Evidence-informed approaches to preventing sexual violence and abuse

Abstract

This chapter examines evidence-informed approaches to preventing sexual violence and abuse (SVA). There has been no widely agreed theory or integrated prevention framework guiding SVA prevention efforts. The most widely implemented strategies have involved teaching children and young women to protect themselves from SVA (or to report it if it does occur), and to engage convicted sexual offenders in treatment and risk management programs. Effectiveness of protective behaviours programmes remains equivocal with respect to preventing actual SVA. High-quality offender treatment programs can reduce recidivism, but do not of course prevent the problem from occurring in the first place. Prevention efforts need to come to grips with the multifaceted nature of the problem. New strategies are needed that enable the most serious problems to be identified and prioritized, the dimensions, scope, and dynamics of these specific problems to be established, and prevention strategies designed to fit the problem at hand.