Preventing youth sexual violence and abuse: Problems and solutions in the Australian context

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Author(s)
Smallbone, Stephen
Rayment-McHugh, Susan
Year published
2013
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Young people under 18 years of age are responsible for a significant proportion of officially recorded sexual offences worldwide, including in Australia. In this article we examine the wider problem of youth sexual violence and abuse, and propose solutions for the Australian context. We describe an ecological, field-based clinical forensic practice model developed in Queensland, and show how engagement with youth sexual offenders within their natural social ecologies has led to the discovery of specific endemic problems that would normally remain hidden or beyond the reach of conventional clinical services. Drawing on public ...
View more >Young people under 18 years of age are responsible for a significant proportion of officially recorded sexual offences worldwide, including in Australia. In this article we examine the wider problem of youth sexual violence and abuse, and propose solutions for the Australian context. We describe an ecological, field-based clinical forensic practice model developed in Queensland, and show how engagement with youth sexual offenders within their natural social ecologies has led to the discovery of specific endemic problems that would normally remain hidden or beyond the reach of conventional clinical services. Drawing on public health and crime prevention concepts and methods, we present a comprehensive framework for organising prevention strategies and describe how this framework has guided our approach to developing place-based prevention strategies at two sites. We conclude by outlining the changes we see as necessary for forensic psychology practitioners to engage in a wider crime prevention agenda.
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View more >Young people under 18 years of age are responsible for a significant proportion of officially recorded sexual offences worldwide, including in Australia. In this article we examine the wider problem of youth sexual violence and abuse, and propose solutions for the Australian context. We describe an ecological, field-based clinical forensic practice model developed in Queensland, and show how engagement with youth sexual offenders within their natural social ecologies has led to the discovery of specific endemic problems that would normally remain hidden or beyond the reach of conventional clinical services. Drawing on public health and crime prevention concepts and methods, we present a comprehensive framework for organising prevention strategies and describe how this framework has guided our approach to developing place-based prevention strategies at two sites. We conclude by outlining the changes we see as necessary for forensic psychology practitioners to engage in a wider crime prevention agenda.
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Journal Title
Australian Psychologist
Volume
48
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2013 The Australian Psychological Society. This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Preventing youth sexual violence and abuse: Problems and solutions in the Australian context, Australian Psychologist, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2013, pages 3–13, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1742-9544.2012.00071.x.
Subject
Causes and Prevention of Crime
Psychology
Cognitive Sciences