Understand All Risks
One important part of auditing and developing child protection policies for your youth-serving organization (YSO) is to understand all of the risks that your organization faces. We have seen a tendency, for example, for youth-servicing organizations (YSOs) to concentrate all of their efforts on preventing sexual predators from entering the organization. While hardening your organization against pedophiles is an important goal, placing too much emphasis there can distract from other equally important concerns.
First, there is no foolproof way to “detect” sexual predators. They are almost uncanny in their ability to lull suspicions and avoid discovery. Researchers working with sex offenders have been able to identify some common characteristics, but many of those become apparent only in hindsight. We simply don’t see them in the day-to-day activities of our YSO. Until we see how the story ended, we don’t see the significance of the clues scattered along the way.
A second problem with focusing on sexual predators is that, while sexual abuse may get all of the headlines, it is far from the only way that children can be harmed. Other forms of abuse and simple accidents harm far more children every year. We have seen many times that staff in childcare centers, for example, have accidentally pulled a child’s arm, resulting in an injury so common that it has been known for centuries as “nursemaid’s elbow.” Physical abuse, both reckless and deliberate, is far more common than sexual abuse, and emotional abuse is more common than both of them.
A final problem with focusing on adult predators is that children are at far greater risk from their peers than from adults. In one study of 503 foster youth, for example, the participants reported the highest or second-highest levels of abuse from peers. Foster youth in residential placements also reported more peer abuse than those in foster homes. In another survey, this one from Britain, 52% of alleged offenders in reported cases of sexual assaults against children were themselves minors. A study from 2019 found that more than 70% of assaults that the minor participants reported were by other minors.
A good child protection policy must include all of the injuries that a child risks while in your care. If yours is a high adventure camp, then your safety rules for your ropes course are part of your child protection policy. If your group transports kids in a bus or individual cars, then your screening protocol for the drivers (i.e., DUI or other driving violations) is part of your child protection policy. You need to keep a broad perspective on the potential risks to children. You know better than anyone else the details of your programs and the safety rules that you need. Don’t focus so exclusively on screening out sexual predators that you forget to screen out bad drivers, ill-tempered physical abusers, or bullying from other children.
