Engaging potential offenders in the prevention of child sexual abuse

Survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) are at increased risk of experiencing short and long-term psychological and interpersonal problems (Maniglio, 2009; Easton, 2014; Ventus et al., 2017). The UK Government recently committed £40 million to tackling CSA (Home Office, 2017), but the focus is overwhelmingly on abuse that has been perpetrated, with minimal attention paid to prevention. In the realm of prevention, most projects focus on coaching children to identify inappropriate sexual behaviour (Brown & Saied-Tessier, 2015), or target convicted offenders (ECSA, 2017). Little is known about intervening with people at risk of perpetrating CSA before an offence has been committed.

I am taking a holistic approach, combining social policy and forensic psychiatry to understand what is needed to prevent CSA before a first offence. The most suitable theoretical framework is Gadd & Jefferson's psychosocial criminology (2007) as the authors encourage research which interrogates the unique set of circumstances that lead to offending. I will critically combine this framework with a public health approach to violence prevention, in order to answer the following research questions:
1. What is known about interventions which engage potential offenders in preventing CSA?
2. What elements of existing interventions would be applicable within a UK policy context?
3. What are public attitudes in the UK to engaging potential offenders in preventing CSA?
4. What are the views of stakeholders on engaging potential offenders in preventing CSA?

Pursuit of the above questions will generate a rich body of data which will provide me with an indepth understanding of how best to engage potential offenders in CSA prevention. I will then consolidate the findings in order to propose an intervention that is ready to trial in a UK context.