Insights into Child Protection Policies from New Research
One of the difficulties in fashioning strong child protection policies is that there is little evidence about what actually works. Often, all we can do is reason backward from incidents, hoping that closing a loophole that a particular abuser exploited will prevent abuse in the future. That backward-looking reasoning, however, can be simplistic and often overlooks a whole host of complicating factors. That approach also elevates individual anecdotes into policies that may or may not be effective against future perpetrators with different techniques. Finally, it enshrines policies that may work well for one type of youth-serving organization, but is not practical for another entirely different program.
A recent survey attempts to fill that evidence gap by comparing the experiences of adults who participated in youth programs. The researchers recruited almost 3200 people between the ages of 18 and 22, and slightly more between the ages of 32-36. The study asked the participants to fill out retrospective surveys about their involvement in various youth organizations and any victimization they may have experienced. The researchers divided the youth organizations that the participants mentioned into two categories — the “Big 6” (comprised of 4-H, Big Brother Big Sisters of America, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of the USA, and the YMCA of the USA) and all others. They reasoned that these six (6) organizations, being among the “largest and longest operating YSOs in the U.S.” provided a good standard of care for child protection policies.
The survey found that 4% of the respondents reported some form of child sexual abuse in all of the groups, while 12%-34% reported different types of boundary violations (such as allowing rule-breaking, giving gifts, or showing pornography). Within the subset of adults who reported some sort of sexual abuse, those within the Big 6 reported more abuse than sports, religious organizations, schools, or music & arts programs. That result may simply reflect the sheer number of kids in those large organizations. The most striking finding, however, was that significantly more (44.46%) of the older cohort reported abuse than the younger adults (29.06%). There was a similar drop in religious organizations, but a rise in all of the other types of organizations. Boundary violations, however, occurred less frequently in most of the organizations with the younger group, indicating that the organizations might be doing a better job of policing boundaries and enforcing child protection policies.
The researchers concluded that the lower rates of abuse and boundary violations that the younger adults reported in the Big 6 and religious organizations “suggest that the policies, procedures and practices that the U.S.’s largest YSOs have implemented . . . may have the desired safety enhancement result.” That’s a lot of suggestions and maybes, especially for a survey that has all the limitations inherent in self-reported data. The study also doesn't distinguish between policies that may be written down but not followed and policies that are a part of the program's culture. Nevertheless, the study does provide at least some information, and for now, it’s all that we have.
The lesson here for youth-serving organizations is to learn from the child protection policies of other programs like yours. However, as always, your group should adapt, not adopt. Don't simply copy another organization's policies, no matter how tempting. Take the time to analyze the policies in light of your particular programs. Some procedures will work well, while others will not. It doesn't matter how solid your written policies are. What matters is what policies your staff actually can follow consistently.
