Twelve points of focus for preventing child sexual abuse

1. Twelve points of focus for preventing child sexual abuse Innovative Approaches to Crime Control Conference 9 July 2010 Stephen Smallbone Professor, School of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Griffith University Director, Griffith Youth Forensic Service Australian Research Council Future Fellow S.Smallbone@griffith.edu.au IACC conference

2. Four prerequisites for preventing CSA • Sound evidence-base • What, who, where, when, how? • Offenders; victims; offence settings; the social ecology of CSA • Coherent theory • Joins the empirical dots; moves from description to explanation • Integrating levels of explanation (individual; situational; ecological) • Comprehensive prevention model • A conceptual framework for organising prevention strategies, identifying prevention targets, and selecting ‘what works’ • Commitment to knowledge-based, prevention-centred policy and practice • Local; regional; national; international IACC conference

3. Prevention models Public health model • Primary (or universal) prevention • Preventing potential victims from being victimised for the first time • Preventing potential offenders from committing a first offence • Secondary (or selected) prevention • Focused on ‘at-risk’ individuals, groups and places • Relies on evidence of risk and protective factors associated with offending and victimisation • Prediction error • Tertiary (or indicated) prevention • Preventing recidivism and repeat/re-victimisation • Prediction error IACC conference

4. Prevention models Tonry & Farrington’s crime prevention model • Developmental prevention • Targets developmental risk and protective factors associated with offending (and victimisation?) • Situational prevention • Targets criminogenic features of potential crime settings • Community prevention • Local solutions to local problems (e.g. ‘Communities that Care’) • Criminal justice interventions • Day to day activities of police, courts, corrections, youth justice, etc • Detection; deterrence; incapacitation; rehabilitation IACC conference

5. Prevention models An integrated model(Smallbone, Marshall & Wortley, 2008) • Four essential targets • Offenders / potential offenders • Victims / potential victims • Specific situations in which abuse has occurred / is more likely to occur • Communities • Three levels of prevention • Primary prevention • Secondary prevention • Tertiary prevention • Thus, 12 points of focus for prevention efforts (4 essential targets x 3 prevention levels) IACC conference

6. 12 points of focus for preventing CSA IACC conference

7. Offender-focused approaches Offenders/potential offenders • Almost always male • Developmental adversity common (but not universal) • Two main onset risk periods (adolescence and early middle-age) • CSA offending often part of broader pattern of socially irresponsible conduct (but sometimes specialised) • Typically know the victim before first abuse incident (but sometimes strangers) • Abuse incidents typically occur in context of aggression or nurturance (or both) • Different offence-related motivations for potential, novice, and persistent offenders • e.g. planning/grooming more conscious and deliberate as offending progresses IACC conference

8. Offender-focused approaches Offender-focused prevention • Developmental prevention • Reducing abuse-related dispositions/vulnerabilities in whole populations (primary) or at-risk groups (secondary) • Reducing exposure to adverse developmental events • Minimising –ve outcomes for those who are exposed • Socialisation for responsible social and sexual behaviour • Promoting +ve attachments to family, community & its institutions (schools; elders; +ve cultural activities & traditions) • ‘early in life’ and ‘early in the developmental pathway’ • Importance of life-phase transitions (perinatal; transition to school; transition to high school; transition to parenting) • Formal interventions • Early detection; general and specific deterrence; incapacitation; rehabilitation IACC conference

9. Victim-focused approaches Victims/potential victims • Girls approx twice at risk • Peak risk at adolescence and pre-adolescence • Boys somewhat older? • Typically know the offender (often for long periods) • Girls more likely to be abused in familial settings; boys in nonfamilial settings • Individual & family vulnerabilities • Increase risk of being abused; increase negative outcomes following abuse • Poly-victimisation • Co-incidence of emotional, physical, sexual abuse and neglect • Re-victimisation and repeat victimisation IACC conference

10. Victim-focused approaches Victim-focused prevention • Developmental prevention • Similar risk & protective factors for offending and victimisation • Universal developmental interventions may therefore reduce both • ‘Resistance training’ • Protective behaviours / personal safety programs • Resilience building • Secure personal & social attachments; building confidence/self-esteem • Capable guardianship & creating safe environments • Early detection • Creating conditions that promote discovery & disclosure, and that promote +ve outcomes • Preventing repeat/re-victimisation IACC conference

11. Situation-focused approaches Abuse/potential abuse settings • Place characteristics • Domestic, institutional and public settings (also ‘virtual’ settings) • Routine activities • Situations as opportunity • Assumes presence of motivated offender • Risk, effort, reward • Situations may also evoke abuse-related motivations • Cues, prompts, temptations, social pressures, perceived provocations • Three types of ‘controllers’ • Capable guardians, handlers, & place managers IACC conference

12. Situation-focused approaches Situational prevention • Situational prevention principles have wide application; specific prevention strategies designed for specific settings • Begins with micro-level situational analysis • It’s the detail that counts • Principles • Creating / strengthening natural situational barriers • Increasing (perceived) risk; increasing effort; reducing permissibility • Strengthening formal & informal child protection systems • Enabling guardians, handlers & place managers • Extended guardianship IACC conference

13. Community-focused approaches The social ecology of sexual abuse • Abuse influenced by multiple ecological systems within which the offender and victim are socially embedded • Individual (biological/psychological systems) • Family • Peers • Work/school • Neighbourhood • Service agencies/systems • Broader socio-cultural environment • More proximal systems exert more direct, and therefore more powerful, influence IACC conference

14. Community-focused approaches Community-focused prevention • Community-level child maltreatment prevention models • Parenting education • Local/neighbourhood family support services • Home visitation services • Community-level crime prevention models • Mobilisation of collective interests (e.g. in child protection) • e.g. ‘Communities that Care’ • Local projects overseen by local management board (usually with paid co-ordinator) • External training & support services • Risk & resource audits undertaken by local board • Prioritise 2-5 specific problems • Select from menu of evidence-based interventions • Process & outcome evaluations built in IACC conference

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16. Moving forward Developing the evidence- and theory-base • Need for prevention-focused research • focus on offence/abuse onset (the most important incident to prevent) • identifying risk/protective factors specific to sexual offending/victimisation • need to develop and integrate knowledge on offenders, victims, their social ecologies, & abuse situations • specialised knowledge + wider knowledge-base • need to develop and test interventions • Need to integrate theoretical ‘threads’ • evolutionary, developmental, ecological, situational (Smallbone, Marshall & Wortley, 2008) IACC conference

17. Moving forward Strengthening commitment to knowledge-based, prevention-centred policy & practice • Child sexual abuse seen as a distinct, inexplicable, ‘unnatural’ phenomenon • unlike other forms of crime or other forms of child maltreatment? • requires special explanation and unique solutions? • explanation focused on limited number of deviant individuals • Political, media & public focus on punishing and incapacitating offenders • driven by powerful stereotypes, based on most extreme cases • CSA occupies central position in ‘law & order’ debates • hard vs soft, rather than effective vs ineffective IACC conference