Agenda & Learning Objectives
8:00 am – 9:00 am Registration
9:00 am – 9:05 am Welcome - Elizabeth Letourneau, PhD
9:05 am – 9:45 am Child Sexual Abuse Prevention – What have we achieved and what are the next steps?
Presenter: Elizabeth Letourneau, PhD, Professor of Mental Health and Director, Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Child sexual abuse has traditionally been addressed through after-the-fact approaches such as treatment and law enforcement initiatives. Over the past decade, limited prevention efforts have expanded across the United States and the globe. This session will focus on monumental milestones made towards the prevention of child sexual abuse over the last decade and highlight crucial next steps to advancing prevention efforts.
From this presentation, participants will:
- Understand historically how prevention efforts took hold.
- Learn prevention strategies that have been successful in advancing prevention globally.
- Identify concrete next steps to advance child sexual abuse prevention.
9:45 – 10:30 am We Cannot Arrest Our Way Out of the Problem: The Importance of a Whole System Approach to Tackling Child Sexual Abuse
Presenter: Simon Bailey, CBE, QPM, DL
The global pandemic of child sexual abuse is one of the greatest societal challenges of the 21st century, this presentation will focus on the scale of the threat, the impact on victims, the results of a world leading strategy targeting offenders, and the evidence which highlights that a whole system response is the only solution.
From this presentation, participants will understand:
- The scale of the threat
- Impact on victims
- Role of law enforcement
- Evidence to support the requirement for a whole system approach.
10:30 am – 11:00 am Break
11:00 am – 12:05 pm How Can Policy and Funding Advance Prevention? Trends, Blockages, and Hopes for the Future.
Presenters: Iain Drennan, Executive Director of WeProtect Global Alliance
Prevention has often been the least prioritized aspect of society’s response to child sexual abuse, and yet it is the key to our ability to prevent abuse a scale. This session will explore the US strategy for prevention, the perspective of a global membership network on gaps and needs in policy and funding, and the opportunities that lie ahead.
From this presentation, participants will:
- Understand the trends in multilateral and national policy to prevent child sexual abuse.
- Explore the political and industry dynamics that hinder progress.
- Identify the key opportunities for the prioritization of prevention in the coming decade.
12:05 pm – 1:40 pm Lunch
1:40 pm – 2:20 pm Prevalence of Experiencing Boundary Violating Behaviors and Child Sexual Abuse in Large Youth Serving Organizations in the United States
Presenters: Luciana Assini-Meytin, PhD
Many youth serving organizations (YSOs) implement child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention strategies. This study examined: 1) the prevalence of CSA and boundary violating behaviors in YSOs and the 2) distribution of CSA and boundary violating behaviors across four YSO settings: large organizations for recreation and culture, organized sports, religious organizations, and music or arts programs. To assess whether these experiences have declined over time, we compared the rates of CSA and boundary violations by two nationally representative cohorts of US adults, one younger (ages 18-22; N = 3,174) and one older (ages 32-36; N = 3,237). Our results showed that 3.75% (n=363) of the entire sample reported experiencing CSA by adults in any YSO setting. Among survivors, younger adults reported a lower proportion of abuse experienced in large organizations for recreation and culture compared to older adults (29.1% vs 44.5%; p <.05). No statistically significantly differences in CSA victimization by cohort were observed in other three YSO settings (i.e., organized sports, religious organizations, music or arts programs). While not casual, these findings suggest that efforts to prevent CSA in large organizations for recreation and culture are yielding positive results.
From this presentation, participants will:
- Be able to identify the prevalence rates of sexual abuse in large youth serving organizations and whether there has been a reduction in sexual abuse over time.
- Be able to identify some of the features that are associated with sexual abuse in large youth serving organizations and whether there have been reductions of these features over time.
- Better understand what organization and individual characteristics predict sexual abuse in large youth serving organizations and some of the downstream impacts of this form of sexual abuse.
2:30 pm – 3:15pm BREAK-OUT SESSION: Adapting Responsible Behavior with Younger Children for Teens with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Presenter: Amanda Ruzicka, Senior Research Associate and Deputy Center Director
In recent years, child sexual victimization has been increasingly acknowledged as a preventable public health problem and the inclusion of prevention curricula in classrooms has become a popular solution. Over 75% of states in the United States (U.S.) have mandated school-based prevention programs that include age-appropriate child sexual abuse prevention content in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade classrooms. Despite such mandates, there are few evidence-based programs to address this need. Most prevention programs aim to teach children to recognize, resist, and report abuse, a responsibility experts argue should be shared with those most likely to engage in abuse. Over half of instances of child sexual victimization results from teens engaging younger children in sexual behaviors or peers in coerced sexual behaviors. Teens represent a unique population who are at risk of experiencing victimization while, at the same time, are at increased risk for engaging in problematic sexual behaviors against younger children and peers. Few prevention programs are designed for implementation with young teens in middle school, and even fewer are designed to meet the needs of neurodiverse teens, who experience heightened risks when compared to their neurotypical peers. Responsible Behavior with Younger
Children (RBYC) is a middle school prevention curriculum designed to prevent the onset of adolescent problematic sexual behavior by providing teens with the knowledge, skills, and resources to reduce their risks of engaging younger children in sexual behavior or engaging peers in non-consensual sexual behaviors. This talk will describe the development and initial evaluation of the RBYC program as well as focus on the adaptation for teens in intellectual and developmental disabilities.
From this presentation, participants will:
- Be able to examine a new prevention program aimed at preventing the onset of problematic sexual behavior directed towards younger children and peers by targeting young adolescents with universal prevention programming.
- Be better able to identify the primary strengths of the RBYC program and it’s adaptation.
- Examine the preliminary results of the pilot test of the RBYC intervention on select proximal outcomes.
3:15 pm – 4:00 pm Student Poster Session
4:00 pm – 4:55pm Behind the Camera: Unpacking Abuse in the Family
Presenters: Amanda Mustard, Filmmaker and Photographer; Luke Malone, Journalist and Producer; and Elizabeth Letourneau, PhD, Professor of Mental Health and Director, Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
HBO Documentary Great Photo, Lovely Life director Amanda Mustard is joined by Moore Center director Elizabeth Letourneau and the documentary’s producer Luke Malone for a discussion on what can happen to a family in the wake of sexual abuse, and how one goes about telling their family’s story onscreen.
From this presentation, participants will:
- Understand more about the complex nature of familial sexual abuse.
- Understand the various ways that relationships can be impacted by abuse.
- Gain knowledge of potential prevention interventions.
4:55 pm – 5:00 pm Closing
5:00 pm – 5:15 pm Registration closes
