1.4.8 Assessment of Men who have been Convicted of Sexual Offences Against Children

SCOPE OF THIS CHAPTER

This chapter was introduced to the manual in June 2010.

It should be read in conjunction with Risks Posed by People with Convictions Against Children

AMENDMENTS

This chapter had a minor amendment in June 2011 to reflect the name of the Integrated Safeguarding Unit.

Introduction
An Overview of the Nature of Sexually Abusive Behaviour
The Context for Practice
Assessment Framework for Children in Need and the Child Protection Conference Process
Tools for Assessment/ Areas to be Covered

1. Introduction

There is a range of circumstances in which social workers will undertake child protection enquiries and assessments that involve men who have been convicted of sexual offences against children. The most usual are as follows:

When a sexual abuser (hereafter referred to as abuser) has moved into a household in which there are children.
When an abuser is in a relationship and a child is expected of that relationship. This would involve pre-birth assessment, which also have specific guidelines. (Please refer to them)
When an abuser and his family are asking for his return home whether his victims are from his own or another household.
When an abuser has a significant role in the family (grandfather, uncle, brother) and may be having unsupervised contact with children.

Children who are in the above situations would be defined as children in need of protection. They should be the subjects of core assessments under the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need. Consideration must be given to the child's developmental needs, the family and environmental factors, and the parenting they receive. These guidelines have amore explicit focus on an additional dimension, the level of risk posed by the abuser. This additional fourth dimension may need to be recorded separately from the core assessment as a specialist assessment.

These guidelines may be used in other scenarios, for example, when a family member is named as sexually abusing children but has never been convicted. Care would need to be taken in their application. It is always important to have in mind the precise context of any situation.

The main purpose of enquiries and assessment are to explore the safety of the children concerned and the alliances that exist for them to ensure safety. In this there would be a need to do some work with the abuser and the other important child caring adults in the family. This would give a greater understanding of the man's sexually abusive behaviour itself, the level of risk he may pose and how that is understood by the other family members. Such assessment does not eradicate risk but acts as a signpost to future risk and the need for further work.

There are four parts to these guidelines, as follows:

An overview of the nature of child sexual abuse from a theoretical perspective
The context for practice.
How these guidelines fit with the Assessment Framework and Child Protection Conference processes.
An outline of the tools needed and the areas to be covered in this type of assessment.

2. An Overview of the Nature of Sexually Abusive Behaviour

Most models of intervention are based upon the sexual abuse of children by men. Some women are involved in the sexual abuse of children, and there is a closer examination of this by researchers and practitioners. These guidelines address the assessment of the level of risk posed by a man who has sexually abused a child. These guidelines also assume a non abusing partner will be female, but that may not be so in reality.

Three different approaches in terms of our understanding of sexual abuse will be outlined. As with any theoretical perspectives, it is always important to use them carefully. A point to bear in mind is that these frameworks have come from work done with a relatively small population, namely those abusers who make some acknowledgement of their abusive behaviour. There is a much larger population of individuals who never acknowledge their behaviour.

Finkelhor (1984) looked at factors that may lead a ,man to become sexually interested in children, as follows:

Having an emotional congruence to children. Children can a have a special meaning in that they represent weak and non- threatening objects.
Becoming sexually attracted to children.
Becoming blocked in their ability to have sexual and emotional needs met in appropriate consenting relationships.
Inhibitions about sexual contact with children either do not exist or are reduced, such as alcohol as a disinhibitor.

Finkelhor then produced a framework to describe the necessary preconditions for sexual abuse to occur, as follows:

In order for abuse to occur, the abuser must want to do it.
Most abusers know their behaviour is illegal and must overcome their internal inhibitions, usually by developing distorted thinking to justify their behaviour.
The abuser needs to overcome the external obstacles that prevent him gaining access to a child. It is vital to have an understanding of how an abuser engineers the removal of other protectors for the child. Such understanding equips families and agencies in the protection of children.
Finally, the abuser must overcome the resistance of the child. This may be on a continuum of seductive behaviours to violent and sadistic behaviours. In this process the child may also be influenced by the abuser to see him or herself as being responsible.

Wolf (1984) developed another framework, called the assault cycle model. The premise of this model is that a person's early history leads to the development of a personality, which leads that person to have deviant sexual interests. Such abusers may have histories of victimisation (physical, sexual, emotional or neglectful). It is the exposure to attitudes of abuse of any sort that is important, rather than the direct experiences of sexual abuse itself. These early experiences have a potential for developing deviant sexual behaviour because the child learns inappropriate ways of behaving, These experiences, combined with self image and a belief system where adult males, have power, can do as they want, may in turn reduce inhibitions against the behaviour.

The assault cycle does not mean that every abuser has the same pattern of behaviour. However, it is based on research and identifies common features. It has become a popular framework for practitioners to explore connections between distorted thinking, compensatory feelings and abusive behaviours and thus gain a better understanding of how that abuser operates.

The cycle starts with the existence of the negative self-image referred to above, the compensatory behaviour combined with a sexual attraction to children. Fantasy and masturbation are accompanied by distorted thinking that serves to alleviate any guilt. Distorted thinking (cognitive distortions) occur through out the cycle.

The abuser then plans the abuse and sets up the situation in which it can take place. He may go to elaborate lengths to target, select and prepare victims and create positions where there is low risk being caught. The sexual abuse itself is characterised by a focus on his own gratification and may increase in severity or intrusiveness over time. After the abuse there is a period of transitory guilt when the reality of what he has done becomes apparent. However, this is reduced by further distorted thoughts that minimise or justify the abuse. The committing of an abusive act may lead to further feelings of low self-esteem and thus feed into the whole cycle again.

The vast majority of men who are arrested and interviewed about sexual offences against children will never acknowledge that they have committed such offences. If a man is in this state of complete denial it will be difficult to engage in a discussion with him about his patterns of behaviour. There may be information about his behaviour from other sources, especially victim statements that help in the assessment of the risk posed by such men.

These theoretical models have led to cognitive and behavioural approaches using assumptive questioning. Practitioners within group work settings are now beginning to recognise some of the pitfalls of these approaches, which can equip the abuser to learn the right thing to say while hiding his true motivations. Focussing exclusively on the sexual assault and the patterns of that behaviour, looking at the wider context for that person may be lost. In assessments about the physical abuse of children, work with the abuser of that harm would routinely consider the background and early life experiences of that person. An assessment of a sexual abuser should be no different. Underlying attitudes and drives need to be examined.

This leads to the third theoretical perspective, that of the Implicit Theory approach. (Drake et al, 2001). This considers much more explicitly the fundamental importance of cognitive distortions. An individual abuser's cognitive distortions come from underlying causal explanations for them about the nature of themselves, their victims and the world. This is in contrast to the view that cognitive distortions come from un related and independent beliefs. These implicit theories act like scientific theories and are used to explain regularities (such as other people's actions) and make predictions about the world. This comes from a developmental psychology view of how people gain their cognitive frameworks. A growing child forms hypotheses, tests them and discards those that fail to predict behaviour. A child's understanding of other people's mental states progresses through the development of successively more adequate theories.

The view is that an abuser develops his own implicit theories to explain the unusual events he may have confronted during early development. The theories enable him to interpret these events and explain his world. However, the content of these implicit theories is likely to be at odds with those of the wider community. If there is a discrepancy between an abuser's implicit theory and evidence, it is likely that the evidence will be reinterpreted or discarded by the abuser. The researchers examined the cognitive distortions of abusers in a range of different treatment programmes and proposed that the majority of those come from five implicit theories, as follows:

Children as Sexual Objects:

The core belief that children are sexual beings and are motivated by pleasure, especially to include sexual activity with adults. This may be as a result of sexual abuse in childhood, or for non abused abusers, emotional identification with children becoming sexualised. A range of distorted statements will be seen, such as, "the child wanted sex", "if a child looks at an adults' genitals, she/he is interested in sex", and "she/he said yes to what I asked, so it must be okay".

Entitlement:

The core belief that some people are superior to others and have a right to impose their desires on less important people. An example being a belief that men are more powerful than women or children and thus have a right to have their sexual needs met. This theory can develop from early experiences of rejection where the threat to self esteem can result in an elevated sense of self importance. A range of distorted statements will be seen, such as, "a man is justified in having sex with children if his wife doesn't like children", "I'm the boss in this family", and "a person should have sex whenever it is needed".

Dangerous World:

The core belief is that the world is dangerous and other people are abusive or rejecting. An abuser may think that he has to fight to achieve power and control over others so that those who are seen as threats may become victims of sexual abuse. A frequently observed belief is that women are seen as unreliable or rejecting and that children are more reliable and less rejecting. Individuals who have this theory believe they are more likely to understand them. This could result from early experiences of physical or emotional harm, A range of distorted statements may be seen, such as, "children give more love than adults", "kids really know how to love you" and "some children want sex with adults because it makes them feel loved".

Uncontrollable:

The core belief is that personality and sexual preferences are unchangeable and that there is no control over their expression. Emotions and sexual feelings just happen and are seen as external to the abuser. Other external influences (alcohol, stress and others) are judged to be responsible for sexually abusive behaviour. Alternatively, blame is given to those situations that cause the stress or alcohol misuse. This may develop as a result of repeated experiences of feeling out of control in relation to sexual or emotional drives and is often used as a way of reducing personal responsibility. Examples of distorted statements are "it just happened", "I did it because I was abused as a child", "I was high on drugs at the time" and "I abused her because I was stressed at the time".

Nature of Harm:

The core belief is that there is a range of harm that can be inflicted on a person and that sexual activity is unlikely to hurt another person. Major damage is thought to happen when the victim is physically assaulted, is conscious throughout and where the abuser is in a position of trust. If an offence could have been more harmful, then an abuser can think of himself as having regard to the victim's feelings and that they should be judged less harshly than one who inflicted the harm. The suggestion is that this implicit theory is often secondary to, and used with, other implicit theories. It is likely to lead to distorted statements like "this won't hurt her in any way", "he's asleep, he won't know what's going on", "I'm not forcing her, so it's not doing any harm" and "we're only touching, this isn't really sex".

It is hoped that linking offence specific cognitive distortions to underlying implicit theories will clarify the relevance of the abuser's cognitive distortions for everyday life events. This can enable an abuser to see how interpretations of everyday events contributes to sexual offending and predispose him to committing further offences. It is also hoped that this approach can add to engagement by showing to an abuser that workers understand him. It is important to stress that having an understanding of behaviour does not equate to colluding with that behaviour.

3. The Context for Practice

Any one working in this field needs to consider the influences on her/his effectiveness of social attitudes, legislative and organisational factors. Most are beyond the control of the worker. But if they are not borne in mind, then interventions may be unrealistic. A real danger in this work is of becoming overly responsible on a personal level for the success or failure of work with abusers, who can be adept at projecting onto others responsibility for their feelings and actions. As well as having an understanding of how sexual abuse occurs, workers also needs to pay attention to philosophy, values, theoretical orientation and ethics. Personal attitudes and attributes are also important.

This type of work may be seen as different from what social workers do in other child protection work. This compounded by the language used in some models that can be elitist or jargonistic. This may be exacerbated by any mystique that is attached to a taboo subject. Workers often describe feelings of contamination by abusers, failing to prevent abusive behaviour and not being able to separate person from behaviour. Such feelings are understandable but stem from failure to integrate this work with other practice experience. These issues can be addressed in the supervision process for the worker involved.

This area of work cannot be value free and a value base needs to be developed and made explicit. The following is from Slater (1988) and NOTA (1995).

Sexual abuse is always unacceptable and should be investigated as a crime.
Sexual abuse is damaging to the victim.
Sexual abuse results from the intention on the part of the abuser to seek sexual and emotional gratification.
Sexual abuse represents an abuse of power.
The aim of any intervention is to protect victims and potential victims.
Successful intervention must be based on the abuser taking full responsibility for the feelings, thoughts and behaviour, which support his offending. Male sexual arousal is controllable.
The abuser should be prosecuted where it is in the victim's interests.
The goal of intervention with the abuser himself is for him to control his behaviour so he does not sexually abuse others.
The management of abusers needs a co-ordinated multiagency response between child protection, health and criminal justice systems.
In the long run, the prevention of sexual abuse needs to address the sex role expectations of men.

Work is effective when workers have examined their beliefs about how people change and what they themselves do that promotes change in clients. There is an increasing range of research into treatment programmes about what works and a greater use of theoretical models of the change process taken from addiction work (Prochaska and DiClimente).

4. Assessment Framework for Children in Need and the Child Protection Conference Process

The assessment of abusers and the risk that they may pose to children will need to take place in the context of the Department of health publications, the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (2000) and Working Together to Safeguard Children (1999).

Please refer to these publications in detail and the resultant LSCB procedures and C&YPSC procedures.

The assessments outlined in these guidelines might form part of a Core Assessment of a child in need of protection. They could constitute a separate specialist assessment.

As referred earlier, these guidelines add a fourth dimension to the three that are the essential dimensions in the overall Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families.

In all the situations described here, a decision will need to be made about whether to convene a Child Protection Conference. The threshold criteria for convening a Child Protection Conference are detailed in Working Together to safeguard Children (1999) and the Area Child protection Committee procedures. However, there is a high potential for an abuser to distort and/or minimise the risk he poses. It may be that the convening of a Child Protection Conference is one way of further legitimising the concern about the safety of a child.

In enquiries of this nature, Children's Services will have to consider what immediate action may be needed to secure the safety of the child.

5. Tools for Assessment/ Areas to be Covered

It is crucial to gain as much information from as many sources as possible before beginning the assessment. Work needs to be planned and that plan shared with other workers who may be involved with the children concerned.

The following is a list of tools needed for an assessment:

Planning meeting to gain information and share planning of the work. This meeting is distinct from a Social Work/Police strategy meeting that occurs in the planning of enquiries if it is felt there is an immediate danger to a child.
Police checks to gain a full idea of an abuser's criminal history and those of other important adults in the child's life. An abuser's criminal record in itself cannot be relied upon to give an accurate picture of the extent of abusive behaviour. It only will indicate convictions. A full criminal history can give an indication of an individual's pattern of rule breaking.
Victim depositions and witness statements that relate to known abusive events. These give information on the process and content of the abusive behaviour. The enable good initial hypothesis of risk to be made. If victim depositions are available, it is crucial that there is a thorough analysis of them. Reading this material together with a co-worker in a workplace, not home, may ease the inevitable impact issues of reading such material.
What other reports may be available, such as Pre-Sentence Reports, Child Protection Conference minutes, previous assessments of the abuser or non abusing partner, other assessments of the children/family concerned, psychiatric and psychological reports. It is important to detail any missing reports.
Child protection checks on the children concerned to see if there have been any other child protection concerns about them in the past. What involvement is there currently from other agencies with those children?
Working with men who have sexually abused children will have an impact on workers, more so when intervening as individuals. These assessments are best co-worked, from within or without the agency. Due to distortions that abusers often have about gender roles, it is ideal that such co-working is of a mixed gender basis. Careful attention needs to be paid to supervision and consultancy and to build in space for proper planning, de-briefing and recording.
Within C&YPSC, consultancy can be provided through Advanced Practitioners, Team Managers, the Integrated Safeguarding Unit, Therapeutic Social Work team. Supervision and line management responsibility remains with the Team Manager for the allocated Social Worker.
As far as possible, tasks identified in a child protection enquiry need completion before an assessment can begin. It is crucial to confirm as far as is possible that sexual abuse is not continuing.
The assessment be underpinned with a written agreement which outlines the work to be covered, the approximate time scale, the practical arrangements (venue, child care), acknowledgement of the possible difficulties involved, people who will need to be seen and the limits of confidentiality.

In general, an assessment should involve work with the non abusing partner, the abuser, the children concerned and any important members of the extended family. It is important that the three dimensions of the Assessment Framework are considered for the children concerned. However, there is also needs to be a focus on a fourth dimension in examining the risks associated with the abuser.

The work with the non abusing partner should cover the following areas:

Her knowledge of the abuser's offences.
Her views of those offences.
Introduction of the concepts of the cycle of abuse, Finkelhor's pre-conditions and information about implicit theories with direct reference to the abuser's own patterns and known cognitive distortions.
What she thinks the views of the children might be.
Her level of co-operation with involved agencies, past and present, and an assessment of how that might be in the future.
Her personal and family history. Family trees/genograms can provide useful information and insights. Has anyone within her own family been implicated or convicted of sexually abusing a child or other forms of abuse.
Relationship history with the abuser and other partners. Issue of power and violence need to be considered here.
An assessment of the non abusing partner's parenting. What are the observed relationships with the children, what do records indicate about this? Have there been concerns in the past? Additionally, what strengths does she bring to promote the safety of the child?
What is her understanding oft he effects on the victim. This becomes far more significant if the assessment is about the return of an abuser into a household where there are known victims.
General health, psychiatric history, use of drugs and alcohol.
Available support networks.

Individual sessions with the abuser on a co-worked basis to consider the following:

A detailed exploration of his known offences and exactly what he is able to acknowledge about what he did.
A close examination of the patterns of his abusive behaviour, his ability to take responsibility for that behaviour, the levels of harm caused to his victim/s, the ability to empathise with that and the current level of risk he feels he any pose to children. (Referring to the models of Finkelhor, assault cycle and implicit theories).
If he has been able to acknowledge any of the above and does he have in place a relapse prevention strategy?
Assessment of his family and personal history. In terms of the development of sexually abusive behaviour, this family background is likely to give some clues as to the triggers for that person or causes of the development of any implicit theories.
Relationship history with current and former partners, examining issues of power and violence. This may give some ideas about the silencing of children and non abusing partners.
General health and psychiatric history, use of drugs and alcohol.
Wishes and feelings for the future.
What he feels needs to change about his behaviour and how that can be sustained.
What contact is he having with any children and in what context? Does he accept a need for it to be supervised and by whom?
It maybe that some of the above has been covered by other workers in other assessments, such as attending community or prison group work programmes. It would be crucial to compare previous assessments as individuals clearly can make progress or regress in the intervening period.
An assessment of past and current ability to engage with and co-operate with professionals.

There would also need to be some co-worked meetings with the abuser and the non abusing parent. There are also some issues that can only be addresses jointly, as follows:

Sharing of the work that has been done on in individual meetings, in particular an exploration of how much the abuser is able to share.
Joint discussions of the abuser's offences.
Openness of the abuser's cycle of offending and ways of operating, preconditions (Finkelhor) and any implicit theories.
Shared information and understanding of their relationship and their plans for the future.
Joint understanding of the risk posed to children.
Sharing of the views of the children, if appropriate.

There may be issues that need to be addressed with any children. It is important to consider doing some direct work with the children, dependent on age and understanding. Equally, a decision may be made that it would not be appropriate to undertake direct work with any children. Any direct work would need to be discussed with the non abusing parent. Particular issues would be as follows:

The children's views of the abuser.
Their knowledge and understanding of the offences.
Their understanding of appropriate and inappropriate touching and an assessment of their own self protection skills. However, it is worth recalling from Finkeljor's model that overcoming the resistance of the child is in many ways the easiest task a determined abuser has.
Supportive networks that may be available for the children. Important adults for them and their protective function.
The children's ascertainable wishes for the future.
Do the children have any special needs that may make them more vulnerable?
Observations and assessments of the children's relationship with the non abusing parent and their relationship with any carers.

There may be a need to discuss the situation with adult members of the extended family who have significant roles in caring for and protecting the children. There would need to be a close consideration of this if these family members were the parents of the abuser or non abusing parent and it may be that some parts of this work would need to be of a similar nature to that undertaken above. It is often members of the extended family who may be asked to supervise contact between the abuser and the children. That should only occur when those family members are fully briefed about the risk and an assessment has occurred about their ability to co-operate with professionals.

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