Discussions around child sexual exploitation (CSE) frequently revolve around identifying and responding to instances of abuse. However, what can we do to prevent perpetration?
In 2023, the University of NSW (UNSW), in partnership with Jesuit Social Services, released the first national representative study, Identifying and understanding child sexual offending behaviour and attitudes among Australian men. The study found around one in six (15.1%) Australian men reported sexual feelings towards children. Of these, 29.6% of them wanted help for these feelings, representing a shocking 4.5% of Australian men.
This month’s Brown Bag will focus on the importance of secondary prevention efforts in the fight to end child sexual abuse. Presented by Georgia Naldrett and Dee Nicholas from Stop It Now! Australia (an initiative of Jesuit Social Services), the session will provide a brief history of perpetration prevention, findings from their 2023 perpetration prevalence study with UNSW, and how they relate to Stop It Now!’s work. Georgia and Dee will also explore emerging trends from the perpetrator prevalence study and working with perpetrators via the Stop It Now! Australia helpline, including what we know about their online behaviour (e.g. use of cryptocurrency, pornography use etc.).
Registrations close on Monday, 27th May at 12pm (AEST).
Stop it Now! is a program that offers an anonymous helpline, chat and web resources for people concerned about their own sexual thoughts and behaviours towards children, or for people concerned about the thoughts or behaviours of others. ICMEC Australia recently partnered with Jesuit Social Services to support the expansion and development of this prevention program in Australia.
Georgia Naldrett is the Stop It Now! Australia Manager within The Men’s Project at Jesuit Social Services. Within this role she applies her psychological and practice knowledge of sexual offending and child protection to aid in the prevention of child sexual abuse, including leading the Stop It Now! helpline. Georgia is a psychology graduate with a BSc (hons) in Psychology and a MSc in Forensic Psychology from the UK. She has been employed in a variety of psychology roles where she developed her learning and application of rehabilitation and prevention, including previously working at The Lucy Faithfull Foundation in the UK.
Dee Nicholas is the Senior Practitioner at Stop It Now! Australia, where she uses her academic and practice experience and knowledge of offender rehabilitation and prevention to provide support, advice and psychoeducation to prevent child sexual abuse. She holds a BSc in Psychology and a MSc in Forensic Psychology from Newcastle University, UK. Dee has previously worked at Stop It Now! UK where she gained extensive knowledge of child protection and sexual offending, and has worked in a variety of forensic and clinical settings.
Registrations for this event have closed.
Please contact us at event@icmec.org.au for further enquiries.