · approximately 6.5 minutes
Read the entire Perspective Paper
The six themes above are an introduction to the collective experiences and recommendations shared by survivors.
The complete ICAV Perspective Paper, published on 18 November 2024, contains the individual contributions of 31 adoptees. Their voices remain central to this work.
We encourage readers who want a deeper understanding to explore the original contributions respectfully and at their own pace.
195 pages · English · PDF
Content note: The complete paper contains detailed personal accounts of sexual abuse and its impacts.
Global Resources: Research, Education, Support & Advocacy
ICAV maintains this growing collection of international resources to help adoptees, survivors, families, professionals, researchers and policymakers understand and respond to sexual abuse in intercountry adoption.
It brings together adoptee-led research, survivor perspectives, professional guidance, broader child protection evidence, and pathways toward support and accountability.
Resources come from different countries and systems. Some are specific to intercountry adoption, while others provide relevant knowledge about sexual abuse, prevention, healing or justice.
This list will continue to grow as new information and resources become available.
➤Research on Adoptees and Abuse
Research on Adoptees and Abuse
2026 PEAR study by Lynn Roche Zubov involving 898 adoptees identifies accounts of abuse, controlling behaviour and fear within adoptive families, but does not measure the rates of types of abuse (most relevant p 15-16).
2023 Korean National Human Rights Commission study: English translation.
The largest study of 658 Korean intercountry adoptees showing a sexual abuse statistic of 13.5% (see pages 41, 80, 147, 200, 201, 225).
2022 Global anonymous adoptee survey of 304 adoptees, by Paul Brian Tovey.
Showing 28% (see page 7).
2021 UK Adoptee Emancipation Pilot Survey of 84 adoptees, by Paul Brian Tovey.
Showing 38% experienced child abuse inside their UK adoptions.
2017 Adoption Surveys Results in Adult Adoptee Perceptions in International Adoption of 253 adoptees, by Stephanie May Staats & Katie Nelson Burns.
Showing 37% experience physical and verbal abuse in adoptive homes.
2014 Meeting the adoption support needs of adopted adults who have been abused within their adoptive family: Lessons from historical placements, by Perlita Harris and published at CORAM BAAF.
➤ ICAV Research, Submissions & Education
ICAV Research, Submissions & Education
2021 ICAV submission to Australia’s National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children.
2021 ICAV submission to the Royal Commission on Violence, Abuse, Neglect & Exploitation of People with Disability.
ICAV’s Trauma in Adoption resources.
➤ Survivors Voices: Written, Film & Media
Survivor Voices: Written, Film & Media
2026 The Lost Children: Indian Adoptees Confront Identity, Trauma and the Cost of “Rescue” (media article – half way down, Stephanie shares)
2026 Adopted for Sex: Surviving Complex Trauma (Justin KH, book)
2025 Shattered Child: A Memoir (Sumie Filmer, book)
2025 De Afhaalchinnes, series 2 episode 3 (video series in Dutch)
2025 Incest and Adoption – The Double Taboo (Médor, Flemish Belgium, journal article)
2024 Sexual Abuse in Adoption (Kamina The Koach, YouTube)
2024 Niet Geboren Op Mijn Verjaardag (Sam van den Haak, in Dutch, book)
2024 The Quiet Whistleblower (in development in France, documentary)
2021 Chamila – lifelong impact of abuse in adoption (short video 4:29 min)
2021 Sasha Frugone (podcast: Heal, Transform, Thrive)
2021 Tara Footner (podcast: Adapted)
2020 Lynelle Long : The Legacy and Impacts of Abuse in Adoption (3-part blog series)
➤ Healing & Survivor Support
Healing & Survivor Support
MeToo: Healing Survivors Sanctuary
Child Sexual Abuse Counselling Service, Relationships Australia South Australia
➤ Disclosure, Prevention & Justice
Disclosure, Prevention & Justice
2025 Research on what helps or prevents children from disclosing sexual abuse
2022 Episode 29: Sexual Abuse Lawsuits – Your legal questions answered with Kathryn Robb Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (podcast: relevant to the USA).
2021 What About the Rapists? An Abolitionist FAQ Series from Interrupting Criminalization
2021 Child Sexual Abuse – A Guide for Adoptive Parents, by Adoptive Families Association of BC
2021 8 Toxic Things Parents Say to Their Children (video)
Explores the impacts of toxic parents
➤ Wider Child Protection Research
Wider Child Protection Research
2023 Australian Child Maltreatment Study
2002 Research on household composition and fatal maltreatment risk
Shows risk of maltreatment increases with non biological parents
Explore Survivor-Centred Education & Healing
Understanding the experiences of survivors is only one part of the conversation.
ICAV has also developed survivor-centred educational and creative resources exploring sexual trauma, identity, survival, relationships and healing.
These include an educational video with trauma sexologist and intercountry adoptee Lisa Enik Indrayani, nine audio reflections by Sasha Frugone, and artwork expressing experiences that words alone may not capture.
Survivors Deserve To Be Heard
Adoptees who have experienced sexual abuse deserve to be believed, protected and treated with dignity.
Their experiences should inform how adoption systems protect children, how professionals respond to disclosures, and how governments meet their responsibilities throughout an adoptee’s life.
We acknowledge the courage and trust of the 31 survivors who contributed to ICAV’s Perspective Paper. Their experiences and recommendations form the foundation of this resource.
If you are seeking support, visit ICAV’s Post Adoption Support Directory. ICAV’s educational and peer-support resources are not emergency services. If someone is in immediate danger, contact an appropriate local emergency or crisis service.