1. ISSUES, RESEARCH, PRACTICE Josie Phillips, Research Associate

2. ∂AIM: o Context – stories and statistics o Issues – protection, prosecution and welfare o Research – past and present

3. ∂ Context Context – families Case – siblings and sexual harm

4. ∂ Research – the wider picture Three significant developments contributing to research about sexual offending 1.Child sexual abuse – incidence, impacts, consequences 2.Incidence - between one-quarter and one-third of sexual offences are committed by people under 21. 3.Prediction and prevention - between 36% - 56% adult offenders first committed sexual offences as adolescents (Taylor, 2003)

5. ∂ Significance o Seeing sexual abuse everywhere o Over and under-reacting All sex is bad All sex is experimentation o Myth – young people with harmful sexual behaviour will grow into sexual offending o Tensions – welfare and child protection v criminal justice

6. ∂ Significance o Policy and practice, multi-agency o NCH Report – 1992 o Differentiation between adults and young people – changing models o Procedure and legislation - Children Act 1989, Sex Offender Act 1997, Crime and Disorder Act 1998, Working together o Language o Research and training o Risk Assessment & Intervention models

7. ∂ What have we learned? o Most of the young offenders are male but not all. o Age - children under 10 o Diversity: Ethnicity – inequality of access to interventions “Learning disability” o Prosecuted/not prosecuted o Trauma histories All types of abuse, including domestic violence.

8. ∂ o Dual needs – victim and abuser o Importance of context and history o Characteristics Eg Isolation, lack of social skills, conduct disorder o Motivation o Outcomes Current research Heterogeneous group

9. ∂ ESRC research – initial results Combined sites: 700 cases in all. 93% white. Other ethnicities:.2-3%. Ethnicity not recorded for 240 cases.

10. ∂ Results cont. 97% male, 3% female. 38% learning disabled. 50% victim of sexual abuse themselves. 50% victim of other type of abuse.

11. ∂ Results cont. – types of behaviour 84% inappropriate touching. 50% non-contact offences. 52% penetrative offences. 18% violence or force.

12. ∂ Results cont. – victims and prosecutions o Victims: 19% male, 51% female, 30% both. o Victims: 53% extra-familial, 25% intra-familial, 22% both. o 42% had caution or conviction.

13. ∂ Case - What would happen now? o Multi-agency response in partnership with family – criminal justice and welfare o Planning, separate assessment, separate services o Holistic view o Focus on safety planning o Focus on treatment and prevention and best possible outcomes for victims and young offenders

14. ∂ Ambulance Down in the Valley Joseph Malins, 1895

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16. ∂ The end, thank you. Josephine.phillips@durham.ac.uk