Proactive Versus Reactive in Pro

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Proactive Versus Reactive in Protecting Children from Sexual Abuse

Believe it or not, asking adults to be proactive in protecting children is a new concept. For the last 15 to 20 years, professionals largely directed their sexual abuse prevention efforts toward children. While teaching children to protect themselves is an important part of prevention efforts, a comprehensive program must include both broad and specific involvement by adults, and by the entire community. And, a community-wide effort by adults can have a significant impact on an abuser's opportunity to victimize children.

Dr. David Finkelhor, in his book Child Sexual Abuse: A New Theory and Research, identified four elements that must be present for child sexual abuse to occur:

There must be an adult who has a desire for sexual activity with a child.
That adult does nothing to inhibit acting on that desire.
There must be an opportunity for the abuse to occur.
The potential offender must be able to overcome the resistance of the child.

Teaching children to say “no,” run away, and tell somebody empowers children to resist the overtures of a potential child molester—eliminating or at least minimizing the fourth element. It is critical that these programs continue because to prevent abuse we must do everything possible to interrupt the pattern.

However, adults can no longer leave the prevention of child sexual abuse to the potential victims—children. It is time for adults to take responsibility for protecting children from sexual predators.

The Protecting God’s Children™ program was developed to educate adults about how to intervene in situations to make sure that there is no opportunity for the abuse to occur. In other words, the program was developed to create an environment where children are safe from this kind of assault.

In the past, adult programs taught people how to recognize the signs of possible abuse in children and how to respond if a child discloses that he or she has been abused. In the previous paradigm, adults had no tools to prevent abuse. They only had tools to respond—after the fact.

When the VIRTUS Expert Consulting Team met in the spring of 1999 to create a framework for the development of a comprehensive program to address the issue of child sexual abuse, the discussion centered on redirecting our efforts and placing responsibility for prevention of child sexual abuse in the hands of the adults in children’s lives.

Looking at the elements necessary for abuse to occur, we saw that there is very little anyone can do about the desires or propensities of another adult. There is also little if anything we can

do about that adult’s willingness to take action to inhibit his or her own deviant behaviors.

However, we can eliminate the opportunities for the abuse to occur and continue to empower our children to resist. Taking proactive steps in both of these ways to intervene in the cycle can prevent the abuse from ever occurring.

The Protecting God’s Children program was developed around five simple steps that adults can take to prevent abuse from occurring:

Know the warning signs.
Control access.
Monitor all programs.
Be aware.
Communicate concerns.

The first three steps are proactive. The last two have both proactive and reactive aspects.

Knowing the warning signs means that adults can identify the behaviors in other adults that indicate the person is a potential risk of harm to children. Recognizing those warning signs of risky behaviors empowers caring adults to intervene before abuse occurs.

Controlling access focuses on the implementation of comprehensive screening and selection programs that filter out those who are potential a risk to children. Best practices for hiring employees and selecting volunteers—practices that communicate the Church’s commitment to a safe environment—can go a long way toward protecting children.

Monitoring programs involves establishing guidelines and standards for programs to assure that adult supervision is adequate and invites each adult to take a good long look at the physical environment. Creating atmospheres of openness and encouraging monitoring and participation by other adults can dramatically impact the quality of the safe environment for our children.

Being aware of what is going on with our children and communicating our concerns are both proactive and reactive in scope.

The proactive elements of being aware include encouraging parents to talk to, listen to, and observe their children, and assuring parents of the importance of talking with their children about their private body parts.

Our message is similar to the current national advertising campaign promoting “parents” as the anti-drug solution. By letting your children be themselves and by always knowing where they are, whom they are with, and when they will be home, helps increase and improve communication between children and parents. Letting your kids know that they can tell you anything is another proactive tool in the parent’s toolkit for prevention.

Talking with children about their private body parts is another important proactive step. Admittedly, this is challenging and often confronting for parents, but educating children about these issues is a crucial part of empowering children to resist the advances of predators—and successful resistance stops abuse before it happens.

Communicating about these issues teaches children that they can talk to you about anything. And, at the same time, it gives you the opportunity to continuously teach children how to resist the overtures of potential molesters.

The reactive element in Step 4 outlines some of the behaviors exhibited by child victims of sexual abuse (e.g., moodiness, drop in grades, sexual promiscuity, etc.). It is essential that parents and other adults recognize that one of the things these behaviors can indicate is sexual abuse. Without being vigilant on this point, parents and other adults may be inclined to justify that the behaviors are based on some other “rational” explanation. To protect children from sexual abuse, parents and other caring adults must always consider the possibility that the warning signs are an indication of sexual abuse.

The proactive aspect of communicating concerns calls for adults to talk with others about behaviors and situations that raise concerns. Letting someone know that their behavior puts them and the children in their programs at risk can prevent abuse. Communicating these concerns can also eliminate the possibility of a false accusation.

If an adult suspects abuse, or a child discloses abuse, the adult must also know how to react to the disclosure. Reporting abuse and making sure that the child is safe from future harm is critical to the development and implementation of a comprehensive prevention program.

Bottom Line:

The Protecting God’s Children program is unique. The five steps provide a comprehensive approach to prevention efforts. The steps stress the importance of proactive efforts to eliminate the opportunity for abuse to occur and also provide adults with the information they need to be reactive and respond appropriately if abuse occurs.

Prevention is the goal of the Protecting God’s Children program and of all adults who care about children. In the words of one recent Protecting God’s Children awareness session participant: “With the tools in this program, we can head ‘em off at the pass.”

Yes, we can. But it requires all of us, working together, to create the safest possible environment for children.

Source: http://www.virtus.org/virtus/PrintArticle.cfm?a=104&theme=0

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