NCJ Number
170118
Date Published
1997
Length
17 pages
Annotation
The care and treatment of sexually abusive adolescents in Great Britain is discussed with respect to methods of conducting risk assessments to predict future behavior and make decisions about the supervision and the setting the youth needs.
Abstract
Practitioners who work with sexual abusers must recognize that their decisions may determine others' exposure to risk. Assessment of risk should ideally aim to combine clinical information, actuarial information, situational information, and opinions about the seriousness of the behaviors to produce clinically defensible decisions. Clinicians should decide whether they have time and resources to carry out the assessment. They should evaluate the urgency of the referral, convene a child protection team discussion to determine urgency as needed, and decide whether the adolescent should be removed from the context of abuse. Summarizing and interpreting assessment findings is probably the most difficult part of the assessment process. It will probably involve choosing from more than one interpretation and more than one hypothesis. Managing risk includes managing the abuser, managing the context, and gathering information about access to potential victims. Risk management in residential settings and in cases in which the adolescent lives at home or in a foster family requires attention to numerous specific factors. Preventing abuse by teaching children self-protection is another consideration, although outcome research regarding both prevention and risk management techniques is lacking and needs future attention.