Incorporating what we know about perpetration into prevention

By Cordelia Anderson, guest blogger and host of the Ms. Foundation’s Ending Child Sexual Abuse Web Conference Series

What do you think of when you think of child molester? Monster. Dirty old man. Disgusting. Pervert. And the list went on.

Joan Tabachnick began July’s web conference with this question, focusing attention on the deeply emotional component of this topic. During the online event, titled Preventing the Perpetration of Child Sexual Abuse [listen to the recording], Joan and co-presenter David Prescott covered emerging research and the use of this research into prevention programs. David’s incredible overview of the research highlighted the wide variety of adults, adolescents and children who sexually abuse children. David also noted that despite widely and strongly held opinions, the research shows that most who commit sex offenses do not re-offend. This is true for both juveniles and adults who offend. And when they do re-offend, they are more likely to re-offend for non-sex crimes.

Why is this so difficult to get across? One key reason is that the stories seared in our minds are of the most monstrous offenders with many victims.

David also pointed out research findings that show the need to have treatment options that reflect the range of motivations for those who do perpetrate child sexual abuse. He shared research indicating that “punishment only” approaches don’t impact re-offense rates, while sentencing that combines treatment combined with supervision works best.

In addition, David described how emerging research about risk factors suggest that multiple risk factors without the buffers of protective factors create situations requiring clear intervention. Joan translated that research into a story: As one man in prison for sexual offenses said, “All the signs were there and no one – no one in my family, none of my friends, and no one at work – ever bothered to ask me about them.”

Both presenters provided a wealth of information about treatment, management and prevention. They also agreed that as people who care about the prevention of child sexual abuse, we must understand the signs and the conditions that allow children to be harmed and contribute to the development of perpetration behaviors. As the speakers noted, no child is born a sex offender.

Learn more about the Ending Child Sexual Abuse Web Conference Series.

Moving the Media towards Prevention

By Cordelia Anderson and Joan Tabachnick, co-hosts, Ending Child Sexual Abuse (ECSA) Web Conference Series

The second Ms. Foundation for Women Web Conference featured the Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) and Frameworks Institute discussing their research about working with the media to end child sexual abuse. The messages of the two presentations intertwined eloquently, bringing fresh insights to media work.

First, Pamela Mejia described the BMSG research, pointing to the dramatic change in reporting after the Penn State tragedy. Pamela first offered an excellent summary of their two recent reports commissioned by the Ms. Foundation, Case by Case: News Coverage of Child Sexual Abuse and Breaking News: Early Coverage of Penn State. The research highlighted a shift in media reporting of Penn State towards institutional (rather than individual) responsibility. Pamela also discussed the important opportunity that advocates had in the days immediately following the arrest of Sandusky. BMSG recommendations included:

• monitoring the media,
• piggybacking on breaking news,
• writing opinions,
• developing relationships with journalists, and
• being very intentional about the language used.

Moira O’Neil followed with an overview of the public perception research the Frameworks Institute has done with Prevent Child Abuse America and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Moira discussed findings from both studies and described their process of finding the right frame to change the public’s understanding of the child sexual abuse. Key pre-existing frames to overcome include:

• the idea of the family bubble, which reinforces individual parents and child’s responsibilities to protect themselves from harm, and
• the belief that the harm resulting from adverse childhood experiences is not all that bad and the sense that “what didn’t kill us makes us stronger.”

She noted that people tend to think our media messages are going into an open mind, but offered a helpful reminder that the mind is more like a swamp and it is easy to get stuck and hard to get through. She offered the following example: although most people know CSA is a problem perpetrated by those they know, when they get to solutions they revert to thinking about stranger danger. Finally, Moira echoed BMSG recommendations on the importance of focusing the media on the role of communities in prevention and the social causes of child sexual abuse rather than relegating the response to individual choices.

Our closing message: while the media is powerful, it can also be a powerful tool for solutions. We need to build a bigger choir of voices singing the stories of solutions, including stories of organizational and community change in the face of child sexual abuse.

The Future is in our Past

Guest post by Cordelia Anderson and Joan Tabachnick, co-hosts, Ending Child Sexual Abuse (ECSA) Web Conference Series

With over 60 years of experience across the three eloquent speakers, the Ms. Foundation for Women (MFW) launched the new web conference series “Ending Sexual Abuse” to a sold out crowd.

The first web conference focused on highlighting Efforts to End Child Sexual Abuse within the Sexual Violence Prevention Movement. The three speakers, Gina Scaramella, Executive Director, Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, Donna Dunn, Executive Director, Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Sally J. Laskey, Director Special Projects, National Sexual Violence Resource Center all agreed that ending child sexual abuse was essential to their own work to stopping sexual violence across the lifespan of women.

Together, the speakers pointed to ways child sexual abuse has been addressed throughout the history of their organizations—from early speak outs, to advocacy with adult survivors, to collaborative work for social change.

Gina talked about BARCC’s work with early childhood education and how their own research showed that 70% of the early education and care workers saw some sexual behavior, but few of them any idea how to respond. The curriculum BARCC developed provides information about healthy sexual development and addresses practical questions such as how to deal with sexual behaviors in these settings.

Donna pointed to their statewide policy work to garner attention for prevention. MNCASA has been able to mobilize a broader community through engaging Voices of Experience and over 50 partners to Demand the Change for Children.

Sally highlighted the ways NSVRC learns from local efforts to develop ground breaking national resources based on collected knowledge, such as, research on bystanders, research on healthy sexuality and involvement in the National Coalition to Prevention to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation.

Together, each of the speakers sent a clear message that:

• Child sexual abuse is a foundational component of the sexual violence prevention movement
• There are many new ways of pushing for substantive change when we focus on ending child sexual abuse
• Finding the right partners can lift our work into the minds and hearts of our communities

The web conference ended with a long listing of prevention actions. What can you do? Here are just a few ideas:

• Attend or listen to a recording of a MFW Web Conference
• Read the blogs and tell us what you are doing – post your own ideas and programs
• Learn more from the links listed in each webinar and in this blog
• Tell someone about the work you are doing or the work you are reading about
• Know you can make a difference and be part of an inspiring, urgent, and effective movement

Download the slides from this web conference.

View the full presentation online (you will be asked to enter your email address in order to sign-on).
Sign-up to learn more about upcoming sessions.

We hope you will join us for one of the future web conferences or look in the archives for one you missed. For more information visit the MFW and Prevent-Connect websites.