Current concepts in preventing sexual abuse

Most efforts to prevent sexual abuse have focused on teaching school childr en to resist abuse after it starts and to report it promptly to trusted adu lts. These programs increase children's knowledge and skills and the likeli hood that children will disclose sexual victimization but have not been sho wn to reduce the incidence of abuse. A recent, unique approach to preventio n is a Vermont social marketing campaign that encouraged sexual offenders t o seek treatment. During the campaign, 50 persons voluntarily sought treatm ent for sexual offending or sexual behavior problems, and eight offenders p resented themselves voluntarily to state attorney offices. Recent evidence indicates that many sexual offenders were themselves molested and that lack of family support about that molestation is an important risk factor for s exual offending. However, the number of treatment programs for "sexually re active" children and adolescent sexual offenders in the United States decli ned from more than one thousand in 1994 to 337 in 2000. In nine states, no adolescent treatment program is currently available. There is an urgent nee d for methodologically sound: research aimed at delineating the causes of s exual deviance and at measuring and improving the efficacy of treatment for sexual offenders. Curr Opin Pediatr 2001, 13:402-407 (C) 2001 Lippincott W illiams & Wilkins, Inc.