‘Think Global Act Local’: a place-based approach to sexual abuse prevention
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Author(s)
Rayment-McHugh, S
Adams, D
Wortley, R
Tilley, N
Year published
2015
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Child sexual abuse is a global concern and its prevention warrants international attention. However the prevalence of child sexual abuse is not evenly distributed amongst the world’s population, with observed rates in some countries, neighbourhoods or local contexts, much higher than in others. Abuse dimensions and dynamics, as well as underlying causal structures and processes, are also likely to differ from location to location within countries. Whilst clinical (individual-level) and epidemiological (whole-population) approaches dominate current research and prevention efforts, given these variations we advocate here for ...
View more >Child sexual abuse is a global concern and its prevention warrants international attention. However the prevalence of child sexual abuse is not evenly distributed amongst the world’s population, with observed rates in some countries, neighbourhoods or local contexts, much higher than in others. Abuse dimensions and dynamics, as well as underlying causal structures and processes, are also likely to differ from location to location within countries. Whilst clinical (individual-level) and epidemiological (whole-population) approaches dominate current research and prevention efforts, given these variations we advocate here for a local place-based approach to sexual abuse prevention that targets specific locations and contexts where these problems become concentrated. Pinpointing key problem contexts (hotspots), opportunity structures and precipitating conditions provides an opportunity to respond at a local neighbourhood or organisational level and target key underlying mechanisms, positioning prevention and intervention resources and efforts where they are most needed. Despite its local focus, this nuanced approach to prevention has the potential to be transferred to a range of locations and contexts around the world, facilitating a more efficient response to sexual abuse.
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View more >Child sexual abuse is a global concern and its prevention warrants international attention. However the prevalence of child sexual abuse is not evenly distributed amongst the world’s population, with observed rates in some countries, neighbourhoods or local contexts, much higher than in others. Abuse dimensions and dynamics, as well as underlying causal structures and processes, are also likely to differ from location to location within countries. Whilst clinical (individual-level) and epidemiological (whole-population) approaches dominate current research and prevention efforts, given these variations we advocate here for a local place-based approach to sexual abuse prevention that targets specific locations and contexts where these problems become concentrated. Pinpointing key problem contexts (hotspots), opportunity structures and precipitating conditions provides an opportunity to respond at a local neighbourhood or organisational level and target key underlying mechanisms, positioning prevention and intervention resources and efforts where they are most needed. Despite its local focus, this nuanced approach to prevention has the potential to be transferred to a range of locations and contexts around the world, facilitating a more efficient response to sexual abuse.
View less >
Journal Title
Crime Science
Volume
4
Copyright Statement
© 2015 Rayment-McHugh et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Subject
Causes and prevention of crime