Tackling Child Sexual Abuse

Book excerpt: This bracing book makes a forceful case for reinvigorating our efforts to address and prevent childhood sexual abuse. In recent years, Sarah Nelson argues, the fight against childhood sexual abuse has been complacent, or even fearful. She attacks the causes of this head-on, reassessing backlashes like that surrounding the "satanic panic" and arguing that policy makers, practitioners, and academics have a duty to move beyond such problems and address the real issue. To that end, she proposes new models for child-centered, perpetrator-focused protection, community prevention, and working with survivor-offenders. Sure to be controversial, Preventing Child Sexual Abuse will challenge--and galvanize--the field.