Child-on-child (Peer-on-peer) Sexual Abuse

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How Pornography May Distort Risk Assessment of Children and Adolescents Who Sexually Harm

Full Article Title: How Pornography May Distort Risk Assessment of Children and Adolescents Who Sexually Harm

Open Access: No

Abstract

Over the past three decades, an accepted “given” of adolescent sexually abusive behaviour assessment and treatment has been that the more serious the sexual acts committed, the more entrenched that adolescent’s behaviours are likely to be, with a likely progression from minor assaults through to more serious, intrusive acts. We assume youth engaging in the sexually abusive behaviour may have become both desensitised to the harm they are causing, whilst needing to engage in more severe offences to gain the level of arousal originally achieved through lesser acts. This conceptualisation suggests a somewhat causal relationship between the duration of the sexually abusive behaviour; the severity of the behaviour and the length of treatment required to manage and treat the issue. Has pornography consumption potentially impacted the assessment and treatment of youth who sexually harm? Does a relationship exist between the severity and the entrenchment of the sexually assaultive acts committed, or has viewing pornography and re-enacting what has been viewed altered this relationship? This article explores a number of these themes and questions.

Relevance

“To conclude, we suggest that the ease of access to pornography and its hard core nature provide a problematic sexual script for youth. In addition, we think that the impact of the use of pornography, in particular on the severity of the sexual acts engaged in and on how quickly a youth was able to progress to penetrative sexual abuse, has to be considered in the assessment of risk and treatment of youth exhibiting sexually abusive behaviours. Furthermore, we suggest that the relationship between the severity of the sexually assaultive behaviour, and the entrenchment and progression of the behaviour over time, may have been significantly altered through the pornography use and potential re-enactment of viewed pornography, together with its contents and ideology.”

Moreover, “some youth engaging in sexually abusive behaviour who have also used pornography engage in quite significant and severe sexual activity, which may include practices such as anal sex, facial ejaculation, slaps, pinching and punching of their partners, and other behaviours that have come straight from the pornography they have watched.”

Citation

Pratt R., & Fernandes, C. (2015). How pornography may distort risk assessment of children and adolescents who sexually harm. Children Australia, 40(3), 232–241. https://doi.org/10.1017/cha.2015.28