Mental health articles

How to prevent child sexual abuse? To adequately prevent child sexual abuse requires that we target the offending behavior. To do so, we need to design and fund programs that test innovative prevention approaches. While the causal research to fully understand risk factors for offending has not yet been done, enough research is available to suggest that sexual abuse is often an extension of the socialization patterns of males. Thus, prevention programs that target sociocultural factors need to be given priority. We also need to consider programs that teach the bounds of appropriate behavior to children and adolescents (Bolen, in press). These age-specific programs could be integrated into the curriculum of all elementary, middle, and high schools. These programs should especially focus on the bounds of behavior between males and females, although same-sex relationships should not be ignored. Funding could also be earmarked for longitudinal studies that follow sexually aggressive children exposed to these programs. Programs should also consider how to target the greater society. How can messages about appropriate conduct with children be heard? How can the media be utilized to give messages about appropriate conduct with children? Another important prevention program is the basic education of the layperson, which should become a priority so that parents become aware of the threat of sexual abuse to their children. While basic education should continue to inform the layperson about the threat of sexual abuse by nonrelated but known others, we also need to continue the emphasis on the threat of intrafamilial abuse. Professionals have fought long and hard to educate an unwilling public that relatives also pose a threat of sexual abuse to children. Thus, educating the public that both relatives and nonrelatives, and especially individuals the child already knows, pose a real threat is the logical course of action. Basic education should also target the erroneous and sometimes outlandish messages of the backlash. Parents, teachers, and all individuals coming into contact with children should be made aware that false disclosures are rare, even in custody or divorce disputes. The public should also be aware that a significant number of traumatized individuals do forget and later remember incidents of abuse. In other words, the public should have the information available to allow them to make informed judgments. This basic information will not only contribute to the prevention of child sexual abuse, but will also defuse the power of the backlash.

Tags: child, sexual abuse