Developing a new risk and needs assessment tool for young people who have displayed harmful sexual behaviour

Sexual harm committed by youth is an increasing issue in the UK. Estimates suggest that those under the age of 18 perpetrate 25% of intra-familial abuse and up to 66% of all child sexual abuse. With two thirds of young people who display harmful sexual behaviour having experienced similar behaviours themselves, it is important that the safeguarding and welfare needs of these youth are being met.
As part of this project, risk and protective factors will be identified in a systematic literature review on youth who have displayed harmful sexual behaviour. Then, a risk and needs assessment tool and a novel coding schedule to code these factors will be developed, which well be tested on case files of a cohort of young people who have sexually harmed. Finally, retrospective access to recidivism data for the cohort of case files will be utilised.
The development of a new risk and needs assessment tool will help to avoid under or over-representation of risk, ensure that cases can be appropriately identified and managed with appropriate service provision and bring greater consideration to wider systemic and social factors.
By using an existing cohort of case files and accessing Police National Computer data on reoffences in this cohort, the sensitivity and specificity of the tool developed will be established.
The CASE partner, G-map services, will be worked with closely to ensure the impact of this work, which will inform assessment and intervention practices, and local and national policy on youth who have sexually harmed. The risk and needs assessment tool will be of direct benefit to the CASE partner and will be made available for use by other professionals working with youth who have sexually harmed. The proposed project will involve reading and coding highly sensitive material from G-map services case files and managing highly sensitive data related to reoffence information regarding the cases.