Emerging issues, policy changes, and the future of treating children with sexual behavior problems

Children and adolescents with sexual behavior problems are a growing national concern. While the field continues to make advances, we have much more work to do. We are working in a difficult and trying period for juvenile justice. It is a time when many are willing to give up on adolescents or punish them as we do adults. We have reached a point where many in our society do not know about, or care to understand, the complex issues that are the roots of violence and sexual violence in youth. Certainly their faith in the resiliency of youth has been tarnished. Nine critical areas that need to be taken into account when working with youth with sexual behavior problems are addressed. These areas include the unfortunate but continued trickle-down and use of adult-based treatment models to treat youth with sexual behavior problems, changes in juvenile law that have an impact on our ability to treat these youths effectively, the need for continued research in developing typologies for youths with sexual behavior problems and valid and reliable risk assessment scales, continued work with understanding and developing dynamic risk factors for sexually abusive youth, the need to develop better treatments for special populations of youth with sexual behavior problems, the need for a continuum of care, what constitutes best practice in treating youths with sexual behavior problems, the need for developing and refining standards of care, and the need for continued public education that supports prevention efforts to reduce sexual abuse by youth.