Context matters: Conceptualising and operationalising the contextual prevention of child sexual abuse

Susan Rayment-McHugh; Nadine McKillop; Dimity Adams; Daryl J Higgins; Douglas Russell

doi:10.1002/car.2859

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Context matters: Conceptualising and operationalising the contextual prevention of child sexual abuse

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Context matters: Conceptualising and operationalising the contextual prevention of child sexual abuse

Susan Rayment-McHugh, Nadine McKillop, Dimity Adams, Daryl J Higgins and Douglas Russell

Child Abuse Review, Vol.33(1), pp.1-13

2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2859

Appears in UniSC Diversity and Inclusion Research Collection

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Abstract

Causes and prevention of crime

Crime prevention

child sexual abuse

contextual prevention

environmental

safeguarding

situational

UniSC Diversity Area - Life Stages

There is growing recognition of the contextual dynamics of child sexual abuse, with a developing evidence base supporting it, sparking calls to ensure prevention efforts are contextualised. Contextual approaches extend the focus of prevention beyond the individual, to include immediate situations, and the physical and social contexts in which abuse occurs. Although academic and industry support for contextual approaches is gaining momentum, there is no consistent definition of contextual prevention nor operational clarity currently available to inform research, policy and practice. This contributes to a lack of policy guidance and practice consistency; also impeding much needed evaluation research, and likely slowing scholarly and practice uptake. In this article, we address this important gap. Based on a critical review of relevant literature, we propose a conceptual definition of contextual prevention and its operatio-nalisation and provide a framework and guidance for policymakers and practitioners tasked with protecting children from child sexual abuse.

Details

Title: Context matters: Conceptualising and operationalising the contextual prevention of child sexual abuse
Authors: Susan Rayment-McHugh (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit
Nadine McKillop (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit
Dimity Adams (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit
Daryl J Higgins (Author) - Australian Catholic University
Douglas Russell (Author) - Australian Catholic University
Publication details: Child Abuse Review, Vol.33(1), pp.1-13
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Date published: 2024
DOI: 10.1002/car.2859
ISSN: 1099-0852; 0952-9136
Copyright note: © 2024 The Authors. Child Abuse Review published by Association of Child Protection Professionals and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Grant note: The development of this paper was supported by a Westpac Safer Children, Safer Communities Grant.
Organisation Unit: Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; School of Law and Society; Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99993698602621
Output Type: Journal article