Context matters : Conceptualising and operationalising the contextual prevention of child sexual abuse
Journal article
Rayment-McHugh, Susan, McKillop, Nadine, Adams, Dimity, Higgins, Daryl John and Russell, Douglas. (2024). Context matters : Conceptualising and operationalising the contextual prevention of child sexual abuse. Child Abuse Review. 33(1), pp. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2859
Authors | Rayment-McHugh, Susan, McKillop, Nadine, Adams, Dimity, Higgins, Daryl John and Russell, Douglas |
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Abstract | 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 noconsistent 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 operationalisation and provide a framework and guidance for policymakers and practitioners tasked with protecting children from child sexual abuse. Key Practitioner Messages |
Keywords | child sexual abuse; contextual prevention; environmental; safeguarding; situational |
Year | 01 Jan 2024 |
Journal | Child Abuse Review |
Journal citation | 33 (1), pp. 1-13 |
Publisher | John Wiley and Sons Ltd (UK) |
ISSN | 0952-9136 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2859 |
Web address (URL) | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/car.2859 |
Open access | Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access |
Research or scholarly | Research |
Page range | 1-13 |
Publisher's version | License File Access Level Open |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 30 Jan 2024 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 19 Dec 2023 |
Deposited | 23 May 2024 |
Additional information | © 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 | |
The development of this paper was supported by a Westpac Safer Children, Safer Communities Grant. | |
Place of publication | United Kingdom |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/90824/context-matters-conceptualising-and-operationalising-the-contextual-prevention-of-child-sexual-abuse
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Publisher's version
OA_Higgins_2024_Context_matters _conceptualising_and_operationalising_the.pdf | |
License: CC BY 4.0 | |
File access level: Open |
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