Developing a New Risk and Needs Assessment Tool for Young People Who Have Displayed Harmful Sexual Behaviour

Sexual harm committed by children and young people remains an increasing problem in the UK, with the children's charity Barnardo's reporting that between 2013-2016 alone, sexual harm committed by children and young people increased by nearly 80%. Estimates show that those under the age of 18 perpetrate 25% of intra-familial abuse and up to a third to two-thirds of all child sexual abuse. With two thirds of young people who display harmful sexual behaviours having experienced similar behaviour themselves, it remains imperative that the safeguarding and welfare needs of these children are being met. Risk assessment tools are frequently utilised to prioritise those most at risk of reoffence and to help guide treatment and intervention goals. However, many tools currently in place for the assessment of risk and need in this population are not fully validated; have been developed from research on adult sexual offenders; are not applicable to all subtypes of adolescents; or more concerningly, do not accurately predict risk. Operating in close partnership with the CASE partner, G-Map Services, this project aims to develop a new risk and needs assessment tool for use with young people who show harmful sexual behaviour. This project will identify known risk and protective factors for harmful sexual behaviours based on a systematic review of the literature, in order to develop a novel coding schedule to code these factors from a cohort of case files provided by G-Map Services. Identifying risk and protective factors can inform practitioners as to what is likely to increase or decrease an adolescent's likelihood of offending or reoffending. In order to validate this tool, this project will seek to access retrospective recidivism data via the police national computer for the case files of this cohort, as a means of assessing the predictive accuracy of the tool developed. In doing so, the sensitivity and specificity of the tool can be established, thereby avoiding the under- or over-estimation of risk and ensuring cases can be identified and managed with appropriate service provision. Through working closely with the CASE partner, this risk assessment tool will be made available for other practitioners in the field, alongside bespoke training provided by the CASE partner. Consequently, this project will help inform both regional and national policy on sexually harmful behaviours.