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
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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6. 12 points of focus for preventing CSA
Targets
Primary
prevention
Secondary
Tertiary
Offenders
General deterrence
Developmental
Engaging with at-
risk adolescent
and adult males
Early detection
Specific deterrence
Offender treatment
& risk management
Victims
‘Resistance training’
Resilience building
Support for at-risk
children
Ameliorating harm
Preventing repeat
victimisation
Situations
Opportunity
reduction
Extended
guardianship
Situational
prevention in at-
risk places
Safety plans
Relapse prevention
Organisational
interventions
Communities
Community
education
capacity-building
Interventions with
at-risk communities
high-prevalence
communities
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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15. Primary prevention Secondary Tertiary
Targets
Primary
prevention
Secondary
Tertiary
Offenders
General deterrence
Developmental
Engaging with at-
risk adolescent
and adult males
Early detection
Specific deterrence
Offender treatment
& risk management
Victims
‘Resistance training’
Resilience building
Support for at-risk
children
Ameliorating harm
Preventing repeat
victimisation
Situations
Opportunity
reduction
Extended
guardianship
Situational
prevention in at-
risk places
Safety plans
Relapse prevention
Organisational
interventions
Communities
Community
education
capacity-building
Interventions with
at-risk communities
high-prevalence
communities
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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)
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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
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