I graduated from my Master’s about 15 years ago and I have been a member of the APS for more than 30 years. When I ask myself what I have learned over this time, it’s hard to know where to start. Over my career, I have learned that my personal experience of child sexual abuse, sadly, is not unique. We know that about one in four females and one in six males experience sexual abuse before they reach 18 years of age.
What I didn’t know was how ill-equipped I was to deal effectively with this issue when my studies ended. My exponential growth in learning occurred when I (most reluctantly I might say) began a placement with an agency that dealt with perpetrators of intrafamilial child sexual abuse. Initially I was terrified – I did not want to work with that poplation of offenders at all. Nevertheless, I put on a brave face and decided to make the most of the opportunity to learn from the experience, however reluctantly.
It was a difficult lesson, but through this process I learnt that to protect children, and prevent abuse, we need to effectively work with offenders. But what does this look like? I was surprised to realise that many of the clients there were desperate to receive help and did not fit into my pre-conceived images of what an offender looked like. I had what is best described as an epiphany – here finally was the solution to the problem. If my family would have known about such an organisation, many of my female cousins would have been spared from the trauma that we all shared.
I also learned that my belief that ‘once a perpetrator, always a perpetrator’ was ill-informed and untrue. That agency regularly gathered pre-, during- and post-treatment data and offered a viable long-term option for support so that any participants of the treatment program could access help whenever they thought that they may be at risk of re-offending in the future. I learnt that their recidivism rates were impressive and seriously challenged my belief in the justice system as being the only way to deal with the issue (Chamarette & Biggs, 2020; Macoun, 2020).
Our outrage and anger towards perpetrators is understandable – sexual abuse is not acceptable – however it is not sufficient to solely rely on that outrage to motivate interventions to deal with the issue. My profession prides itself on evidence-based interventions and yet there is little evidence that the justice system alone is the best solution to treat perpetrators of child sexual abuse.
I have also learned about how little research has been done in this area regarding the effectiveness of interventions. Nevertheless, that placement taught me skills to provide effective treatment and maintain a sense of empathy in difficult circumstances. In some cases, these were adults dealing with their own childhood trauma in an unhelpful, harmful way. When you think about it; so many of our clients fall into this category as they struggle with their childhood issues via unhelpful coping mechanisms. Even now in my private practice, I work with both victims and offenders, some of whom are both. Again, I am not condoning such behaviour, but understanding offenders’ behaviour is a vital tool in the prevention of child sexual abuse.
The tide has turned in relation to both public opinion and the body of evidence of treatment for issues like substance abuse and domestic violence. In these areas, there is increasingly a survivor-centric approach. My hope is that in our ambitions to prevent and treat child sexual abuse, we are able to use these vital insights from working effectively with offenders to prevent further crimes. I have also learned that a significant number of people who have offended sexually against children experienced abuse or neglect in their childhoods. It may help to perceive them as untreated ‘victims’ for those who struggle to hold them in that therapeutic space where healing and treatment can occur.
What happened to that agency where I did my placement? Sadly, it lost its funding. Our hearts and dollars tend to be funnelled into teaching safety behaviours to children and to support victims – which are all worthy recipients – but we also need funding, research and support for those who work with people who have offended against others. We need to expand our understanding on what it means to support victims within the boundaries of this incredibly complex and challenging social issue. The analogy I often use is that we need to stop simply putting buckets on the floor to catch the drips from a leaking roof – we are better off to channel some of our efforts into going up into the roof and fix the leak – otherwise the cycle will continue; just as it has in my family and so many other families as well.
Contact the author: [email protected]; letstalkcounselling.com.au
The content of this publication is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice. Support services in your state or territory can be found here. The APS Position Statement on Child Sexual Abuse and Psychology can be found here.