- Panorama 28 | Fr. Jo Paul Kiriyanthan
The dictum ‘prevention is better than cure’ is especially true in the context of child sexual abuse. Considering the multifaceted consequences and harm experienced by the victims- child, family and society – implementing effective measures to prevent child sexual abuse is always better.
“With regard to sexual violence, prevention means creating healthy and safe circumstances and behaviours so as to prevent sex crimes before they can even take place” (Zollner, Fuchs, & Fegert, 2014, p. 2). The target group for prevention includes both adults and children. But for greater effectiveness, the primary target group needs to be adults. It rightly places more responsibility on the elders; conversely, it would be a highly demanding task for the little shoulders of children. Secondly, children are to be helped with all professional resources to recognize abusive behaviours, to escape from them, to avoid similar situations and to tell a trusted adult. A further level of prevention strategy can be called ‘bystander education’, which extends the prevention of abuse from the individual and family level to the social level, where the general public as a whole are encouraged to work against this violence (Zollner et al., 2014, pp. 5–6).
School-based child sexual abuse prevention programmes targeting children have become universal in recent years. They aim to help children acquire self-protective knowledge and skills to prevent child sexual abuse. They use multimedia and active behavioural skills training, such as video modelling, role-playing, rehearsal and discussion. Observing a role-play that models self-protective skills and discussing its implications can be more effective for children (Duane & Carr, 2006, pp. 181-189). Prevention measures implemented at regular and short intervals, using the children’s native language, targeting both boys and girls and forming a ‘prevention team’ representing both genders will further enhance the effectiveness of such programmes (Zollner et al., 2014, p.4). After the programme, a large majority of children could either say ‘no’ to the offender, or could run away from the situation, or could communicate with an adult in a position of trust (Zwi et al., 2007, p. 15). An increased rate of disclosure of past or present abuse is a major outcome of such a programme. Disclosure gives the opportunity to help victims and to prevent continued abuse (Daro, 1994, p. 214). Children of 7 to 12 years old benefited the most from such a programme. Pre-school children found it difficult to grasp concepts like secrecy and to deal with ambiguous feelings (Daro, 1994, pp. 198 & 213). Such programmes sometimes generate negative impacts on children like engendering fear, anxiety, worries and doubt in distinguishing between undesirable touching and natural touching (Daro, 1994, pp. 214–215).
But preventive measures cannot be limited to child-oriented programmes. “Children’s increased knowledge of abuse should not be seen as a replacement for society’s responsibility to ensure child safety” (Zwi et al., 2007, p. 23). Social awareness measures, parent education programmes, and support groups for vulnerable children of broken families and those who live in miserable social situations, will provide a safer society for our children (Daro, 1994, pp. 20–21). Prevention programmes targeting possible adult offenders are crucial. Though it sounds ideal, this is not easy. Voluntary participation by offenders or possible offenders is less likely, considering the absolute absence of empathy among the public towards a sexual problem of this kind. This highly negative social stigma against child sexual abuse offenders even reduces the possibility of organizing a publicly funded programme for this cause (Daro, 1994, p. 201). In view of this, an e-learning programme would be helpful in downplaying the behaviour of the perpetrators and preventing them from engaging in further such activities (Zollner et al., 2014, p. 4). Characteristics of e-learning like easy accessibility and a degree of privacy would reduce one’s fear of accepting the problem and seeking help.
