Youth-Serving Organization Safety Risks and the Situational Prevention Approach

Abstract

Children and young people are served by a wide range of organisations. Internally, attention has turned to the harms that have occurred in these organisations that should have prioritised the safety and wellbeing the children and young people it serves. In this chapter, we identify some of the risk factors associated with sexual abuse of children in youth-serving organizations, focusing on faith-based settings, early childhood education and schools, health care, out-of-home care, and youth sports. We outline key tenets of a situational prevention approach that identifies and safety risks to minimise or interrupt grooming behaviour, and help organizations focus their attention on ways of improving the safety of the organizational environment they provide for the young people they serve.