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Approaches to Assessment and Intervention With Children and Young People Who Engage in Harmful Sexual Behavior: A Scoping Review
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Approaches to Assessment and Intervention With Children and Young People Who Engage in Harmful Sexual Behavior: A Scoping Review

Lynne McPherson, Meaghan Vosz, Kathomi Gatwiri, Clarissa Hitchcock, Joe Tucci, Janise Mitchell, Cyra Fernandes and Noel Macnamara
Trauma, violence & abuse, Vol.25(2), pp.1585-1598
04/2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380231189293
PMID: 37533405
Appears in  Recent Faculty of Health Publications
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Abstract

sexual abuse child abuse child abusers treatment/intervention
This paper reports the findings of a project that conducted a rapid review of evidence regarding assessment and intervention approaches responding to children and young people who engage in harmful sexual behaviors. A literature review was conducted using a systematic search of academic databases and consultation with subject matter experts. The process resulted in 27 scholarly publications being included and analyzed to explore what was known about effective approaches with children and young people who have engaged in harmful sexual behavior. The review found that the current state of knowledge was limited, with few of the included papers reporting research outcomes. In the absence of a sound evidence base, additional theoretical literature and expert commentary have been drawn upon to better understand issues in this complex practice area. A key finding of this review was that growing awareness that children and young people who engage in harmful sexual behaviors are, first and foremost, children. They should not be regarded as soon-to-be-adults who are engaging in adult offending. This shift in thinking informs contemporary assessment and intervention approaches, challenging those models that previously focused on measuring risk using forensic approaches to predict the likelihood of future offending. A critical failure to understand the needs of specific cohorts of children and young people was also evident.

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