Prevention of Sexual Abuse Through Educational Programs Directed Toward Children

Abstract

A Catholic Medical Association (CMA) Task Force issued a report in October 2006 on the sexual abuse of children and its prevention1 in response to initiatives by Catholic dioceses across the country, which were reeling from abuse scandals and have been seeking to improve their sexual abuse–prevention efforts. This report argued strongly against what it called “child-empowerment programs” aimed at preventing sexual abuse. It argued that these programs were “ineffective at preventing sexual abuse” and “inconsistent with the science of emotional, cognitive, neurobiological and moral development of the child.” This report reiterated a number of arguments that have been raised over 2 decades against classroom-based prevention education by various critics.2–5 However, the research evidence and the available meta-analytic reviews do not give much support to these criticisms,6,7 and the reappearance of these arguments in a high-profile public policy context merit discussion and rebuttal. The programs of concern to the CMA and others are programs that instruct children about sexual abuse and sexual victimization and try to impart a variety of messages to children (and their parents) about how to identify abuse, how to react when approached, and what to do in the aftermath of abuse. These programs are typically delivered in school settings or other youth service environments. They typically have components directed toward parents, teachers, and youth service staff, as well. Well-known examples of such programs are “Talking About Touching” from the Seattle-based Committee for Children and the Child Assault Prevention program used statewide in New Jersey. Although the CMA report refers to these as “empowerment” programs, they have a variety of philosophies. I will refer to them as “school-based prevention-education programs” or “prevention programs,” for short, because this is how they are referred to in the literature more frequently than as … Address correspondence to David Finkelhor, PhD, Crimes Against Children Research Center, Family Research Laboratory, Department of Sociology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824. E-mail: david.finkelhor{at}unh.edu