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Kieran McCartan

NOTA Conference Chair

Spring is approaching, slowly but surely, and this means that its nearly time for the NOTA annual Conference! You may remember that last year we decided to move the conference to May with great success.  Post conference we talked with members, attendees, and partners all of whom were interested in keeping it in May, and so we have! This year it will be held from the 3^rd – 5^th of May in (a hopefully) sunny Cardiff!

We have a great line up for you this year including keynotes from Professor Melissa Grady on the use of trauma informed practice in working with people convicted of a sexual offence; Dr Sophie Hallett on innovative approaches in preventing Child Sexual Exploitation in Wales; Pat Brannigan talking about the preliminary results from their Together for Childhood project in Plymouth; Dr Wendy MacDowall on recent research from a national study on sex and sexuality; Dr Clare Allely on her recent research on neurodiversity, autism and sexual offending.  We will also be hosting a roundtable discussion on sexual offending and restorative justice including speakers from England (Clifford Grimason, HMPPS and Stephen Barry, BE Safe Service), and Scotland (Ashley Scotland, Thriving Survivors and David Russell, Midlothian Council).

In addition to the keynotes, we have over 35 parallel sessions from practitioners, professionals, and researchers over a range of topics including sibling sexual abuse, online sexual harm, harmful sexual behaviour, and working with people convicted of a sexual offence.     We will also be facilitating a poster session and drinks reception on the Wednesday evening, as well as our usual social event on the Thursday evening.

We feel the Conference is great value and very much hope that you are able to join us! 

For more information on fees, speakers and logistics please see:

https://www.nota.co.uk/conference-2023-cardiff/

By Kieran McCartan, Ph.D., & David S. Prescott, LICSW

The field of sexual abuse can be emotionally charged, challenging, and often causes us to reflect on our lives and actions. There are times when professionals draw lines (quite often artificial) between people who work with those who have harmed and those that have been harmed. It is common to hear that professionals in each field have different agendas and want different things, to the point of being at loggerheads. We disagree, even as we acknowledge that it can sometimes appear that way when we make snap judgments of others without really understanding where they are coming from.

Instead, we would say that the “victim side” and the “offender side,” as they are often called, want the same thing (i.e., the abuse to stop, victims to be support and people who have offended to be held accountable and manage their risk moving forward). The real difference is in the perspectives they bring to their daily work. One area of rehabilitation and therapeutic work in the wake of sexual abuse that brings these sides together is Restorative Justice. We have discussed Restorative Justice on the blog before and recognize the sensitives it involves and the process for both sets of participants, so this is not a rehashing of old ground but rather an opportunity to discuss new research and practice. As much as any approach, Restorative Justice shows that there aren’t different “sides” to the issues, but diverse roles that we can all play in our attempts to end sexual violence.

Scotland has always had a reputation for being forward thinking in its approaches to health, justice, risk, and risk management, particularly in the areas of sexual abuse, drugs/alcohol, and youth crime. Recently, there has been momentum in Scotland to understand the role that Restorative Justice can play in helping to repair the damage created by sexual abuse. In 2021, a nationwide consultation was led by Thriving Survivors (with a number of other organizations across the sector) on  with survivors of Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence to Establish Awareness, Opinion, and Demand Related to the Ongoing Development of a National Restorative Justice Policy and Practice Framework for Scotland. The consultation highlighted “the importance for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence that their voices are heard and that they have a choice related to how they deal with the aftermath of their victimization, including access to Restorative Justice.” This resulted in a series of recommendations including more research, development, and consultation on the issue, which led to the publication of a second report with some of the key players from the original, published last week, called “Restorative Justice & Sexual Harm: the voices of those who have harmed”.

The new report is based on a mixed-methods research design with people convicted of sexual offenses and their views on the relevance, use, and impact of Restorative Justice. The research found that the 44 participants who understood what Restorative Justice is described it as a process led by those who have been victimized, and that if it was not handled properly, it could be retraumatizing and activating for victims; caution is required. The participants felt that the benefits of doing Restorative Justice, if done properly and thoughtfully, outweighed any potential negative outcomes. This resulted in the authors suggesting that although cases should be looked at and considered in an individual light, they should be considered as people who can understand, be receptive to, and benefit from the use of Restorative Justice. The report gave some key recommendations, including that facilitators running Restorative Justice programmes in sexual abuse cases need to be specially trained; the consent of the participants need to be properly obtained; that the process needs to be trauma-informed; all participants should be fully briefed on what to expect from the process; if a traditional face-to-face approach is not appropriate then an alternative approach should be investigated; and the cognitive ability, neurological level, and psychological wellbeing of all participants should be checked as well catered to throughout the process.

In many respects, this publication reinforces previous research and policies in Restorative Justice (i.e., look at individual cases and then tread gently), but what makes it stand out is that it has been done with people convicted of sexual offenses. This is an important report in that it reinforces what a lot of research in the field of sexual abuse has indicated over the years: that people convicted of sexual offenses in the main want to understand the harm that they have done, become accountable, and move on an offense-free life. Additionally, this report also recognises the importance of trauma-informed approaches to this work, indicating that men convicted of sexual offenses offend have trauma histories that they are recovering from and that have contributed to their offending, and therefore the restorative justice process can help their healing.

By Kieran McCartan, Ph.D., and David S. Prescott, LICSW

Earlier this week, the European Commission published a new document titled “Help seeker and Perpetrator Prevention Initiatives – Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation.” Its aim is to support initiatives for Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) help-seeker and perpetration prevention. The idea is that by creating a common taxonomy of prevention programs for several different stakeholders, we can collectively understand and share best practices around CSA prevention initiatives. The report is a step towards the creation of a European Union (EU) knowledge platform on CSA prevention initiatives, which will support EU Member States to develop and roll out tailor-made prevention policies according to their respective cultural and societal environments and needs.

On May 11, 2022, the European Commission published a proposal to prevent and combat CSA, with a strong emphasis on prevention; but even though preventing and combatting child sexual abuse is a priority of the European Union, there has been no common EU-wide approach or concrete framework to highlight what member states had already accomplished. A plethora of different terminologies and taxonomies exist to describe prevention programmes (a common issue across the EU in general), making the information about such initiatives limited, unclear, and unstructured.

Collectively the JRC, DG HOME, the newly emerging prevention network developed by the team, , and a number of interviewed practitioners and experts reached a common consensus on the idea that to raise awareness of existing prevention programmes for people at risk of committing sexual offenses it was necessary to categorize and evaluate them. For this purpose, a dedicated working group was established, and the output of this common effort are 14 classification criteria that will support EU Member States to develop, implement and research prevention work in different countries. The 14 agreed classification criteria are:

1. TARGET identifies to whom the initiative is addressed, such as people who fear they may offend.
2. CONTEXT refers to the environment in which the intervention is given.
3. METHODS refers to the tools, treatments, support opportunities and programmes proposed to the targets.
4. INITIATIVE PROVIDER refers to the nature and main activities of the entity or initiative provider that is offering the program and/or treatment as well as  the one that implemented it.
5. FUNDING refers to the money allocated to the program and/or treatment.
6. COSTS refers to the costs that would be sustained by the entity proposing/setting up the program
7. THE FOUR PREVENTION STAGES (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Quaternary, described in previous blog posts and the extant literature).
8. EVALUATION aims to capture the outcomes of the initiatives.
9. ACCOUNTABILITY of the programmes refers to the processes and mechanisms put in place by the initiative provider to appraise the programme at different stages to ensure that the programme remains accountable, and that it is working towards the goals.
10. LEGISLATION refers to the legal national framework under which the specific programme/intervention is being deployed.
11. COLLABORATION refers to the synergies and complementarities that can be established with different entities involved in the prevention of CSA.
12. DISSEMINATION refers to the actions taken to raise awareness about the prevention initiative among (potential) stakeholders.
13. TARGETS’ RIGHTS are explored in terms of privacy, anonymity, and safety to preserve and assure confidentiality, assurance of empathy, etc.
14. ACCESSIBILITY refers to several elements of the preventive programme that can be related to: the language of the resources, the availability of complementary tools to the traditional text-based ones, the standardisation of tools provided, and he cultural responsivity factors.

(The criteria are adapted/replicated from document)

The 14 classification criteria were then applied to five case studies (PedoHelp – France; Parafilik – Czech Republic; Out of the Net – Spain; Sexual Aggression Control – Spain;  Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) – European union-united kingdom) to see how they aligned. The results indicated that the five case studies did align and that the criteria were useful in the development and implementation of prevention programs. Additionally, the report goes on to discuss a series of international prevention mapping tools (i.e., INHOPE prevention initiative report, Eradicating Child Sexual Abuse (ECSA), PedoHelp, Helplinks (a Europol website as part of the Police2Peer project) and the UNICEF promising programmes to prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation report. The report finishes off with a series of smaller sections describing relevant information on several programmes for people who fear they may offend, for people going through criminal proceedings and post criminal proceedings, as well as those for minors.

This is an invaluable resource for policy makers, practitioners, and researchers alike. The report demonstrates the development of good practice available in developing interventions for people at risk of committing a sexual offence or those who have. I would strongly recommend looking at it and learning from its findings.

By Hazel Kemshall, Kieran McCartan, & Joy Doal 

On the afternoon of the 16^th November we presented a session for the Academy of Social Justice on our new HMI Probation research insight paper called “Desistance, recovery, and justice capital: Putting it all together”. After the presentation there where several conversations and discussions, most of which were responded to at the time, but not all were. This blog is a response to some of those additional or detailed comments and questions that we did not have time to discuss fully on the day in question. The blog is broken down into four main themes, each of which will be answered in turn;

Role of the probation officer

The role of Probation officers and their responsibilities align with a focus on desistance, recovery, and justice capital.  His Majesties Prison and Probation Service
(HMPPS) emphasise “Preventing victims by changing lives”, and works to enhance access to pro-social capital, increasing skills, and enabling more positive decision making are all shown as contributors to desistance over the long term (Kemshall 2021, and Kemshall et al, 2021).  What kind of activities work well? The following practices are supported by research:         

• Modelling and encouraging reciprocity, that is, mutual exchange rather than merely appropriating things. Social norms and the smooth running of society is rooted in reciprocity so it is important service users can implement it (Best, Musgrove and Hall, 2018; Kemshall, 2021; Weaver, 2015).

• Identifying and accessing routes to building trust between the service user and others, and between the service user and the key groups that can afford opportunities to change (Christakis and Fowler, 2009).
• Providing dignity and value to the service user combined with appropriate boundaries on conduct and behaviour (Bush et al., 2016; Rex and Hosking, 2016).

• Fairness and justice in applying legitimate sanctions and the appropriate use of ‘supportive authority’ (Bush et al., 2016; Maruna, 2012).

• Hearing the service user ‘voice’ and offering individualised service delivery based on a comprehensive and holistic assessment (McNeill, 2006).

• Partnership with the service user where possible, realistically recognising the barriers to joint working, and accepting that, at times, particularly in the early stages of supervision, the practitioner may have to be the ‘senior partner’. The practitioner should be an ‘enabler’ not a ‘rescuer’ (Kemshall, 2022b; Rex and Hosking, 2016).

• Creation of positive networks of opportunity and routes to change (Christakis and Fowler, 2009; Kemshall, 2021; McKnight and Block, 2010).

• The importance of recognising trauma and adverse experiences in the lives of service users; taking a trauma-informed approach recognises the importance of the life course in people’s pathways into and out of criminogenic behaviour practice (McCartan, 2020).

• Recognition of the impact of stigma, marginalisation, structural disadvantage, and intersectionality on service users (Alliance for Women and Girls at Risk, 2017; Barlow and Weare, 2019; Byrne and Trew, 2008; Farrall, 2019). It is important to see the individual in the socio-ecological environment that they exist in, and to understand that the different levels of this environment all contribute to preventing reoffending, successful risk management, and desistance. 

( See Kemshall & McCartan, 2022 for information and full references)

Community Engagement

Statutory agencies like Probation and more broadly HMPPS may struggle with community engagement, not least because of their statutory role and dependence on government funding.  However, there are good examples of community engagement and community wide initiatives, often by the third sector, that have demonstrated effectiveness in this area.  Some not only raise public awareness but also innovate new approaches to crime reduction.  Most use Public Health methodologies to crime reduction, and most notable in the UK are:

• Merseyside (Merseyside’s Violence Reduction Partnership, 2022) and
• London (London’s Violence Reduction Unit, 2022), and
• the Violence Reduction Programme in Scotland (Violence Reduction Unit, 2022).

The Cure Violence (2022) public health initiative on a criminal justice issue has now spread to over 20 countries worldwide. The initiative takes a health-based approach to prevent and respond to violence, as well as violent crime, working at individual, interpersonal, community, and societal levels. The approach importantly contextualises the causes and responses to violence and then works to change individual and social norms around it. In recent years, Cure violence has developed to the point where it sees violence as a global epidemic that requires a structured population-level response. In addition, interventions at the societal level, particularly through social and criminal justice policies, have more recently focused on developmental factors and the reduction of adverse life events (Public Health England, 2019; Public Health Wales, 2015; Scottish Government, 2018); and interventions targeted at life-course events and mitigating crime trajectories (McCartan, 2020). 

Although we all, professionals and members of the public, recognise the need for greater messaging and a stronger community engagement strategy regarding the prevention of and response to criminogenic behaviour, especially sexual and violent offending, what strategies work best in communicating with the society at a broader level;

(See Kemshall, and Moulden, 2016 for information and full references)

Improving the focus on prevention

One of the main challenges in reducing crime, especially first-time offending, is the lack of a systematic approach to crime prevention strategies. Quite often crime prevention strategies are piecemeal and bespoke with different regions and cities in the UK taking different approaches, often spearheaded at a local level by innovative and well-intentioned individuals. Which poses a challenge to a national, or country level, as there is often not a clear evidence base or consistent approach, which means that when HMPSS OR Ministry of Justice look to engage with the preventative intentions they cannot do so from a well-informed position. The reality of preventive approaches is that they are “practice informed” rather than “evidence based” which means that you are taking a calculated gamble on an innovation which you think will work. This is a challenge at the best of times, but especially in the current economic climate. Therefore, what do we do? The solution seems to be emerging through work that is linking public health and criminal justice together in new, innovative approaches to preventing criminogenic behaviour (i.e., the Together for Childhood project spearhead headed by the NSPCC which looks to create a city wide placed based approach to the prevention of child abuse). The development of closer ties between public health and the prevention of criminogenic behaviour means that we can reconceptualise offending behaviour, re-establish it in a developmental frame and think about it across the socio-ecological approach (i.e., individual, interpersonal, community and societal) which means that prevention of first time offending (primary and secondary prevention) is as relevant as prevention of repeat offending (tertiary and quaternary prevention), thereby opening the door to a reasoned debate about the potential for a systematic and sustainable approach to prevention. We have seen this in the development of new policies like the Council of Europe’s Recent Recommendations on “the assessment, treatment and management of people accessed or convicted of a sexual offence”.

(see McCartan, 2021, 2022; McCartan & Kemshall, 2021 for information and full references)

Responding to diversity and exclusion

Practice focused on the delivery of positive, ethical, and person-centred assessment and interventions that are trauma-informed, compassionate, and cognisant of the contextual issues surrounding the person, including issues of multiple disadvantage, are the most likely to respond effectively to diversity and exclusion.  Anawim provided an excellent example of this, with attention to culturally relevant interventions and activities (often including food), person centred assessments, skill building, and practices aimed at enabling service users to become fully functioning and well-embedded citizens. Anawim and women’s centres more broadly, by working alongside Police or Probation can address women’s intersectional needs holistically and as staff tend to represent the communities the women are from, can relate better. As they are not in the enforcement role they can build more genuine relationships which can also (funding allowing) continue those relationships after court Orders are completed. The social relationships and peer support gained by interacting in the centres and attending groupwork and courses also extend outside of the confines of the Orders.

Conclusion

This blog has been a response to questions and issues raised in regard to our HMI Probation insights paper and resulting talk, it looks to expand upon what we have said and clarify some main theses. The important thing to remember is that desistence is being promoted as part of the recovery capital being delivered by HMPPS through their good, effective, and engaged practice (justice capital) but that we are often not good at recognising it and highlighting it. Justice capital is essential to good, effective engagement which results in desistance but in order to achieve it as a system wide level we need to highlight it in training, recognise it in practice and discuss it in public.

By Kieran McCartan, Ph.D., Kasia Uzieblo, Ph.D., and David Prescott, LICSW 

Over the last couple of days there has been an accumulation of evidence in a sexual abuse case that has rocked the British police: the case of David Carrick. Mr Carrick was a serving police officer who had admitted and been convicted of a series of rapes and sexual assaults over a significant period (20 years at least) using the skills he obtained as a serving police officer to manipulate, intimate, and rape women. All of this is worrying and a cause for concern, but made even more so by the fact that Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, raises the issue that this may be the tip of the iceberg with more cases to come from other serving officers. She argues that the police need to “double down” on identifying and rooting out problematic officers. This is an important, but challenging issue; how best to tackle this?

Before we get into what the police can do to address problematic officers, it’s important to remember two things. The first is that this is not just a police issue. There are problematic and challenging individuals in all professions who use their positions to enable sexual abuse, even within our own field. For example, we have talked previously about the challenges of counsellors/therapists overstepping their boundaries and foreign aid workers in disaster zones using their position, influence, and access to commit child sexual abuse and/or exploitation. All this means that we need to recognize that people may enter these frontline positions because of the access and influence that it provides them, or that because of the job that they do and the culture or the work or organisation they start to change their attitudes and beliefs so that they are more likely to engage in problematic and abusive behaviour. Therefore, some people do a job because it enables them to abuse, whereas others started abusing because the culture of the job impacts their mindsets. It is important to state that not all frontline professionals, police or otherwise, abuse or accept a culture of abuse, but any reports or cases undermine the integrity and trust in the organisation from the public.

Secondly, the police – especially the Met police in London – are going through a process of culture change as there are deep-rooted issues in force culture and practice that needs to be rooted out. In many ways the David Carrick case is a “perfect storm” impacting the police. Therefore, a culture change project is already happening in respect to how serving police officers think about vulnerability, abuse, and engagement with communities.

What can the police do to prevent serving officers from using their position and training inappropriately to abuse people? We offer the following:

• Screening: It is important the screen police officers at the start of their training and to check in with them throughout their service period. Having a clear screening and risk assessment process would help identify problematic attitudes and behaviours which would enable timely interventions to prevent abuse before it happens. It would also enable the police to see the impact of frontline service and organizational culture has on serving police officers, meaning that they can changing internal processes if needed. Of course, this should not be done thoughtlessly. It is important to first analyse which personality and/or behavioural characteristics could be problematic in this context and how best to screen them in the most reliable way and by whom.

• Training: When thinking about the training that police receive, it is important to include aspects of intersectionality, vulnerability in the communities, as well as in the populations they serve, and a recognition of the degree of power and influence that their role brings. Here it is also important to dwell sufficiently on what behaviour is or can be transgressive, what consent may or may not entail within their job, what impact their policing behaviour may have on others, and how to conduct their policing with the necessary professionalism. This all seems obvious, but it is not. These issues are particularly important regarding specialist training (i.e., safeguarding, combat, surveillance, etc).

• Reflection & trauma informed practice: It is important to consider and be sensitive to the role of trauma in lives of people before they join the police as well as the trauma that they experience while in the police. It is important to recognize the role of trauma in the development of problematic beliefs and attitudes amongst frontline police officers that can result in abuse, harassment, and/or victimization of vulnerable populations. By engaging in trauma informed practice it enables the police to highlight and engage with challenging attitudes and behaviours in a considered way, that reinforces the role of the police and recognises the challenge of positional power and control amongst frontline officers over the communities they work with.

• Culture shift: As mentioned previously mentioned the police in England and Wales, but especially the Met police, are going through a process of re-examine their cultural attitudes towards Violence against Women and Girls; recognising that there is a problem of sexual abuse and sexual harassment amongst serving police officers.

• Community engagement: The police need to re-engage with communities to improve their public image and increase their perceived trustworthiness on matters relating to sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and violence. This means that the police, individually and collectively, need to change their messaging to communities and engage with them in a way that they will respond to positively, whether this is through messaging or actions.

The challenge of “bad seeds” or problematic frontline professionals should be tackled at an organisation, community of practice level rather than simply writing them off as unique, stand out individuals. Organisation, police or otherwise, need to recognise the potential for abuse from people who start working with them or the capacity of abusive behaviours to emerge because of working with them. This is a challenge and requires systems change and a culture shift, but its essential that this happens to restore trust in the organisation as well as encourage service users to continue using them. As Phil Zimbardo has observed, there may be bad apples, but there are also bad apple barrels and bad producers of these apple barrels.

By Kasia Uzieblo, PhD., David S. Prescott, LICSW, and Kieran McCartan, PhD.

The forensic clinical field in the Netherlands has been shaken to its core several times in recent months by multiple serious incidents in psychiatric clinics following one another, including sexual and deadly assaults. Although serious incidents in these clinics are not a common occurrence, it is essential to reflect on the staff and patients affected and take further steps in trying to prevent such incidents.

When we learn that an incident has occurred in a forensic institution, we first assume that a patient has assaulted one or more staff members. Indeed, Dutch forensic clinical practice has faced very serious incidents in recent years, including a violent, sexual and deadly assault committed by a patient. Hence, such incidents occur and have a tremendous impact on the victim(s) and all those involved. Less often however, we hear about staff members mistreating or (sexually) abusing patients. Unfortunately, such cases occur as well. Without minimizing the seriousness of patients’ violent behaviors towards staff, we want to focus for a moment on sexually transgressive and violent behaviors caused by practitioners. We start from a recent case in the Netherlands.

In September of this year, it became known that an employee of a high-security forensic psychiatric clinic had been fired after sexually assaulting a patient. This employee had forced a patient to perform sexual acts. In April, this came to light during an interview with the woman in question. The employee was a sociotherapist who helps patients train pro-social behaviour and learn to cope with their mental health problems. When this came to light, the man was suspended and later eventually fired. On top of that, other problems came to light. At the same clinic, a staff member was fired for having a sexual relationship with a patient and an internship was stopped because the intern had started a relationship with a patient.

Especially the first case, but certainly also the other cases raise a lot of questions and concerns, first and foremost with respect to the patients. The patients that are admitted to such clinics have committed serious offences, but often also have a very traumatic past. Frequently, they have been mistreated, neglected and/or abused by those they should have been able to trust. These patients do not only struggle with their own often- extensive criminal past but also with their own repeated victimization. During their stay in the clinic, we try to teach them a prosocial lifestyle, which also means that they have to learn to trust others and to get attached again. This is anything but obvious to them and requires considerable work. Attachment problems and a deep distrust of others are characteristic of this population. It then almost speaks for itself, when the (little) trust they finally gained, is damaged, especially by someone to entrusted with their care. It leaves very deep wounds, Not to mention the psychological and physical damage they suffer from the sexual violence. The house of cards, being the new prosocial life, that staff and the patient have tried to build on often very weak foundations, then threatens to fall apart or just collapses at once.

The reach of this cannot be underestimated. Not only is the direct victim seriously affected, but also fellow patients. The questions then become whether their trust and faith in staff, and broader, in others, are still recoverable and how we, professionals, best try to restore it. And the third group we should not lose sight of is the staff. They, too, are badly affected by such incidents. They struggle with questions like “how did I not see this?”, “couldn’t I have prevented this?”, and “what now?”. Moreover, as was observed in this specific case, staff members were also confronted with stigmatizing remarks from the public. For instance, when the abuse was disclosed, staff members were confronted with condemning remarks in the vein of “You’re all the same,” and “you’re all rotten apples.” Also notable was the ripple effect: Staff from other clinics were very concerned, scared, and angry, and clearly felt the need to talk at length about this with colleagues, among others. Hence, the consequences of such violent and transgressive incidents are thus not limited to the setting where the incident took place but are felt far beyond.

Protocols for violent incidents by patients are in place in most, if not all forensic clinics. But do we have a protocol ready for situations when a staff member exhibits transgressive behavior? How can we best respond to this as a patient, as colleague, as manager, as society?

It is not our aim to propose specific guidelines here. However, we would like to point out some points of importance. As in other cases of (sexual) violence, we should start with the beginning and that is acknowledging the violence and the suffering it has caused. Abuse is abuse, no matter who the perpetrator is, no matter what status he/she has, no matter what position he/she holds, and no matter who the victim is. When you observe that the Dutch media described the abuse not as abuse but as ‘sexual acts’, you realize that this seemingly obvious starting point is already not obvious to many.

In addition, we need to have difficult conversations with our colleagues, within forensic clinics or in any workplace. Thinking that such cases certainly can’t happen in your department implies closing your eyes to the fact that sexual violence can happen anywhere and that several characteristics of our work, e.g., relationships that are disproportionate in terms of power, are risk factors for (sexual) abuse. Increasing awareness and daring to ask difficult questions and engaging in not obvious conversations about prevention and identification of (sexual) abuse by professionals, (bystander) strategies when such abuse occurs, and rehabilitation after the abuse of all those involved, are already key starting points.

Another important question is how to involve patients and clients? Asking for help after a violent incident as a victim or a bystander is not easy, let alone when you are in a dependency relationship and vulnerable. Some organisations, for example, have started to develop guidelines for clients and patients. It would be useful to reflect within our field on this as well; to make suggestions available to our patients and to explore how we can make them more resilient within clinics or other settings.

So let’s have these conversations now, and let’s not wait until a complaint of abuse by a professional arrives at your own doorstep.

By Kieran McCartan, PhD.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICCSA) has released its final report, in which it outlines the scale and nature of Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation in England and Wales. The IICSA was created by Teresa May, MP, in her role as Home Secretary. Over the 7 years that it was in existence, its role was to understand the roles and responsibilities of government, state, and private institutions duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation, and why they failed to do so. Over its life the inquiry held more than 300 days of public hearings, processed over two million pages of evidence, heard from over 700 witnesses, and engaged with over 7,000 victims and survivors. The Inquiry, through 15 investigations identified, as the Australian Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse (2013 – 2017) had before it, that:

• “Child sexual abuse and exploitation takes many forms including contact and non-contact offences.
• Children, particularly those who are sexually exploited, are often degraded and abused by multiple individuals.
• Historically, inadequate measures were in place to protect children from the risk of being sexually abused – sometimes there were none at all.
• Children were believed to be lying when they tried to disclose their experiences of abuse.
• Those who had been victimized were frequently blamed as being responsible for their own sexual abuse.
• Within statutory agencies with direct responsibility for child protection, there was too little emphasis on the complex and highly skilled work of child protection. Decisions about children were not unequivocally based on the paramount interests of the child.
• Multi-agency arrangements still lack focus on child protection.
• There is still not enough support available to both child and adult victims and survivors.
• Child sexual abuse is not a problem consigned to the past, and the explosion in online-facilitated child sexual abuse underlines the extent to which the problem is endemic within England and Wales.
• The devastation and harm caused by sexual abuse cannot be overstated – the impact of child sexual abuse, often lifelong, is such that everyone should do all they can to protect children.
• Finally, this is not just a national crisis, but a global one.”

The IICSA reinforces current research on Child Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation, as will as reiterating the changes that need to be made in policy and practice with an emphasis on prevention, reporting, multi-agency collaboration, and a call for greater community engagement. The Inquiry has made 20 recommendations in this report which are too detailed to go into in this blog, therefore will select a few to highlight:

• The UK government should collect a single database on all data collected in respect to child sexual abuse and exploitation.
• The development of Child Protection Authorities for England and for Wales which work to improve child protection practices.
• Creation of a cabinet minister for Children, which is significant as they would have a government portfolio for child safeguarding and protection.
• Improving compliance with the statutory duty to notify the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). (DBS helps employers in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland make safe recruiting decisions and prevents unsuitable people from working with vulnerable individuals).
• There should be an extension of the disclosure regime to those working with children overseas.
• Increase Pre-screening to require regulated providers of internet search services and user-to-user services to pre-screen for known child sexual abuse before material is uploaded.
• Increase Mandatory reporting of Child Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation.
• Increase specialist therapeutic support for child victims of sexual abuse
• Introduce a code of practice on keeping and accessing records which relate to child sexual abuse.
• The development of a single redress scheme for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and exploitation.
• The UK government should change the law to make sure that internet companies that provide online internet services and social media introduce better ways to check children’s ages.

The recommendations highlighted here reflect ongoing discussions in the fields of sexual abuse prevention, risk management, public safety, and reintegration. A lot of them are not new and have been discussed previously, like greater regulation of the internet and age verification, often not reaching a satisfactory conclusion or agreement. The creation of the policy roles and organisations is important in developing as well as maintaining other recommendations like the creation of a single database, better use of DBS checks and greater regulation, as well as compliance. However, the biggest gauntlet laid down is around the expectation that all suspected child sexual abuse and exploitation is reported, recorded, and (potentially) investigated which will place a range of services under pressure. The investigation of suspected Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation is important, and necessary but it means that that the services that do this (i.e., police, social care, social work, etc) need the resources to do this in an appropriate and systematic fashion needs resources, which at the current moment with the looming financial crisis and potential cuts to public services will be a challenge. All these recommendations will take significant political commitment. This will be quite challenging in the UK now having lost its 2nd Prime Minster in less than two months. Hopefully seven years of work has not landed at the wrong time and on deaf ears; this report is significant needs to change the child protection landscape but whether it will remain to be seen.

By Kieran McCartan, PhD, Kasia Uzieblo, PhD., & David S. Prescott, LICSW

To say that the past couple of weeks in the UK has been turmoil is an understatement. We’ve seen the death of a monarch, a new prime minister, the cost-of-living crisis expanding, increase in gas and electricity prices, as well as a falling pound and a problematic financial outlook. In addition, there have been a number of criminal justice challenges, like the inquest into the death of 14-year-old Molly Ringwall, which highlighted the challenges and responsibilities of social media (it found they directly contributed to her suicide). There was also  a statement from members of Parliament that IPP (Indeterminate Imprisonment for Public Protection; the UK equivalent of Civil Commitment) are flawed and in need of reform and all prisoners on them need to be resentenced. Finally, there has been a recognition that the cost of living crisis puts more women and children at risk for domestic violence.  It’s been a challenging week on the topic of sexual abuse as well, with two news stories at either end of the offending spectrum that ask questions about prevention and response.

Last Friday a news story broke about a Finnish Ice Hockey player joining the UK Elite League team the Glasgow Clan. Lasse Uusivirta was charged with rape for an incident that occurred while he was a university student at UAH (University of Alabama in Huntsville) in 2013. He admitted the rape of an 18-year-old college student at the time but left the USA after he was charged but before he could be arrested. The USA authorities decided not to pursue the international case and return him to the country for trial but stated that the case was still active, and he would be arrested if he ever returned to the USA. It emerged over the course of the next 24 hours that the Glasgow Clan had been aware of this and either ignored it or tried to water it down. It resulted in the suspension of their Coach and General Manger on Friday morning and the rescinding of Uusivirta’s contract. Across this period, there was massive fan backlash against the club and sponsors threatening to pull funding  demanding that they be more socially and morally forthright. The incident raises a lot of questions about accountability and responsibility at an individual and corporate level. The issue is not about redemption or desistence from offending, but rather about accepting responsibly and being held to account by the state. The reality is that Uusivirta committed rape, admitted to it, and then left before he could be held accountable. Knowing this, the club attempted to boost their playing potential by ignoring his outstanding criminal accusations. Unfortunately, this is not the first, nor will it be the last, example where double standards of sports stars and athletes mean that clubs are willing to look the other way and not act with moral authority.

This doesn’t only happen in the UK. For instance, in Belgium, the soccer club of Antwerp appointed Marc Overmans as a new director, knowing that Overmans left a Dutch club, Ajax, just a month before his new appointment in Belgium because of sexual misconduct towards his colleagues. The club decided to do nothing despite the negative reactions surrounding the appointment of Overman. After some of the Belgian club’s successes, you get the impression the misconduct never took place.

The players may be fugitives from justice and accountability, but the teams have made themselves fugitives from morality.

In the UK case, had there not been the backlash from the fans, sponsors, and media the team may not have changed their minds. This case clearly evidences the need to hold organizations to account and emphasizes the importance of the community voice in standing up to sexual abuse.

Another example of the lived reality of sexual abuse prevention came on Monday with the trial of Wayne Couzens, who was convicted of raping and murdering Sarah Everard while on duty as a police officer during the Covid-19 pandemic, for previous incidences of indecent exposure (i.e., exhibitionism). This led to a debate in the UK press about the role of exhibitionism as a predictor for contact offending. Exhibitionism is often seen as a nuisance crime, with several myths surrounding it about the psychological and social nature of the individuals that perpetrate it. Like all sexual crimes, it is under reported, but is believed to happen to one to two thirds of women at some point in their lives. By comparison to other sexual offenses, exhibitionism is significantly under researched with a lot of the evidence being old and outdated. However, the research does demonstrate relatively high recidivism rates and a likelihood of escalation from exhibitionism to contact offenses, 5-10%, but this is intertwined with other risk factors like antisocial behavior. The reality of this story was not about the underreported or problematic nature of exhibitionism, but rather if Wayne Couzen’s exhibitionism was a predictor of his future offending and the murder of Sarah. Would Sarah’s death have been prevented if there had been an intervention earlier on? It’s difficult to say, but it does raise the question of what are the role of risk predictors, how do we use them, and ultimately what interventions can be provided to reduce escalation?

Although these two cases seem different, they are not. They illustrate the importance of understanding the impact of sexual abuse across the lifespan, including in terms of prevention and risk of first time offending and in terms of accountability and desistance from offending. These cases highlight the individual complexity of sexual abuse and the need for an informed community, a professional response to it, and the responsibilities of all involved, including organisations and employers. Sexual abuse impacts us all and with the challenges that the UK (and western world) faces in the coming years with the cost-of-living crisis, these are set to increase the potential for a reduction in support services and greater likelihood of offending. While we have mostly left behind the Covid pandemic, we are still experiencing a sexual abuse pandemic which is soon to be followed by a larger poverty pandemic.

By Kieran McCartan, PhD., Kasia Uzieblo, Ph.D., and David S. Prescott, LICSW

We know that victims of sexual abuse – adults and children – do not always come forward to disclose their abuse and seek justice for what has occurred to them. This can have long lasting psychological, emotional, social, and health implications for them and often the people around them. Research and practice have provided ample evidence of why people do not disclosure, but a main reason is often that they don’t feel they will be believed or treated respectfully. One of the challenges that the criminal justice system often faces is proving a lack of consent. Cases often do not get beyond a police investigation, or they might get derailed in court. The net result is that we have a very poor understanding of the prevalence of sexual abuse both globally and country-by-country, with prevalence studies based on official and/or self-report data only being able to tell us so much. Therefore, there need to be new methods for improving the reporting and prosecution rates for sexual abuse and rape. In Spain, they are changing their approach by changing their national consent laws and the legislation that accompanies them.

In line with other countries, Spain is changing its consent laws from one based upon proving that consent was not given to ones proving that consent was given, known by the slogan, “Only yes means yes”. This means that all sexual encounters need explicit consent from all parties before they occur. The reason for this change in approach was an infamous case from 2016. In Spain, it is referred to as the “wolfpack” case, named after the WhatsApp group that the men involved called themselves. In 2016, five men gang raped a 14-year-old girl and , and recorded the rapes on their mobile phones. The video evidence indicated that the men were on the streets looking for someone to victimize. Upon selecting the girl in question, they led her off the streets to a secluded basement and raped her multiple times.

In court, it was revealed that there were seven videos, totalling 96 seconds. One of the men posted on their WhatsApp group what they had done, boasting about it and another of the men posted messages in a WhatsApp group celebrating what they had done and promising to share the recordings. There is no argument about what the men did or the age of the victim; the issue became what the girl didn’t do. The police report stated that the victim maintained a “passive or neutral” attitude throughout the scene, keeping her eyes always closed. When the case got to court the men were acquitted on rape charges, as they did not appear to use overt violence and because the girl was drunk and did not resist. Spanish law states that it is not rape if it does not involve overt violence or intimidation.

The men were jailed for nine years for sexual assault, which has a different legal standing and threshold. Not surprisingly, this was seen as too lenient and led to calls for a retrial and mass protests on the streets of Madrid with women’s rights activities arguing that it has made Spain less safe for women.

The trial led to a reconsideration of Spanish rape laws which are understandably seen as outdated and unrealistic, not evidenced-based, reinforces rape myths and misperceptions, and is nether trauma-informed nor compassionate in nature. The new “only yes means yes” legislation passed in the Spanish parliament means that “Consent can no longer be assumed to have been granted by default or silence.” This means that Spain’s rape and sexual harassment and sexual assault laws come into line with each other. it also means that people who have been victimized will no longer have to prove that they experienced violence, intimidation, or distress in the rape which is more appropriate.

Research has indicated over the years that people respond to rape and sexual assault in different ways and at different paces, which means that the reaction at the time is not necessarily as prescribed as the courts may want it to be. Therefore, it is important that we understand the individual’s perspective and take into account their narrative about what happened at the time. The other benefit of a consent-driven rape law is the removal of ambiguity because it focuses on the action not on the outcome; there is clarity around behaviour and expectation. In developing this law Spain is joining a number or countries and regions looking to change their sexual abuse and rape laws to be more victim oriented and consent driven. For instance, in 2018 Sweden changed its law which now states that the lack of consent is enough to constitute a crime (the ‘consent law’). Hence, all participants need to have actively signalled consent. Similar changes have been observed in Iceland, Greece, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In Sweden, this has led to a 75% rise in rape convictions according to some sources.

The question now is what next? what will Spain’s public education and community engagement strategy be around consent? How can consent take place? This legal change is considered by many commentaries as the next step in Spain’s response to the #MeToo movement, but that begs the question of what other preventive and responsive approaches to sexual abuse and sexual harassment will they develop?

By Kieran McCartan, PhD, Paul Gavin, PhD, Cody Porter, PhD, and Charlotte Kite, MSc

Two weeks ago we held a conference at UWE Bristol on the use of restorative justice in sexual offence cases, the aim of the conference was not to fundamentally answer the question of whether you should or could use restorative justice, but rather to consider the role of restorative justice. Restorative justice is not a new concept and is just a lot across the criminal justice system, but it is seen as controversial in the field of sexual abuse, with it been seen as revictimizing the victims, potentially traumatizing to victims at the individuals who have committed the sexual abuse, as well as potentially allowing the individuals who have committed sexual abuse to relive and gain power over their victims. These debates where raised and discussed, however, the aim of this blog is not to re-walk old ground but rather to consider a way forward.

The challenge of restorative justice is often the packaging that it comes in and the months that surround it, these are important to challenge and debunk before we even discuss sexual offending.

• Language: The language used in the field of restorative justice is subjective and often problematic as it explains one aspect of the work, but it does not fully encapsulate it all. The challenge is the words “restorative” and “justice” as the process can be restorative in several ways (maybe forgiveness, maybe closure, maybe therapeutic), may not result in justice (in a criminal justice or healing way) and may not end in forgiveness, empathy and/or understanding. The reality of restorative processes is that they are as much about communication and understandings, as they are about forgiveness and redemption. The reality is the language gives on perception on of the outcome that may not be reflected in the participants engagement.

• Perception: There is a perception from the criminal justice system that restorative justice can be challenging and risky for all involved, which it has the potential to be on occasion, but this ignores the skills, training, and ability of restorative justice practitioners. Restorative justice is a long process with many people involved that puts the victim at the centre of the process and is not a piece of work that is undertaken lightly. Yes, there may have been problematic examples of restorative justice in the past but that is by no means the norm these days.

• Process: The restorative justice process has a number poof paths that it can take, the idea that the victim and individuals who committed the crime against them sit alone together in a room is not necessarily the norm, or even the best way in practice. Restorative justice can take the form of written testimony, victims’ panels, circles, and other approaches. In deciding to do restorative justice decision s will be made with the practitioners on what the best approach for all parties involved will be. Restorative justice is a suite of techniques, a toolbox, rather a than a single prescribed approach.

• Safety and Risk: In developing and using restorative justice the safety of the victims central, in terms of their psychological, emotional, and physical safety. Which is evidenced through the prep done with them in advance about what to expect, what to do if things to not go to plan, the position in the room and the role that everyone will play in the process. The restorative justice process can be stopped at any period, with no consequences.

• Clarity: The most important aspect of restorative justice is an understanding of the process and the potential outcomes, it’s essential for all parties to recognise that although they might go into the process with one set of expectations this may not be what they get out of it. The process my provide closure, understanding, insight or restoration; but it may not. This is important in different ways for all the parties involved, especially for the person who has committed the offence being in a restorative justice process may not aid their rehabilitation and/or community integration in the way that they think (i.e., that the parole board, prison, or probation will look kindly on them).

The conference was about the use of restorative justice in sexual abuse cases, throughout the day practitioners, policy makers, and academics debated the pros and cons of its use. Findings from a literature review on the topic were presented, which led to both discussions and reflections throughout the day. There was a recognition that while sexual abuse was a challenging issue restorative justice was used in other challenging forums and with challenging topics, and it was the skill of the practitioner that was central to success as was the motivation and engagement of the participants.

For Kieran, the interesting debate came at the end of the conference when talking with one of the speakers, Dr Ian Mader, about the reality of restorative justice and a debate about whether restorative practice was a more effective term and a better way to understand the process from a sexual abuse perspective. The benefit of restorative practice is that the language is not rooted in the criminal justice system, and it does not come laden with the old pejorative discourses. Restorative practice is as much about reflection and insight, as it is about understanding and restoration. The other benefit of restorative practice id that it can be an intervention per offence, a disruption technique, as much as a response to an offence. Additionally, restorative practice fits within the trauma informed, strengths-based approach to desistence from sexual offending that we use in the UK now. Sexual abuse impacts all aspects of the victim and the person who has committed the sexual abuses lives, it plays a role in their future development and social functioning and therefore it is important to reflect and process the impact of this abuse; this is what restorative practice dies. Restorative practice does not do this via a one size fits all model and enables the victim to regain control, and power, in an often-powerless situation (both in terms of the abuse and the criminal justice response to it). While the conference did not provide responses to the question of the reality, use or efficacy of restorative justice in sexual abused cases, it allows us to recognise that these processes are important tools that can be use in some cases.

For links to the Council of Europe recommendation on restorative justice and the accompanying HMI Probation report as well as European Forum for Restorative Justice piece please see below: