Prevention-enhancing interactions: a Critical Interpretive Synthesis of the evidence about children who sexually abuse other children

Abstract

There is a growing interest in English‐speaking jurisdictions, including Australia, North America, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, about the prevention of sexual abuse perpetrated by children against other children. The aim of this review was to identify opportunities for research, policy and practice which could enhance the prevention agenda relating to the perpetration of sexual abuse by children through conducting a Critical Interpretive Synthesis. Eleven electronic databases were searched in the period from 22 April to 23 May 2013 and included: SocINDEX, Social Services Abstracts, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, Family and Society Studies Worldwide, Project Muse, PsychINFO, Family and Society Plus, Jstor, Expanded Academic ASAP, Web of Science and Google Scholar. Key individual journals were also searched, including Child Abuse and Neglect and the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, as well as the grey literature. The search was guided by the research question: How could the prevention agenda relating to sexual abuse perpetrated by children be enhanced? The systematic literature search yielded 3323 titles, and 34 of these papers were included in the final synthesis. The authors identified five domains operating in the evidence base: characteristics, causes, communications, interventions and treatments. A synthesising construct emerged from the review: prevention‐enhancing interactions. This construct referred to the potential for enhancing the prevention agenda which exists as the evidence domains interact with one another, and with the public health model of prevention. The authors consider this review to be a timely contribution to the current agenda pertaining to sexual abuse perpetrated by children. It provides researchers, policy makers and practitioners in the field with an evidence‐informed conceptualisation of opportunities for enhancing prevention work.

Teachers’ responses to harmful sexual behaviour in primary school – findings from a digital survey among primary school teachers

“…The report stresses the need for systematic teaching of sexual health on all levels of the education system as a measure to prevent sexual abuse and HSB among children (Askeland et al, 2017). Such recommendations concur with the broader international debate on teachers' and schools' role in prevention of sexual abuse (Carmody, 2009;Flood et al, 2009;Goldschmidt-Gjerløw, 2019;Letourneau et al, 2017;McKibbin et al, 2016;Sprott et al, 2005).…”

Physical Violence Against Children and Adolescents in Porto: A 5-Year Study

“…PVCA encompasses not only those situations but also a more comprehensive reality, as it includes other situations, such as dating violence (A. Moore, Sargenton, Ferranti, & Gonzales-Guarda, 2015; Tsitsika et al, 2014), violence against children by school staff (Devries et al, 2015), bullying, children who sexually abuse other children, and so forth (McKibbin, Humphreys, & Hamilton, 2015).…”

Child neglect and abuse: a global glimpse within the framework of evidence perspective

“…; McKibbin et al. ; Nathanson et al. ; Parker & Turner ; Parry & Simpson ; Thornton & Veenema ; Walsh et al.…”

“…; McKibbin et al. ), school‐based training programs (Walsh et al. ), and behavioural interventions and caregiver–child relationships (Schofield et al.…”