Guide to Problematic Sexual Behaviours and Abusive Sexual Practices

114 Pages·2015·5.3 MB·English

Guide to Problematic
Sexual Behaviours
and Abusive Sexual
Practices

SUPPORT MATERIAL
ONG PAICABI – SOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGES
Latin America and the Caribbean

This publication has been designed by ONG Paicabí
within the framework of collaboration and capacity building
with SOS Children's Villages
Region Latin America and the Caribbean (LAAM)

© ONG PAICABI.
Author: Francisco Romero Cabrera
Co-authors: Nelly Navarro Hernández
María Inés Meyer Froese

Design and Drawings: Francisco Romero Cabrera
English translation: Simon Beswetherick and
Language Services, SOS Children’s Villages

Viña del Mar, Chile
December 2014

Digital version available at: www.paicabi.cl
C
ontents:
Preface ..................................................................................................................... 3
Presentation of the Guide.. ......................................................................................... 4

CONSIDERATIONS TO AID UNDERSTANDING ............................................................ 5
Principles of the Guide . . ............................................................................................ 6
Sexual development … ….….…………………………………………............................................ 8
Problematic sexual behaviours (PSBs) …………………................................................. 11
Abusive sexual practices (ASPs) ……………………………................................................ 13
Terminological clarifications ……………………………………............................................. 15
Distinguishing sexual behaviours … ……………………................................................... 17
Behaviour distinguishing tools … ……………………....................................................... 19
Examples of PSBs and ASPs … …………………………………………...................................... 21
Possible causes of PSBs and ASPs ……………………………............................................. 23
Seeking specialized support … ………………………......................................................... 28
Summary ……………………………………………………………................................................. 29

CONSIDERATIONS FOR PREVENTION ..................................................................... 30
Levels of prevention ................................................................................................ 31
Risk of abusive sexual practices .............................................................................. 32
Evaluating the possibility of the occurrence of an ASP ........................................... 33
Preventive actions ................................................................................................... 34
Everyday sex education ........................................................................................... 35
Responses from adults to sexual behaviours ......................................................... 37
Types of responses from adults .............................................................................. 39
Attention diversion responses ................................................................................ 40
Educational responses ............................................................................................. 41
PSB and ASP mindfulness ........................................................................................ 42
Managing spaces and settings ................................................................................ 44
Prevention workshops ............................................................................................ 46
Prevention workshops with children and adolescents ........................................... 47
Prevention workshops with adults responsible for direct care .............................. 56
Prevention at the community level ......................................................................... 60
Summary ................................................................................................................. 62
C
ontents:
CONSIDERATIONS FOR INTERVENTION ................................................................. 63
Occurrence of abusive sexual practices (ASPs) ...................................................... 64
Three-dimensional shared responsibility ................................................................ 65
Initial interview with children and adolescents who have engaged in ASPs ……..... 66
Stopping ASPs …………………...................................................................................... 70
Separation or living together? …………………………….................................................. 75
Evaluation of separation or living together …………………………………………................. 76
Seeking specialized support for an ASP ……………………….......................................... 77
Neuropsychiatric conditions and ASPs ………………………........................................... 79
Summary …………………………………………….................................................................. 81

TRANSVERSAL CONSIDERATIONS
FOR PREVENTING AND ADDRESSING ASPs ……………………….................................... 82
Fostering resilience …………………………………………………………….................................. 83
Honouring the history and origin of children and adolescents .............................. 86
Caring for the teams ................................................................................................ 89
Working in institutional networks .......................................................................... 91
Summary ................................................................................................................. 93

Closing the Guide .................................................................................................... 94

Bibliographic references of the Guide .................................................................... 95

ANNEXES ................................................................................................................. 97
Other bibliographic resources ................................................................................ 98
Compendium of tools ............................................................................................ 103
P
reface:
All children, adolescents and young people have the right to physical
and psychological integrity and protection against all forms of violence.
Unfortunately, violence as a social problem is acquiring different dimensions and
manifests in all settings.
With regard to sexual abuse, in Latin America, while progress has been
made with diagnosis and intervention in cases involving an adult as abuser and a
child as victim, situations involving children or adolescents engaging in sexual
behaviours with other children or adolescents continue to represent a major
challenge.
As an organization that works with children, adolescents and young
people who have lost or are at risk of losing parental care, SOS Children's Villages is
not immune to these situations and recognizes the vulnerability of those who make
up our target population.
Within this context and as part of the process of implementing the
Child Protection Policy, SOS Children's Villages considers it essential to establish
strategic partnerships with specialized organizations, such as Paicabi, which is a key
partner for addressing and preventing abusive sexual practices and problematic
sexual behaviours.
This Guide aims to provide a framework of reference and support for
all member associations in the Latin America and Caribbean Region (LAAM) and
further afield, and to stimulate the creation of long-term strategies that promote
continuous learning and the creation of protective and safe environments for all
children, adolescents and young people.
In this respect, we invite you to use this Guide as a key reference tool
when working to protect our target population.
Nadia Garrido
Aristide Ramaciotti
Regional Director of Programmes LAAM
International Director LAAM

SOS Children's Villages International
SOS Children's Villages International
3
P
resentation of the Guide:
In Latin America, ONG Paicabi has been a pioneer in working with
children and adolescents who have carried out sexual assaults. The organization
has 18 years' experience in promoting and defending children's rights and a decade
of experience in the field of child-on-child sexual abuse.
It is currently estimated that children and adolescents are responsible
for one third of all acts of sexual abuse against other children and adolescents;
therefore, discussing child-to-child sexual assaults is a necessity and a challenge. It
is a necessity as this phenomenon is an undeniable fact, and a challenge as it
questions our usual assumptions about violence and childhood.
SOS Children's Villages in Latin America and the Caribbean has decided
to address this need and tackle the challenge with courage, since it is not easy to
talk about sexual abuse within family and residential care contexts. SOS Children's
Villages is starting to seek ways of addressing sexual assaults of children and
adolescents in all their complexity and through an approach that is consistent with
its principles. When we started gathering background information about this at
ONG Paicabi, we were keen to put together a proposal that went beyond purely
technical considerations to also include ethical and human dimensions.
This Guide summarizes some of those aspects and is split into four
sections: The first outlines “Considerations to Aid Understanding”, explaining
concepts that help understand paediatric and adolescent sexual development and
its problematic manifestations. The second, “Considerations for Prevention”,
proposes measures to avoid child-to-child sexual assaults. The third part reviews
“Considerations for Intervention”, setting out suggestions for intervening in the
event of the occurrence of sexual assaults within an SOS family or other care
setting. Finally, in the last part, “Transversal Considerations”, basic recurring
themes in work with children and violence are reviewed.
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Guide to Problematic Sexual
Behaviours and Abusive
Sexual Practices

CONSIDERATIONS TO AID
UNDERSTANDING
5
P
rinciples of the Guide:
Any human idea, including the content of this Guide, arises from
assumptions that are often neither theoretical nor academic. They are the
emotional, ethical and political factors that frame our thinking and guide our work.
With the aim of making our assumptions more transparent, below we
present a series of principles that underpin our approach towards childhood and
adolescence, paediatric and adolescent sexual development, and problematic and
abusive sexual practices.

1. Rights perspective:
The human rights of a child or adolescent must be
respected and guaranteed, regardless of his or her
behaviour.
2. Doctrine of comprehensive protection:
The state, society and the family have a duty to take all
legal, administrative and economic measures to demand,
guarantee, exercise and protect all the rights of children
and young people.
3. Developmental approach:
Children and adolescents go through different stages
of development. Changes are part of these stages and
healthy development requires the care of adults.
4. Complex understanding:
Human phenomena are complex insofar as they are
associated with multiple non-linear, interrelated
variables.
6
P
rinciples of the Guide:
5. Situational understanding:
Human phenomena are situational in that they take place
in specific cultures, families and individuals. The task as
professionals is to adapt our understanding and
interventions to each concrete situation.
6. Gender perspective:
All human phenomena, including sexuality, violence or
psychosocial intervention, are shaped by cultural
constructs of masculinity and femininity.
7. Collaborative approach:
In order to both gain a holistic understanding of a
situation and effectively intervene in it, a team of
people who are willing to dialogue and cooperate with
each other is needed.
8. Caring for the teams:
The institutions that provide support to families, children
and young people should also consider the rights of the
professionals working in those contexts. They should
promote care for the teams themselves, care between
professional peers and self-care.
Each of these eight principles is present throughout the Guide. As they
read this document, we invite readers to permanently bear in mind the
assumptions described here.
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