FACTSHEET:
Child Sexual Abuse
Child sexual abuse includes a wide range of sexual behaviors that take place between a child and an older person. These sexual behaviors are intended to erotically arouse the older person, generally without consideration for the reactions or choices of the child and without consideration for the effects of the behavior upon the child. Behaviors that are sexually abusive often involve bodily contact, such as in the case of sexual kissing, touching, fondling of genitals, and oral, anal, or vaginal intercourse. However, behaviors may be sexually abusive even if they don't involve contact, such as in the case of genital exposure ("flashing"), verbal pressure for sex, and sexual exploitation for purposes of prostitution or pornography.
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Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat is primary prevention?Primary prevention is a public health term that distinguishes between three levels of prevention (primary, secondary and tertiary). In this regard, "primary" refers to taking measures before sexual violence has occurred to prevent initial perpetration and victimization. It means that rather than place the onus on the "potential" victim to protect him/herself from an incident of sexual violence, we, as a society, take responsibility for engendering and ensuring environments that are free from sexual violence. Primary prevention of sexual violence is about creating safer, healthier, and more equitable communities. Secondary prevention refers to immediate responses after the sexual violence has occurred to deal with the short-term consequences of violence, including crisis intervention and risk-reduction of further or additional victimization. Tertiary prevention involves long term responses after sexual violence has occurred to deal with the lasting consequences of violence, and sex offender treatment interventions.What is a demonstration project?Demonstration projects are intended to be initiatives where the problem is known, potential solutions are known, and one of the solutions is implementation/tested, and then the results are shared with other affected communities. (definition adapted from The Patient Safety Institute)What is community mobilization?Community mobilization uses deliberate, participatory processes to involve local institutions, local leaders, community groups, and members of the community to organize for collective action toward a common purpose. Community mobilization is characterized by respect for the community and its needs.Benefits of a community mobilization approach.
(Treno, AJ, Holder, HD, Community mobilization, organization, and media advocacy: a discussion of methodological issues. Eval Rev. 1997; 21(2) :166-190.) What is community readiness?Community readiness is the degree to which a community is prepared to take action on a particular health or social issue (Oetting, et al, 1995). Interventions must be challenging enough to move a community forward, but efforts that are too ambitious are likely to fail because community members will not be able to respond (Plested, et al., 2005). It is important to be clear that the concept of community readiness is not that some communities are ready while others are not. Rather, communities differ in the degree to which they are ready for action. If a community is at a very low level of readiness, then direct efforts such as awareness-raising campaigns will need to be made toward increasing the level of readiness. If a community is at a mid or high level of readiness, then that community can begin designing an action agenda. |
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