Child Abuse as a Public Health Issue

Research indicates that 15-20 percent of girls and 5-10 percent of boys in the United States are affected by child sexual abuse. Those are numbers that should make everyone sit up and take notice, and yet one of the biggest funding gaps we see in our field is the lack of government support for research on how to prevent this abuse. Instead of a public health issue, child sexual abuse is still seen by many as a criminal justice problem. In this episode, we talk to Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse about what policies she sees as fundamentally flawed, where the bright spots are, and why prevention should be a federal priority. Mentioned in this episode:Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual AbuseAssociation for the Treatment of Sexual AbusersSex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA)David Finkelhor, Ph.D.Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and PreventionJane Silovsky, Ph.D.Safe DatesShifting BoundariesNCA resources for addressing youth and children with problematic sexual behaviorsSupport the showDid you like this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.