“Talking about child sexual abuse would have helped me”: Young people who sexually abused reflect on preventing harmful sexual behavior (2017)

Child Abuse Negl. 2017 Jun 16;70:210-221. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.06.017.

McKibbin G1, Humphreys C2, Hamilton B2.

Abstract

Harmful sexual behavior carried out by children and young people accounts for about half of all child sexual abuse perpetration. The aim of this study was to draw on the insights of young people who had been sexually abusive to enhance the current prevention agenda. The study involved semi-structured interviews with 14 young people and six treatment-providing workers.

Sampling was purposive and the young people had previously completed a treatment program for harmful sexual behaviour in Victoria, Australia. The young people were approached as experts based on their previous experience of engaging in harmful sexual behavior. At the same time, their past abusive behavior was not condoned or minimised. Constructivist Grounded Theory was used to analyse the qualitative data.

Opportunities for preventing harmful sexual behavior were the focus of the interviews with young people and workers. The research identified three opportunities for prevention, which involved acting on behalf of children and young people to: reform their sexuality education; redress their victimization experiences; and help their management of pornography. These opportunities could inform the design of initiatives to enhance the prevention agenda.

KEYWORDS: Child sexual abuse; Children and young people with harmful sexual behavior; Constructivist grounded theory; Prevention; Problematic sexual behavior; Public health model; Sexually abusive behavior

PMID: 28628898

DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.06.017


3.3. Opportunity three − help their management of pornography

The third opportunity for prevention identified by the young people related to the trouble they had managing pornography. Out of the 14 young people, 12 talked about being exposed to pornography and three talked about how pornography was one of the factors that triggered their harmful sexual behavior. They implied the likelihood of their harmful sexual behavior occurring could have been reduced if pornography had not been present. Six young people considered that viewing pornography was normal practice amongst their peers. One boy talked about how his peer group regularly looked at pornography websites:

Mostly everyone looks at pornography nowadays. Like pretty much everyone’s has their phone and they go on to, what do you call it, Red Tube and Porn Hub and stuff. They look at everything. (Young person, male, 16)

Another young person talked about how he enjoyed pornography and had viewed it regularly for many years. He also recalled watching pornography with his father and witnessing his father’s partner watching pornography:

[I] used to go the shopping centres and use their computers to watch [pornography with my Dad]… I love pornography…Did I just say that? I’m always getting Snapchats, dirty Snapchats. . It’s when you send people—you take a picture and you send it to someone and someone sends you one back or videos or whatever…It’s pretty dirty. (Young person, male, 19)

A further young person described how he was first exposed to pornography at age 11 by a male classmate at school. He began to look at pornography at home when his parents were out and decided to try out what he had seen against his sister: 

I didn’t really watch [pornography] when my sister was around, usually at that point my head was thinking let’s try what I’ve seen. Then, so as well as the pornography and that sense of power, they just pretty much added together and then caused [my harmful sexual behavior]. (Young person, male, 19)

Another boy also talked about how pornography triggered his harmful sexual behavior. He said that he used to watch a lot of pornography on his computer at his grandmother’s house and considered that conversations with his cousin about pornography were a precursor to the harmful sexual behavior which he carried out against his cousin.

I used to watch [pornography] a bit more back then, before all this and [my cousin had] asked me about that before as well. Not that day, not in that month, but in the past he’d asked me what [pornography] is, and because I was always there, I was always the person on the internet and stuff because I’m a computer person. So of course he was able to come to me, asking that kind of question. I think [the conversations about pornography] might have triggered [my harmful sexual behavior]. (Young person, male, 16)

The workers reflected that they observed a strong link between pornography and young people’s harmful sexual behavior. One worker spoke about how young people are learning to associate sex with aggression through viewing pornography. She suggested that most mainstream pornography represents violence against women and teaches young people that they do not need to seek girls’ consent before perpetrating sexual violence against them:

The young people talk about what they’ve been exposed to around pornography and at very young ages. What we know about pornography is that the majority depicts violence against women. I think the last statistics I heard was 85% of it. So from a young age they’ve accessed pornography, which gets easier and easier, and they’re exposed to this idea that sex and aggression is linked and they’re exposed to these ideas that you don’t necessarily need consent, and that “no” might mean “try harder.” (Worker)

Although only three young people identified that pornography had been a trigger for their harmful sexual behavior, many more had viewed pornography and workers reflected that pornography was a significant problem in the lives of children and young people who abuse. Pornography may be a particularly problem for children and young people with learning difficulties, who do not necessarily have the capacity to differentiate the representations from socially appropriate sexual behavior.