SASS IN FOCUS

SASS In Focus brings together evidence-informed analysis, reflection and thought leadership from Sexual Assault Support Service as a specialist organisation working across child safety, rights, culture, leadership and system reform.

The articles in this space explore what it takes to move beyond policy intent to meaningful change in practice. Drawing on research, lived experience and cross-sector learning, they examine how culture, capability and accountability shape outcomes for children and communities.

Our aim is to support leaders, practitioners and decision-makers to think deeply about complex issues, strengthen accountability, and contribute to safer, more effective systems.

Responding to Harmful Sexual Behaviours: A Public Health Response That Works

March 2026
‍
Content note
This article discusses harmful sexual behaviours involving children and young people. While it focuses on prevention and early intervention, we acknowledge that this topic may be difficult for some readers, particularly victim-survivors of sexual harm. Reader discretion is advised. If these conversations raise difficult feelings, confidential support is available through Sexual Assault Support Service (SASS) and other local services, including the Statewide Sexual Assault Support Line on 1800 697 877.

Sexual harm causes deep and lasting impacts for victim-survivors and their families. Prevention and early intervention are not alternatives to survivor support or justice responses; they are part of honouring victim-survivors by working to reduce further harm. The safety, dignity and healing of victim-survivors remain central to any effective public health response.

Introduction
‍Sexual violence prevention is most effective when it begins early, is compassionate, and is grounded in evidence. One critically important aspect of prevention involves responding to children and young people who display harmful sexual behaviours (HSB).
‍
These behaviours exist on a spectrum and may range from developmentally inappropriate sexualised language or boundary violations, through to coercive or abusive conduct (Hackett, 2014). While deeply concerning, decades of research indicate that most children and young people who display harmful sexual behaviours do not go on to commit sexual offences in adulthood when appropriate intervention and supports are provided (Caldwell, 2016; Worling & Långström, 2006).
‍
This means that the nature and timing of responses matter. Responses based primarily on exclusion, punishment, or silence, can inadvertently increase shame and isolation, potentially delaying access to effective intervention. In contrast, evidence-informed approaches grounded in public health principles emphasise early identification, therapeutic support, family engagement, and coordinated responses across systems (Smallbone, Marshall, & Wortley, 2013; Letourneau & Borduin, 2008).
‍
Why a Public Health Approach Is Needed
‍A public health approach recognises that harmful sexual behaviours emerge within broader developmental, relational, and environmental contexts. Research consistently demonstrates that such behaviours may be associated with factors including trauma exposure, neglect, family stress, and access to inappropriate sexual content (Hackett, 2014; Smallbone et al., 2013).
‍
A public health lens acknowledges that:
• harmful sexual behaviours are shaped by developmental, relational, and environmental contexts
• adversity, trauma exposure, and disrupted attachment relationships can increase vulnerability
• some children displaying HSB may have additional developmental or support needs requiring tailored responses
• Proportionate responses should reflect the child’s developmental stage, needs, and context.
‍
A public health lens focuses on addressing behaviour early, understanding contributing factors, and providing the supports that help children develop safe boundaries and healthy relationships.

Importantly, this perspective balances compassion with accountability. Harmful behaviour must be addressed clearly and safely, while recognising that children remain developmentally capable of learning safer behaviours and repairing harm (Hackett, 2014).

The Evidence for Specialised Assessment and Treatment
‍Specialist services responding to harmful sexual behaviours typically draw on cognitive-behavioural approaches, trauma-informed practice, attachment-based work, and family-system interventions.

Research has demonstrated that:
• specialised interventions improve emotional regulation, empathy, and interpersonal boundaries among young people displaying HSB (Letourneau & Borduin, 2008; Borduin et al., 2009)
• rates of sexual recidivism among treated adolescents are substantially lower than historically assumed (Caldwell, 2016)
• interventions are most effective when integrated across family systems, schools, and community supports (Henggeler et al., 2009)

Comprehensive assessment plays a critical role in ensuring appropriate responses. Specialist assessment helps distinguish between developmentally typical sexual curiosity and behaviours that are coercive, exploitative, or harmful (Hackett, 2014). Without this expertise, responses risk either over-pathologising normative development or failing to recognise behaviours requiring intervention.
Both outcomes can compromise safety.

Why Families Must Be at the Centre
‍Families and caregivers are often uncertain about how to respond when harmful sexual behaviours emerge. However, research consistently identifies family engagement as one of the strongest predictors of positive outcomes.
Family-based treatment models, including Multisystemic Therapy, have demonstrated strong evidence in reducing reoffending and improving family functioning (Borduin et al., 2009; Henggeler et al., 2009).

Family-inclusive approaches can:
• strengthen safety planning and supervision • improve communication and relational stability
• increase children’s capacity to learn appropriate boundaries
• support long-term behavioural change

Effective services therefore prioritise practical coaching, clear guidance, and respectful therapeutic support for caregivers. Families and care networks are not barriers to safety; they are often critical partners in safeguarding and recovery.

Schools: Safety, Support, and Continuity
‍Schools are frequently the first settings where harmful sexual behaviours become visible. As such, they play a critical role in safeguarding, early identification, and coordinated response.
‍
Guidance for educational settings emphasises the importance of:
• responding promptly and proportionately • ensuring safety and support for all students involved
• working collaboratively with specialist safeguarding and therapeutic services
• maintaining educational engagement wherever possible

When educators have access to clear procedures, specialist advice, and training, they are better equipped to respond consistently and appropriately (NSPCC, 2021; UK Department for Education, 2018). Maintaining a young person’s connection to education, where safe to do so, can also support stability and positive developmental outcomes.

Reducing Stigma While Still Naming Harm
‍Fear-based responses can contribute to stigma and discourage early disclosure or help-seeking. When harmful sexual behaviours are driven underground, opportunities for timely intervention are reduced.

A public health approach separates the behaviour, which must be addressed clearly and safely, from the child, who is still developing and capable of change. Developmentally informed frameworks emphasise that responses should address harm while supporting the child’s capacity to learn safer behaviour (Hackett, 2014; Smallbone, Marshall & Wortley, 2013).

Language that names harm clearly while maintaining a focus on support and accountability can improve engagement, reduce secrecy, and encourage earlier help-seeking.

Outcomes and Economic Stewardship
‍Early intervention is not only a safety imperative but also a sound investment in community wellbeing.
‍
Evidence indicates that effective interventions for harmful sexual behaviours can:
• reduce both sexual and non-sexual offending behaviour (Caldwell, 2016; Borduin et al., 2009)
• reduce youth justice involvement (Letourneau & Borduin, 2008)
• improve educational engagement and wellbeing outcomes
• reduce long-term costs across justice, health, and social service systems
‍
Early, coordinated intervention prevents cascading harms and reduces the need for more intensive responses later.

What Works: Elements of a Strong System
‍Research and practice guidance suggest that effective responses to harmful sexual behaviours require coordinated, system-wide approaches.
‍
Key elements include:
1. Clear referral and assessment pathways
2. Access to specialist clinical assessment and therapy
3. Family-inclusive practice
4. Supported school responses
5. Cross-agency collaboration
6. Workforce training and specialist supervision
7. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation
‍
When these elements operate together, communities are better equipped to identify concerns early, respond proportionately, and support children to develop safer behaviours.
‍
In Tasmania, specialist responses to harmful sexual behaviours are delivered through programs such as SASS’s PAST program, in partnership with Mission Australia. This collaborative model provides comprehensive assessment, therapeutic intervention, family support, and coordination with education and statutory services. By working across the child’s home, school, and community environments, such partnerships operationalise the public health approach described in this article - enabling earlier intervention, clearer safety planning, and more sustainable outcomes.

A Compassionate, Community-Safety-Focused Way Forward
‍Harmful sexual behaviours among children and young people can be confronting, but they are not inevitable. With early identification, skilled assessment, and coordinated support, the majority of young people can learn safer behaviours and continue their development without further harmful conduct.

A public health response grounded in evidence, compassion, and partnership honours victim-survivors, supports families, strengthens safeguarding systems, and reduces future harm. With coordinated effort and sustained investment communities can respond earlier, intervene more effectively, and build safer outcomes for children, families, and the broader community. This is not only a compassionate approach, it is a practical and evidence-informed pathway to long-term community safety.

References
‍Borduin, C. M., Schaeffer, C. M., & Heiblum, N. (2009). A randomized clinical trial of multisystemic therapy with juvenile sexual offenders: Effects on youth social ecology and criminal activity. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 77(1), 26–37. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013035
Caldwell, M. F. (2016). Quantifying the decline in juvenile sexual recidivism rates. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 22(4), 414–426. Hackett, S. (2014). Children and young people with harmful sexual behaviours. Research in Practice.
Henggeler, S. W., Schoenwald, S. K., Borduin, C. M., Rowland, M. D., & Cunningham, P. B. (2009). Multisystemic therapy for antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. Guilford Press.
Letourneau, E. J., & Borduin, C. M. (2008). The effective treatment of juveniles who sexually offend. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 47(5), 553–561.
NSPCC. (2021). Harmful sexual behaviour framework: An evidence-informed framework for children and young people displaying harmful sexual behaviours.
Smallbone, S., Marshall, W. L., & Wortley, R. (2013). Preventing child sexual abuse: Evidence, policy and practice. Willan Publishing.
UK Department for Education. (2018). Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges.
Worling, J. R., & Långström, N. (2006). Assessment and treatment of adolescents who sexually offend. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 7(3), 190–201.

Creating Child-Safe Cultures: Lessons from Tasmania’s Reform Journey

February 2026

Policies alone do not create safety; capability and accountability do. Tasmania is undertaking a significant reform effort to better protect children from harm. The Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2023) exposed systemic failures exacerbated by gaps not only in policy and process, but in organisational culture – including silence, unequal power dynamics, defensiveness and misplaced loyalty to systems over children’s safety. The COI was shaped by the testimony, advocacy and voices of victim-survivors, families and supporters who described experiences where they were unsafe, unheard, and dismissed. Listening carefully to those experiences remains central to building safer systems.

Safe culture, not just compliance, must therefore underpin Tasmania’s next steps. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2017) defined a child-safe institution as one that systematically reduces the likelihood of harm, increases the likelihood of identifying harm, and responds appropriately to concerns and disclosures. Research confirms that organisational culture is a decisive determinant of whether safeguarding measures succeed (Moore, McArthur, &Noble-Carr, 2020, Child Abuse & Neglect). The Australian Child Maltreatment Study (Mathews et al., 2023, Medical Journal of Australia) found that 62% of Australians experience child maltreatment. These findings underscore that child safeguarding requires a public health and systemic approach.

Creating safety means cultivating environments where children’s rights, wellbeing and experiences are foundational to decision-making; leaders model curiosity, transparency, and accountability; staff feel psychologically safe to respond to and report concerns; and continuous learning is expected and supported. Child-safe culture is not an “add-on” to existing practice. It is the operating system.

Leadership and psychological safety are therefore critical safeguarding levers. Effective leaders model humility, invite scrutiny, and make child safety an explicit organisational priority. Research by Amy Edmondson (1999, Administrative Science Quarterly) demonstrates that psychologically safe teams are more likely to raise concerns and learn from mistakes. In child-safe contexts, this means encouraging staff to voice discomfort or uncertainty, responding to concerns with curiosity rather than blame, and treating transparency as professionalism rather than disloyalty. Training and leadership frameworks should therefore focus on creating psychologically safe environments as a precondition for safeguarding (Newman et al., 2017, Journal of Organizational Behaviour). This aligns strongly with survivor testimony and with broader public-sector expectations around integrity and accountability.

Just as importantly, child-centred practice requires leaders to hold a steady line: systems must centre children’s lived experience and safety even when doing so is complex, politically difficult, or emotionally confronting.

Reporting environments that reduce harm and fear are equally essential. Evidence shows that organisational culture and perceived support strongly influence whether professionals act on child protection concerns (Mathews, Walsh, & Fraser, 2020, Child Abuse & Neglect).Best-practice reporting environments account for and are responsive to institutional and structural harms, normalise consultation and open communication, protect whistleblowers, provide transparent feedback loops, and integrate overlapping schemes to minimise confusion. Building such cultures requires sustained attention to staff capability, supervision, and wellbeing (Bromfield & Arney, 2021, Australian Social Work). It also requires clear accountability: systems must provide credible oversight and proportionate consequences when institutions repeatedly fail to act, while still supporting learning and improvement.

This is the point at which “children’s rights” becomes more than a statement of values. Australia has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, but the translation of those rights into domestic law and enforceable duties remains partial and uneven. Some rights are reflected in legislation and policy settings, but often in fragmented ways - and too often without clear expectations about how decision-makers must demonstrate that children’s rights and best interests have been actively considered.

This gap matters because rights that are not operationalised can become rhetorical - invoked after failures rather than embedded to prevent them. In safeguarding contexts, rights need to function as practical decision standards: guiding choices about risk, service design, information sharing, participation, funding priorities, and responses to harm.

International evidence suggests that when children’s rights are given clearer statutory force, particularly through duties on public authorities and routine rights-based decision tools, there can be shifts not only in legal accountability but also in organisational culture, including leadership practice and transparency (Lundy et al., 2019, The International Journal of Children’s Rights; Hanson & Lundy, 2021, Social Policy Review). The key lesson is not that a single instrument “solves” culture, but that culture change is more likely to endure when systems are designed to require and reinforce it.

Importantly, this kind of rights architecture complements existing rights-based work already underway in Tasmania, including approaches that seek to translate rights into monitoring and evaluation practice across government. It provides the “backbone” that makes rights-based practice consistent and durable across portfolios, rather than dependent on individual champions or local culture.

Tasmania stands at a critical juncture. While child sexual abuse has been a powerful catalyst for reform, child-safe cultures must also address broader harms - including neglect, family violence, digital harms, emotional abuse, discrimination and environments that silence children. Embedding children’s rights into leadership, governance, and daily practice through a legislated Charter, supported by evidence-based leadership and continuous improvement, can make the system child-safe. In doing so, Tasmania could become a national exemplar of how culture, capability, and accountability create lasting safety for children. Culture determines whether reform endures.

The next phase of reform should therefore focus as much on culture, capability, and accountability as on policy. Government, community services, institutions, and the broader community all have a role to play in ensuring that children’s rights are not only articulated but actively lived in everyday practice across Tasmania.