NCJ Number
192602
Journal
Trauma, Violence, & Abuse Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2002 Pages: 68-84
Date Published
January 2002
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This review of the child sexual abuse literature focused on efforts to prevent child sexual abuse.
Abstract
Prevention efforts have targeted potential child victims, parents, teachers, and offenders. The literature review found that prevention efforts have focused on educating children about sexual abuse. Overall, the results of research concerning children's knowledge about sexual abuse following such prevention efforts have been favorable. Prevention efforts have targeted parent populations as well. Results of such programs suggest that they can be effective in teaching parents to be educators of their children regarding personal safety and sexual abuse. Although surveys have shown that teachers are undereducated in the area of child sexual abuse, research on prevention efforts that target teachers has demonstrated that teachers have felt that such programs have been insufficient in both quantity and quality. In an effort to reach offenders and potential offenders through prevention efforts, media campaigns that target the general public have proven effective in increasing public awareness about sexual abuse and in identifying those who are currently abusing, encouraging them to seek help. The authors recommend that prevention efforts should concentrate on offenders and potential offenders as well as the adults who interact with children. They further recommend that research efforts in prevention focus on intervention specificity, i.e., what types of interventions work for what types of children, family members, and potential offenders. 80 references