Active Research

Differentiating adverse childhood experience profiles of male youths who exhibit harmful sexual behaviours

    • Understanding child sexual abuse
    • Prevention of child sexual abuse
    • Response to child sexual abuse
Research Topic areas 
  • Drivers of child sexual abuse
  • Harmful sexual behaviours
  • Intersection with other violence/victimisation
  • Justice & legal responses
  • Prevalence
  • Therapeutic responses
Project Duration
Start: July 2023
End: November 2024
Geographical Scope
QLD
Populations
Offenders/those engaging in child sexual abuse
Children (6-12 years)Adolescents (13-17 years)Young adults (18-25 years)
Gender
Male

Project Lead

Dr Lisa Thomsen, Griffith University

Project Team

Professor John Rynne, Griffith Youth Forensic Service, Griffith University
Dr James Ogilvie, Griffith Criminology Institute

Background

Youths that exhibit harmful sexual behaviours are a diverse population, with a broad range of offence types, victim characteristics and modus operandi. While adverse childhood experiences are prevalent in the developmental histories of youths that sexually harm, greater knowledge of the differential influence of childhood abuse, neglect, maltreatment and other adversity is needed.

Aims

This project aims to further understanding of relationships between adverse childhood experiences and harmful sexual behaviours for male youth by exploring the ways in which experiences co-occur, and examining differences in patterns of co-occurrence in order to identify typologies of youths that sexually harm.

Methods

This quantitative study will utilise two sources of data on male youths who have exhibited harmful sexual behaviours – a Youth Justice administrative dataset on 427 youths convicted for sexual harm, and data extracted from clinical case files of 370 young males receiving services from a specialised treatment program for youths engaging in harmful sexual behaviours.

Significance and Dissemination

Identifying typologies of youths that exhibit harmful sexual behaviours will provide greater understanding of the aetiology of sexual harm perpetration, thereby informing policy and practice decisions, and allowing intervention strategies to be tailored to the specific needs of young people, with the ultimate goal of preventing sexual harm.

Further Details

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Funding body:
The National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse
Funding budget:
$105,283 grant
Monitoring and governance:
This project is guided by oversight of the Project Advisory Group
Australian Human Research Ethics Committee:
This project is subject to ethical oversight by the Griffith University Human Research Ethics Committee
Prevention of child sexual abuse

From bystanders to allies: a structural feminist perspective for supporting child victims and adult survivors of child rape and torture.

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Queensland University of Technology
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Kelly Richards
Queensland University of Technology, School of Justice
Needs of victims and survivors

Supporting Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: Rapid Evidence Reviews

Michaela Guthridge
The National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse

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Needs of victims and survivors

From bystanders to allies: a structural feminist perspective for supporting child victims and adult survivors of child rape and torture.
Supporting Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse: Rapid Evidence Reviews
Ngagagee Ngulu Murrup Durra (‘The Ngagagee project’)
Evaluation of the Multi-Agency Investigation & Support Team
The Australian child sexual abuse attitudes, knowledge and response study
An environmental scan of Child Sexual Abuse related workforce training offerings in Australia
Enhancing the capability of Australia’s Primary Health Workforce to respond to child sexual abuse
Improving legal, policy and practice responses to the intersection of domestic violence perpetration and child sexual abuse offending
Investigating experiences of child sexual abuse disclosure and disbelief in the Family Court
Understanding the experiences of child sexual abuse disclosure in Australia in the wake of the Royal Commission
Building trauma-responsive sexual health and relationship education
Learning from victims and survivors about what helps disclosure and responses to child sexual abuse
Amplifying the voices of victim-survivors: Advancing the harmful sexual behaviour evidence base – the Ava project
The dignity by design project: survivor-led system redesign
Supporting continuous quality improvement in safeguarding at Hockey Australia and other national sporting organisations
Evaluating a harmful sexual behaviour education program in a residential care setting
Community as experts: investigating the context, needs and help-seeking pathways for child sexual abuse survivors and their supporters in the NSW Bega Valley
Enhancing the capacity of rural and regional respectful relationship educators
Creating safer futures: raising public awareness of child sexual abuse among young adults through digital storytelling
Survivor perspectives on institutional use of child sexual abuse material
The more I talk, the stronger I get: unlocking our past to free our future

Prevention of child sexual abuse

From bystanders to allies: a structural feminist perspective for supporting child victims and adult survivors of child rape and torture.
Preventing child sexual abuse by understanding perpetrators’ motivations
Ngagagee Ngulu Murrup Durra (‘The Ngagagee project’)
Preventing repeat child exploitation material offending: An international evaluation of the CEM-COPE Program
Conceptualising and Estimating the Costs of Child Sexual Exploitation (Phase One of Australian Study into Economic Costs of Child Sexual Exploitation)
The Australian child sexual abuse attitudes, knowledge and response study
An environmental scan of Child Sexual Abuse related workforce training offerings in Australia
CHANGE – curtailing harm and navigating growth: evidence for change pathways of young people who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour
Evaluating a harmful sexual behaviour education program in a residential care setting
Developing and implementing a framework for abuse prevention through culture change and organisational development
Building a knowledge frame for responding to the needs of children and young people who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour
Australian Child Maltreatment Study
Strengthening relationships and connections for young people in therapeutic residential care

Identification of child sexual abuse

From bystanders to allies: a structural feminist perspective for supporting child victims and adult survivors of child rape and torture.
The Australian child sexual abuse attitudes, knowledge and response study
An environmental scan of Child Sexual Abuse related workforce training offerings in Australia
Enhancing the capability of Australia’s Primary Health Workforce to respond to child sexual abuse
Supporting continuous quality improvement in safeguarding at Hockey Australia and other national sporting organisations
Evaluating a harmful sexual behaviour education program in a residential care setting
Developing and implementing a framework for abuse prevention through culture change and organisational development
Children and Young People’s Safety Project
The safeguarding capability of adults in Catholic Church ministries: a global perspective

Disclosure of child sexual abuse

Ngagagee Ngulu Murrup Durra (‘The Ngagagee project’)
The Australian child sexual abuse attitudes, knowledge and response study
An environmental scan of Child Sexual Abuse related workforce training offerings in Australia
Enhancing the capability of Australia’s Primary Health Workforce to respond to child sexual abuse
Improving legal, policy and practice responses to the intersection of domestic violence perpetration and child sexual abuse offending
Investigating experiences of child sexual abuse disclosure and disbelief in the Family Court
Understanding the experiences of child sexual abuse disclosure in Australia in the wake of the Royal Commission
Learning from victims and survivors about what helps disclosure and responses to child sexual abuse
Supporting continuous quality improvement in safeguarding at Hockey Australia and other national sporting organisations
Community as experts: investigating the context, needs and help-seeking pathways for child sexual abuse survivors and their supporters in the NSW Bega Valley