This brief outlines the most promising local prevention strategies and policy changes to prevent child sexual abuse from happening in the first place.  The recommendations are designed to shift social and cultural norms that increase the likelihood of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Sample recommendations include:

• Decrease the saturation of media messages aimed at children by reviewing and rolling back the legislation that allowed advertising to children especially in children’s television programming.
• Develop a rapid response media network to respond to breaking news with proactive prevention messages that incorporate an environmental and norms-based understanding of the causes and solutions of abuse.
• Require staff training in organizations that work with children and youth specifically focused on developmentally appropriate sexuality and sexual behavior.

  With support from the Ms. Foundation, this brief is based on findings from  a convening of national experts and local leaders, expert interviews, and a review of the literature.

Transforming Communities to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: A Primary Prevention Approach

This report documents how hundreds of thousands of girls in Indonesia, some as young as 11, are employed as domestic workers in other people’s households, performing tasks such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, and child care. Most girls interviewed for the report worked 14 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week, with no day off. Almost all are grossly underpaid, and some get no salary at all. In the worst cases, girls reported being physically, psychologically, and sexually abused.
Workers in the Shadows: Abuse and Exploitation of Child Domestic Workers in Indonesia

This report presents findings from the National Incident-Based Reporting System regarding sexual assault of young children. The data are based on reports from law enforcement agencies of 12 States and covers the years 1991 through 1996. The report presents sexual assault in 4 categories: forcible rape, forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object, and forcible fondling. Findings include statistics on the incidence of sexual assault, the victims, their offenders, gender, response to these crimes, locality, time of incident, the levels of victim injury, victims' perceptions of offenders' ages, and victim-offender relationships, and other detailed characteristics.
Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law Enforcement: Victim, Incident, and Offender Characteristics