Public health is all about prevention.
In the same way it is better to vaccinate against a disease rather than treat the symptoms, the prevention of child sexual exploitation and abuse and its devastating consequences must always be our goal. A public health approach has been successfully applied to everything from the eradication of smallpox to smoking reduction and preventing violence and homicides.
Here we explain Childlight’s public health approach to CSEA and the crucial role our data plays in the process:
What is public health?
Public health is about looking after the health, wellbeing and safety of communities and populations at a local, regional, national and global level. It aims to provide the maximum benefit for the largest possible number of people. As well as the prevention of diseases, it also involves the promotion of healthy behaviours and addressing the social determinants of health such as violence.
In 1996 the 49th World Health Assembly declared violence to be a 'major and growing public health problem across the world.'
The resolution called for a plan of action for progress towards a science-based public health approach to preventing violence.
Is CSEA a form of violence?
Yes, child sexual exploitation and abuse is defined as interpersonal violence by the World Health Organization:
'Sexual violence includes non-consensual completed or attempted sexual contact and acts of a sexual nature not involving contact (such as voyeurism or sexual harassment); acts of sexual trafficking committed against someone who is unable to consent or refuse; and online exploitation.' (WHO, 2022)
What is the public health approach?
The public health improvement model is a science-based four-step process:
- Data collection: define the CSEA problem through systematic data collection.
- Identify risk and protective factors: conduct research to find out why CSEA occurs and who it is affecting.
- Develop and evaluate interventions: design, implement and evaluate interventions to see what works.
- Implementation: Scale up effective and promising interventions and evaluate their impact and cost-effectiveness.
What is the role of data?
Data is the foundation of a public health approach to CSEA. It provides the evidence needed to understand the scale and scope of the problem. By Childlight collecting reliable data, we can identify patterns, risk factors, and vulnerable populations, this helps in designing targeted prevention strategies.
Data also enables monitoring of interventions to assess their effectiveness and guide policy decisions. Without robust data, efforts to address CSEA are likely to be fragmented and less effective. Informed by data, public health responses can be more strategic, ensuring resources are allocated where they are most needed and impactful. This is why Childlight are committed to collecting good quality data.
Why do we use the socio-ecological framework?
Any form of violence is complex. No one factor by itself can explain why some groups of children and young people are more at risk of abuse and exploitation than others. The socio-ecological framework illustrates that violence is the outcome of an interaction of different factors at five levels ranging from the individual through to structural.
The three stages of prevention?
The three stages to prevention are often referred to as:
- Primary prevention – approaches to address risk factors and promote protection to stop CSEA before it starts.
- Secondary prevention – immediate safeguarding of children and approaches to reduce potential short-term harm.
- Tertiary prevention – responding to CSEA once it has occurred, treating the effects and rehabilitating the people affected.
By far the most effective option is primary prevention in order to prevent CSEA from ever happening in the first place.
Who is responsible for public health?
Public health is not just the responsibility of the medical world. It is multi-disciplinary drawing on knowledge and expertise from a broad range including epidemiology, education, criminology, psychology and economics.
This means input from a wide spectrum of sectors is important, including health, education, academia, social services, justice, policy, the private sector and of course communities. Collective action is crucial to addressing the complex issue of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Violence is preventable, not inevitable.