Psychosocial intervention targeting child sexual abuse material offending

People who engage in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offences are increasingly coming into contact with the criminal justice system and offender management and rehabilitative services. Research indicates differences in characteristics and risk profiles of people who engage exclusively in CSAM offences when compared to people with more diverse online or offline sexual offending histories. This has implications for offence-specific intervention, with specialised approaches for CSAM offending increasingly gaining favour over existing sexual offending programs.

This workshop will focus on psychosocial intervention for individuals who have engaged in, or are at risk of engaging in, child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offending. It will have a specific focus on child sexual abuse material offending. Using an offence-formulation approach, this training will review the factors which predispose, precipitate, and perpetuate CSAM offending and explore how to address these factors in individual and group-based treatment. It will provide strategies for ensuring that treatment is individualised, and for managing treatment targets in time-limited treatment settings. Prevalent personality presentations among people with CSAM offences will be reviewed, alongside the responsivity, risk management and mandatory reporting issues which are most likely to be present during treatment for this offence type.

This workshop is designed for professionals working therapeutically with individuals who engage in CSAM offending. As this workshop specifically focuses on intervention, participants would benefit from having attended the ‘Online child sexual exploitation and abuse’ workshop delivered by Dr Marie Henshaw, or from having sound knowledge/clinical experience of CSAM offending and the characteristics of people who engage in these offences.  If you have questions about your suitability for the workshop, please contact FMHPDP@swin.edu.au

Facilitators:

Dr Marie Henshaw is a researcher and Clinical and Forensic Psychologist. She is employed as the Research Lead for Child Sexual Abuse Prevention, which is a joint initiative between the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University of Technology, and Stop it Now! Australia (a national child sexual abuse prevention service run by Jesuit Social Services). Dr Henshaw is the lead author of the CEM-COPE Program, an offence-specific group intervention program for people with a history of child sexual abuse material offences, which is being piloted in forensic/correctional services in Australia, Canada and Ohio. She manages a program of research on online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) that aims to enhance prevention and justice responses to OCSEA. She previously worked as a Senior Practitioner at Stop It Now! Australia and as a psychologist in private practice and with Forensicare’s Problem Behaviour Program and Marrmak Program.

Dr Emily Stevenson is a Clinical and Forensic Psychologist. She is currently employed by the Department of Veteran Affairs and works in private practice, specialising in the assessment and treatment of individuals who use child sexual abuse material (CSAM). She also provides expert reports to the Court. Dr Stevenson previously worked for Forensicare’s Problem Behaviour Program, where she provided treatment for a range of offending behaviours, including co-facilitating the CEM-COPE Program for several years. She has published research on the group treatment of sexual offenders.