1. Victim-focused prevention Benoit Leclerc Griffith University Preventing Youth Sexual Violence and Abuse Symposium, Brisbane, Australia, April 2010

2. Overview 1. Background studies on victim-focused prevention A – Rape avoidance B – Child sexual abuse 2. Particularities of child sexual abuse 3. The case of youth offences 4. Future directions

3. Background studies on victim-focused prevention Rape avoidance - Better inform women about how to avoid rape - Series of studies on the effect of victim resistance on rape (e.g., Fisher, Daigle, Cullen and Santana, 2007; Quinsey and Upfold, 1985; Ullman and Knight, 1992; Ullman, 2007) - Sequence of offender attack-victim resistance-injury/rape - Main finding to date: Women can effectively resist and avoid rapes

4. Background studies on victim-focused prevention Rape avoidance: Main findings Victim resistance strategiesOutcomes Forceful physical resistance (i.e., fighting back) Avoid rape No additional physical injury Non forceful physical resistance (e..g, trying to get away) Avoid rape No additional physical injury Forceful verbal resistance (e.g., screaming, yelling) Avoid rape when offender is using threats No additional physical injury Non forceful verbal resistance (e.g., crying, pleading) Rape

5. Background studies on victim-focused prevention Rape avoidance: Other findings - Situational factors that may affect whether women are likely to avoid rape when resisting - Presence of bystanders - Alcohol - Weapons - Offender-victim relationship

6. Background studies on victim-focused prevention Child sexual abuse - Evaluate whether self-protection programs are effective in actual abuse settings - Main study completed by Finkelhor et al. (1995a; b) - Mixed findings - Evaluate the effects of victim resistance in actual abuse settings - Only study completed by Leclerc et al. (forthcoming) - Mixed findings

7. Background studies on victim-focused prevention Child sexual abuse: Main findings for children involved in more comprehensive self-protection programs (Finkelhor et al., 1995a; b) Encouraging findingsNegative findings More likely to use self-protection strategies More likely to suffer injuries Disclose the abuse when it does occur Did not experience lower levels of completed victimizations Perceive themselves as having been more effective in avoiding or minimizing the harm of sexual victimization

8. Background studies on victim-focused prevention Child sexual abuse: Main findings on efficacy of victim resistance (Leclerc et al., forthcoming) Encouraging findingsNegative findings Verbal resistance (i.e., saying ‘no’ to the offender and saying that they did not want to have sexual contact) can be especially effective Other strategies not particularly effective Younger girls more likely to resistAlthough episodes of abuse may have been prevented, children were abused

9. Particularities of child sexual abuse Can children prevent abuse themselves? 1) Offenders usually target vulnerable children; 2) By definition vulnerable children are more likely to be exposed to risky situations; 3) Low capacity to resist; 4) Nature of offender modus operandi (i.e., manipulation); 5) Trusting relationship with the offender; 6) Repeated episodes of abuse

10. Particularities of child sexual abuse Assessing the effectiveness of self-protection in actual abuse settings 1) Self-report and official sources of data; 2) Data from children who successfully avoided abuse 3) Sequence data in child sexual abuse - Gaining cooperation sequence in child sexual abuse Offender action Victim reaction Offender response Outcomes of abuse (Leclerc, in preparation)

11. The case of youth offences No empirical studies on the effects of victim resistance in sexual abuse involving youth offenders - Youth offender modus operandi studies in child sexual abuse (Kaufman et al., 1996; 1998; Leclerc and Tremblay, 2007; Leclerc et al., 2008) - Offender modus operandi in relation to offence characteristics - Comparison youth modus operandi vs. adult modus operandi

12. The case of youth offences Main findings: 1) Overall, ‘positive’ behaviours such as giving gifts, love and attention are more common than aggressive behaviours such as threats or actual harm; 2) Youth modus operandi is related to the severity of abuse; 3) Youth modus operandi is associated with offence location; 4) Compared to adult offenders, youth offenders employ a greater variety of strategies for gaining victims’ compliance and limiting victims’ disclosure following abuse

13. Future directions Preventing youth sexual offending - Two potential starting points: 1) Is victim resistance effective in preventing sexual abuse committed by youth offenders? Empirical research which include sequence data on offender-victim interchange during the offence Collaboration with police and institutions for data access and collection 2) Does the content of self-protection programs reflect what is actually found and proposed in empirical research? Evaluation of content of self-protection programs Collaboration with designers of programs and practitioners

14. Future directions Preventing youth and adult sexual offending - If self-protection is part of the agenda… 1) Should a program focusing specifically on youth sexual offending be designed? 2) Should the content of these programs more accurately reflect the reality of sexual offending (e.g., not stranger- danger)? 3) Should the content of these programs be adapted to specific subgroups of children (boys vs. girls; older vs. younger)?

15. Future directions Preventing youth and adult sexual offending - If self-protection is part of the agenda… 4) Should the content of these programs emphasize assertiveness rather than forceful resistance? 5) Should these programs target dysfunctional families in the first place? 6) Could the content of these programs be harmful for some children? 7) What about other ways to better assist the victim in preventing sexual abuse?

16. Victim-focused prevention Direct correspondence to: Benoit Leclerc School of Criminology & Criminal Justice Griffith University Brisbane, Queensland 4111 Australia Email: b.leclerc@griffith.edu.aub.leclerc@griffith.edu.au