Preventing Child
Sexual Abuse
In Youth-Serving
Organizations
Guidelines for Managers & Parents
Norman D. Bates, Esq.
Christine Army, MA
A joint publication of
Copyright ©2015 Liability Consultants, Inc.
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Consulting services include crime and risk analysis, assessment of security programs, review of hiring, training, and supervision of employees, policy and procedure development, workplace violence prevention and response, and site surveys of physical security measures.
Liability Consultants, Inc. also provides case analysis and testimony in inadequate security and security misconduct litigation nationally. Company principals are frequent speakers at seminars and training programs throughout the United States on a variety of security liability issues.
The National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC) is a nonprofit organization that advocates for victims’ rights, trains professionals who work with victims, and serves as a trusted source of information on victims’ issues. Founded in 1985, it remains the most comprehensive national resource committed to advancing victims’ rights and helping victims of crime rebuild their lives. The National Center is, at its core, an advocacy organization committed to—and working on behalf of—crime victims and their families. Rather than focus the entire organization’s work on one type of crime or victim, the National Center addresses all types of crime.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the following experts for their review and assessment of this publication. Their comments and suggestions have strengthened and enriched the final product.
Joshua Bailes
Staff Attorney
National Center for Victims of CrimeAuthors
Mitru Ciarlante
Director, Child and Club Safety
Boys & Girls Clubs of America
Charles P. Conroy, Ed.D.
Executive Director
Perkins Special Education Facility, Lancaster, MA
Jeffrey R. Dion
Deputy Executive Director
National Center for Victims of Crime
Carmen Durso, Esq.
Attorney at Law, Boston, MA
Professor Marci A. Hamilton
Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law
at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Yeshiva University
Victor Vieth
Executive Director Emeritus
Gundersen National Child Protection Training Center
Introduction
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is an insidious crime that can destroy the lives of innocent children and leave their families devastated. The topic of child sexual abuse is, at best, a difficult subject to discuss and at worst, a horrifying one.
Why This Publication
The work of Liability Consultants, Inc. includes consulting with all types of organizations on their security problems and potential civil liability in the event that someone is a victim of a violent crime. That work has included retention in civil litigation involving rape and sexual abuse where a child was the victim. In the course of preparing for a number of cases, we found that there was a significant void in information pertaining to institutional response of child sexual abuse.
While there has been a great deal published on the subject of child sexual abuse, there is limited research data specific to extra-familial child sexual abuse within youth-serving organizations. There is also a lack of a single source for these organizations to reference in developing a program to help reduce the risk of such assaults. We also found that there was insufficient guidance for parents who may want to inquire as to how these organizations are protecting their children.
The objective of this publication is to provide information on the scope of the problem of child sexual abuse, offender and victim characteristics, and a model prevention program that includes pre-employment screening, supervision of staff, reporting abuse, and physical design controls available to organizations. We also hope to provide parents with resources and tools that will help them recognize, report, and be proactive against child abuse in youth organizations.
Clarifying the Terminology
This publication will use the term “child sexual abuse”, however, some terminology should be clarified. In many instances, the terms “child sexual abuse” and “child sexual assault” are used interchangeably. Yet the two terms have different legal meanings.
Child sexual abuse has been defined as the following:
“Child sexual abuse involves any sexual activity with a child where consent is not or cannot be given. This includes sexual contact that is accomplished by force or threat of force, regardless of the age of the participants, and all sexual contact between an adult and a child, regardless of whether there is deception or the child understands the sexual