Assini-Meytin Luciana C, Kaufman Keith L, Mathews Ben, Palmer Donald A, Ingram Maggie, Letourneau Elizabeth J
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health, 415 N Washington Street, Baltimore, MD, 21231, United States.
Portland State University, Department of Psychology, Portland, OR, United States.
Child Abuse Negl. 2021 Feb;112:104892. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104892. Epub 2020 Dec 25.
Child sexual abuse (CSA) remains an ongoing threat to the wellbeing of children who might be victimized, to the liberty of individuals who might engage in abusive behavior, and to the reputations and livelihood of organizations in which abuse might occur. In the U.S., millions of children participate in youth-serving organizations (YSOs), and it is known that a proportion of CSA occurs in these settings. Despite the severity of these threats, there is little knowledge of the steps that organizations take to prevent and respond to CSA.
Our study aimed to index current measures to prevent and respond to CSA in organizational settings, using four of the largest U.S.-based YSOs as exemplars.
In partnership with our partner YSOs, we completed a qualitative analysis of 74 organizational documents including written policies, codes of conduct, trainings, and other documents that formalize these four organizations' current CSA prevention and intervention efforts.
These organizations collectively implement hundreds of distinct measures aimed at preventing, detecting, and responding to CSA. These measures were categorized under eight overarching themes, including: overall commitment to child safety, code of conduct, training and education, assessment, implementation and monitoring, screening and hiring, reporting and responding to child sexual abuse, youth problem sexual behavior, and boundaries for teen leaders and young adult staff.
Findings from the current study, outlining key prevention and policy areas undertaken by participating YSOs, offer a starting point for discussion about core elements needed to keep children safe from sexual abuse in YSO settings.
儿童性虐待（CSA）仍然对可能成为受害者的儿童的福祉、可能实施虐待行为的个人的自由以及可能发生虐待行为的组织的声誉和生计构成持续威胁。在美国，数以百万计的儿童参与为青少年服务的组织（YSO），而且已知一定比例的儿童性虐待发生在这些环境中。尽管这些威胁很严重，但对于组织为预防和应对儿童性虐待所采取的措施却知之甚少。
我们的研究旨在以美国四个最大的YSO为范例，梳理组织环境中预防和应对儿童性虐待的当前措施。
我们与合作的YSO合作，对74份组织文件进行了定性分析，这些文件包括书面政策、行为准则、培训以及其他使这四个组织当前预防和干预儿童性虐待工作正规化的文件。
这些组织共同实施了数百项旨在预防、发现和应对儿童性虐待的不同措施。这些措施被归类为八个总体主题，包括：对儿童安全的总体承诺、行为准则、培训与教育、评估、实施与监测、筛选与招聘、报告与应对儿童性虐待、青少年问题性行为以及青少年领导者和青年员工的界限。
本研究的结果概述了参与研究的YSO所采取的关键预防和政策领域，为讨论在YSO环境中保护儿童免受性虐待所需的核心要素提供了一个起点。
