Evaluation of the effects of child sexual abuse prevention policies on adult perpetrated child sexual abuse

Dr. J. Bart Klika, Dr. Melissa T. Merrick, Dr. Eric Thibodeau, & Catherine Murphy

Current Project

Child sexual abuse is a serious, preventable public health issue. PCA America is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to evaluate CSA laws across the U.S. We are partnering with the National Conference of State Legislatures and EnoughAbuse on this project.

State School-Based Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Laws

We collected different laws about child sexual abuse in school.

Click on your state or territory to find out more:

Suggested state profile citation: Prevent Child Abuse America, National Conference of State Legislatures, & EnoughAbuse. (2024). [State(s)] Statutory Profile.  https://preventchildabuse.org/research-cdc-coag/

Aims of the Project

For this project, we created a research-practice-policy partnership (RPPP) (Aim A1). The RPPP guides the research process from beginning to end, including the evaluation questions. The RPPP includes people with different experiences, like survivor advocates.

 

In Phase 1 of this project we:

Collected and summarized state laws addressing child sexual abuse in schools (Aim A2)

Examined how child welfare investigation patterns differ for children of various racial or ethnic backgrounds (Aim A2)

Completed a scoping literature review on the effects of child sexual abuse prevention policies (Aim A3)

Policy Categories Definitions

Education & Awareness

State laws intended to protect school children by educating them and/or the adults in their lives about the risks of sexual abuse and misconduct.

School Personnel Policies

State laws intended to create safe schools through hiring, dismissal, and other personnel practices.

Standards for Conduct

State laws that set minimum standards for conduct in schools.

Legal Accountability

State laws criminalizing sexual misconduct by a person in position of authority to further ensure safety in schools and communities.

This project is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U01CE003408) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $680,770 with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.

Additional Project Resources

  • Resources

    Research Highlight: Do State Policies Create Safer Places for Children?

    In this brief, we highlight key findings from our commentary published in the Journal of Family Violence

    Resources