Making the case for prevention: A deep dive into talk about child sexual abuse

Name: Safe Futures Hub
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How do we, should we, and can we begin to talk more urgently about the need for prevention?

Factsheets & briefs

By MOORE | Preventing Child Sexual Abuse, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Published: 08 May 2025

Background

Prevention isn't an option, it's a necessity. Most abuse is committed by people known to the child and a large proportion of abuse is committed by other children. In other words, abuse is perpetrated within our communities. Within our ‘normal’ lives.

Why talking matters

We know that child sexual abuse is preventable, not inevitable. But we don’t talk about it like that. It remains perhaps the most stigmatized topic in human society. Prevalence studies confirm to us that on average many of our friendship groups, work teams, sports squads, and families will in some way be touched by harm*. It is no wonder that as a society we struggle to discuss the topic. It carries pain. And yet, to prevent child sexual abuse, we must understand how it happens and how we can better intervene to prevent harm from occurring in the first place. In other words, how we can prevent more pain.

Unfortunately, another commonplace response to abuse is to ignore it, avoid it, dismiss it as inevitable, and assume the cause is a small number of dangerous strangers. The problem with this perspective is that it does not match what we know of child sexual abuse. Most abuse is committed by people known to the child and a large proportion of abuse is committed by other children*. In other words, abuse is perpetrated within our communities. Within our ‘normal’ lives.

Ignoring, avoiding, and dismissing are not luxuries we can afford. Talking about the reality of abuse matters. And talking about it means elevating survivor voices, demanding political leadership, and making the case for large-scale prevention.

*Together for Girls (2024); UNICEF Innocenti, INTERPOL, ECPAT: Disrupting Harm (2022); Finkelhor D. Trends in Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in the United States. (2020)

Animation & Summary brief

Summary brief

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Research methods and reports

Prevention Global partnered with FrameWorks Institute to test 22 communications metaphors with a U.S. nationally representative sample of 5,389 people. The fundamental aim was to identify what works, and what doesn’t, to shift perception.

Research methods

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Report

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Communications toolkit

These tools designed with FrameWorks Institute help front-line providers, communicators, and advocates build support for prevention programs by cultivating understanding about how they work.