of subscribes to the more extreme image of sex “…[the government] sort offenders being prolific, dangerous and all the rest of it.” (Participant 6; Psychologist). government chooses to sort of see sexually offending against children “...the as being, or paedophilia in particular, as being something that is difficult to treat, that is something that is a risk management (Participant 25; issue,” Probation). In addition to this there was no clear consensus amongst these participants on what the role of the government should be in regard to child sexual abuse. The participants proposed a variety of potential roles, including, providing legislation (62%, n= 8); providing support for research (23%, listening to victims, agencies, charities n= 3); and NGOs (31%, funding agencies (8%, and ultimately arguing that the n= 4); n= 1); government needs to be child protection orientated (38%, n= 5). which effectively helps children avoid getting into abusive “So anything situations, report them early and all the rest of measures it. It’s preventative which need to be (Participant 6; Probation) funded...” A small sample of this cross section of participants (16%, both practitioners, n= 2), stressed that the UK government could do more in response to child sexual abuse. These participants argued that in order to develop more realistic child sexual abuse policies the government needed to listen to professional advice more, interact better with practitioners, as well as emphasise an evidence-based approach to policy
“…[the government] sort of subscribes to the more extreme image of sex offenders being prolific, dangerous and all the rest of it.” (Participant 6; Psychologist). “...the government chooses to sort of see sexually offending against children as being, or paedophilia in particular, as being something that is difficult to treat, that is something that is a risk management issue,” (Participant 25; Probation). In addition to this there was no clear consensus amongst these participants on what the role of the government should be in regard to child sexual abuse. The participants proposed a variety of potential roles, including, providing legislation (62%, n= 8); providing support for research (23%, n= 3); listening to victims, agencies, charities and NGOs (31%, n= 4); funding agencies (8%, n= 1); and ultimately arguing that the government needs to be child protection orientated (38%, n= 5). “So anything which effectively helps children avoid getting into abusive situations, report them early and all the rest of it. It’s preventative measures which need to be funded...” (Participant 6; Probation) A small sample of this cross section of participants (16%, n= 2), both practitioners, stressed that the UK government could do more in response to child sexual abuse. These participants argued that in order to develop more realistic child sexual abuse policies the government needed to listen to professional advice more, interact better with practitioners, as well as emphasise an evidence-based approach to policy
government%20%20child%20sexual%20abuse%20-%20a%20view%20from%20professionals%20-%20%20final%20jan%202011.docx