The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been dominated by abuses perpetrated in the Roman Catholic Church. Its final report bears enduring witness to abuse on a horrific scale.

The study and discussion of child sex offending is replete with stereotypes of predators and molesters who prey on children. These stereotypes are often used to characterise child sexual abuse as the problem of a deviant minority, and so the only available response is to identify and incarcerate those responsible.

Peter McClellan closes inquiry into historic abuses with call for reforms Survivors in Sydney wear ‘Thank you royal commission’ badges Explainer: why the royal commission had to happenThe Reckoning, part 1: the road to the royal commission – podcast

It is a day of reckoning for many victims of child sexual abuse, with a book of their accounts of suffering handed to the National Library of Australia on the final day of the royal commission.

After five years, 1,200 witness accounts and more than 8,000 private sessions with survivors, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has come to a close. Here are some of the numbers revealed in the 17 volumes that make up the final report.

We can act on the vital recommendations of the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse but must maintain due process for the accused, says writer and barrister Greg Barns.