Thiseditorial describes theethical and systemic issues relevant to work with young sexual offenders against other children and outlines a proposed model for assessment. The need for assessment and treatment provi sions for children who sexually abuse other children has become increasingly apparent with greater understanding about the extent of sexual abuse carried out by juveniles (NCH, 1992). The picture from clinical work and from research studies suggests that the earliest possible intervention with abusing behaviour is needed to prevent escalation of the problem (Vizard, 1995). A semi-structured interview format has been designed to assist clinicians in the task of assessing risk, dangerousness and the treatabiity of juveniles who sexually abuse other children and young people. Active techniques have been developed to help overcome resistance and denial in young sexual offenders and to map patterns of sexual arousal. This model was developed from the psychiatric assessment of 80 young abusers between the age of 8â€"21years (mean age 14.7 years) who were referred to a specialist outpatient unit. Ethical issues Many professionals are reluctant to have labels such as ‘¿ sex offender', ‘¿ abuser' or ‘¿ perpetrator' attached to their child clients. Such important ethical considerations are closely connected to the major definitional issues surrounding work with young sexual abusers of children (Vizard et a!, 1995). The crux of the debate about definitional and ethical issues is whether it is the child who is being labelled or the behaviour. The behaviour itself may

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During the past 30 years, research into the phenomenon of sexually harmful behaviour has shifted from an adult focus to include adolescent and, more recently, childhood onset. This paper reports a study of onset, before the age of ten years, of sexually harmful behaviour in a group of 27 boys.Ethical consent was obtained to extract information from the case files of a national specialist service. A description of characteristics was built up from variable frequencies and quantitative and qualitative analysis produced findings that indicated a family history of cross-generational harm to children and a parental experience of unresolved harm in childhood generated inconsistent and insensitive parenting that was linked to high levels of maltreatment and insecurity of attachment in the research group. Sexualised reactions by the research subjects to a very high level of sexual victimisation were not responded to in a timely or appropriate way by parents, other caregivers or professionals so that sexually harmful behaviour continued without intervention for a significant period.The study proposes a three-stage model that identifies predisposing vulnerabilities, sexual victimisation as a trigger event and the subsequent development of sexually harmful behaviour as a protecting adaptation that assumes an aroused and organised aspect through repetition.

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