ABSTRACT

Child Advocacy Centers are interdisciplinary hubs that play a vital role in responding to child maltreatment, especially sexual abuse. Sexual abuse cases increasingly involve an online component, but no studies have examined the experience of Child Advocacy Center staff in dealing with online sexual exploiftation. This study surveyed 37 staff at five Child Advocacy Centers in Alberta, Canada to understand their ability to recognize and respond to concerns about online and in-person sexual exploitation of their clients. The majority of respondents (54%) dealt with cases that involved grooming, luring, sexual abuse and child sexual abuse imagery (also known as child pornography) in the last year. Staff were equally confident in their ability to recognize and respond to grooming, luring, sexual abuse and child sexual abuse imagery. However, staff were more likely to have formal training in identifying sexual abuse and less likely to encounter difficulties in responding to sexual abuse relative to grooming, luring or child sexual abuse imagery. Clinicians used similar therapies when working with youth impacted by sexual abuse versus child sexual abuse imagery. Given that most Child Advocacy Center staff in our sample dealt with online child sexual exploitation, additional training in this area may be warranted.

摘要

儿童倡导中心是跨学科中心，在应对虐待儿童，尤其是性虐待方面发挥着至关重要的作用。性虐待案件越来越多地涉及在线部分，但没有研究检查儿童倡导中心工作人员处理在线性剥削的经验。这项研究调查了加拿大艾伯塔省五个儿童倡导中心的 37 名工作人员，以了解他们识别和回应对其客户的在线和面对面性剥削的担忧的能力。大多数受访者（54%）在去年处理了涉及修饰、引诱、性虐待和儿童性虐待图像（也称为儿童色情）的案件。工作人员对他们识别和回应修饰、引诱、性虐待和儿童性虐待图像的能力同样充满信心。然而，工作人员更有可能在识别性虐待方面接受过正式培训，并且在应对性虐待方面遇到与修饰、引诱或儿童性虐待图像相关的困难的可能性较小。临床医生在处理受性虐待影响的青少年和儿童性虐待图像时使用了类似的疗法。鉴于我们样本中的大多数儿童倡导中心工作人员都处理在线儿童性剥削问题，因此可能需要在该领域进行额外培训。