There are lots of misconceptions around who abuses children and whether those who have offended can be helped to manage and change their thoughts and behaviour. Consequently there is also a lack of recognition and investment in working with people who have offended or are at risk of doing so.
Our goal is to advance the understanding that people who offend come from all walks of life, and that some offenders can be helped to change their behaviour. With better understanding and more investment in working with people who are at risk of offending, we can prevent abuse before it happens.
Here are some of the ways we’ve been working to achieve this goal.
- A submission to the call for evidence by the Independent Pornography Review in which we discussed the impact of both legal and illegal pornography that we see across our services from our Stop It Now helpline, to our online self-help programmes, our work in schools, deterrence campaigning and online deterrence interventions like the chatbot.
- We published a Faithfull Paper What’s porn got to do with it? The link between viewing adult pornography and online sexual offending against children, in which we explore how pornography can play a part in the pathway to offending against children for some of the individuals that we work with.
- Our work on the impact of pornography featured in a thought-provoking column by Sonia Sodha in the Guardian.
Our Stop It Now helpline was covered in a special feature in the i newspaper. The article included a in-depth interview with one of our helpline advisers to paint a picture of their role, and we supported two former offenders to tell their story. The piece emphasised the impact that our Stop It Now helpline is having in stopping reoffending and escalating behaviour.
Link to article: How Britain’s controversial paedophile hotline is helping stop child abuse
