Situational Prevention of Youth Sexual Violence and Abuse

1. Situational Prevention of Youth Sexual Violence and Abuse Richard Wortley Griffith University Brisbane Australia

2. Why focus on situations? • All behaviour is a result of person and situation • The potential to commit crime is widely distributed in the community • A great deal of crime is opportunistic • Even planned crime is governed by situational factors • Crime is not a random event but is patterned by criminogenic environments • It is often easier to predict where and whencrime will occur than who will offend • Difficult to change offenders but easy to change situations

3. What is situational crime prevention? • Public health model - primary/secondary prevention • Focus on the crime event • Proximal versus distal causes • Search for crime hotspots • Micro-focus – specific crimes in specific locations • Creating safe environments rather than safe individuals • Two kinds of interventions: • Reducing ‘precipitators’ • Reducing opportunities

4. What has this got to do with youth sexual violence and abuse? • Traditional person-centred approach • View of offenders as suffering psychopathology • Internally driven • Early onset • Persistent • Specialised • Psychiatric rather than criminal • Identifying and screening risky individuals • Treating known offenders • Smallbone & Wortley (2000) • Low incidence of stranger abuse • Low levels of entrenched paedophilia • Late onset of sexual offending • Low persistence of sexual offending • High levels of offending versatility

5. Low incidence of stranger abuse • The myth of ‘stranger danger’ • 56.5% lived with child • 36.9% knew child • 6.5% stranger • Location • 69% at home • 7% public locations (e.g. public toilets, parks) • Offenders abuse victims who can be conveniently accessed as part of their routine activities

6. Low levels of entrenched paedophilia • Low levels of paedophile networking: • 8% talked to other offenders before prison • 4% member of paedophile group • Low levels of other sexual disorder • 5.4% exhibitionism • 9% frotteurism • 5% voyeurism • 4.2% public masturbation • 1.2% sexual masochism • Low pornography use • 10% use child pornography – 1.2% on Internet • Offenders do not need to be sexually disordered in order to abuse children

7. Late onset of sexual offending • Mean age of first contact 32.4 years • Modal age 31-40 years (37% of sample) • 10.6% 17-20 years • 6% > 50 years • Most juvenile offenders do not progress to adult sexual offending • However, early onset is associated with higher recidivism • Late onset a function of increased opportunities

8. Low persistence of sexual offending • Number of convictions • 77% first sex offence • Number of victims • 55% one victim • 3%>10 victims • Recidivism • Preliminary results <10% • Consistent with Hanson & Bussiere’s (1998) meta-analysis - 13% sex offence after 5 years release • Offenders deterred by consequences and reduced opportunity

9. High levels of offending versatility • Prior convictions • 57% non-sex offences (all major categories); 23% sex offences • Four time more likely first offence was non-sexual (82% versus 18%) • 5% serial specialists • Reconvictions • Sex offenders 3 times more likely to be reconvicted for non-sex offence (Hanson and Bussiere found 37% non-sexual recidivism) • Many child sex offenders have generalised impulse-control problems

10. Explaining youth sexual violence and abuse from a situational perspective • Potential to commit sexual violence and abuse more widespread than sexual deviancy model suggests • Evolutionary predisposition for youthful partners, sexual aggression, and self-interest • Failure to learn not to offend • Breakdown of personal, social & situational controls – children victimised because they are vulnerable • Sexual preference for children may be a consequence of offending – offending changes offenders • Importance of onset offence – primary prevention

11. Three types of offenders: • Committed • 23% serial sex offenders • Sexual preference for children • Manipulate environment to create opportunities • Opportunistic • 41% first time sex offenders/versatile criminal history • Sexually ambivalent/generalised poor self-control • Exploit opportunities • Reactive • 36% first time for any offence • No strong attraction to children/conventional • Respond to situational stressors and/or stimulation

12. Settings for sexual violence and abuse: • Public • Parks, public toilets, swimming pools etc • Prevention: Easy to intervene but low base rates • Institutional • Residential (orphanages, boarding schools, detention centres etc) and day-care (church, scouts, schools etc) • Prevention: Easy to intervene but hampered by secrecy, self-protection • Domestic • Home of victim or offender • Prevention: Relatively high base rates but hard to intervene

13. Suggested Prevention Strategies: Public Settings • Target hardening • Protective behaviours • Strengthening guardianship • Controlling tools • Child pornography controls • Utilizing place managers • Security staff to recognise grooming • Strengthening formal surveillance • Surveillance of high-risk locations • Surveillance of Internet chat rooms • Increasing natural surveillance • Design of public toilets • Design of playgrounds

14. Suggested Prevention Strategies: Institutional Settings • Controlling access • Visitors to report to office • Register of guardians to pick up children • Employee screening • Strengthening formal surveillance • Protocols for dealing with children • Regular inspections and reviews • Increasing natural surveillance • Glass panels in doors of interview rooms • Reducing permissibility • Humanising ‘total institutions’

15. Suggested Prevention Strategies: Domestic Settings • Extending guardianship • Teaching parents to recognise grooming • House rules for visitors • Controlling prompts • Supervising intimate tasks (bathing etc) • Offenders to avoid tempting situations • Siblings not sharing beds • Single room accommodation • Reducing permissibility • Alcohol controls • Direct challenges (eg via TV)

16. Implementation Issues: • Displacement? • Fuelling a moral panic, siege mentality? • Shifting responsibility to victims? • Access to premises – need to work through ‘capable guardians’

17. Conclusions • Current approaches to sexual violence and abuse based on misconceptions • Screening will not identify most potential offenders • Treatment/surveillance of known offenders will not prevent new offenders • Not all offenders ‘driven’ to offend (at least not initially) – may be deterred by situational interventions before they offend • Even committed offenders may be deflected by situational strategies • Implementation not always easy - need to avoid ‘siege mentality’