David Lee talks sexual harm prevention with Jon Brown

People throughout the world are taking action to prevent sexual violence.  As a global problem, we need to learn from each other to develop and implement prevention strategies and approaches. ATSA’s Prevention Committee includes members from all over the world, including Jon Brown from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty toChildren (NSPCC) in the United Kingdom.  I recently had the opportunity to interview Jon about sexual violence prevention work in the United Kingdom (UK).

Drawing on knowledge from his work to prevent child sexual abuse and from the ATSA Prevention Committee, Jon chairs the prevention committee of the National Organization for the Treatment of Abusers (NOTA).  Jon describes the committee as moving toward primary prevention to “get on the front foot and address the drivers of sexual abuse and sexual violence before they actually manifest themselves in crimes against adults and children.” In July 2016, NOTA will be hosting a prevention conference where prevention experts will explore how to build primary prevention effort. In addition NOTA is creating public events and facilitating conversations about primary prevention of sexual violence.

Jon is committed to building a prevention infrastructure in the UK.  He says that “we need to translate the momentum that is beginning to grow into a real national strategy.” In order to support the investment in prevention it is necessary to recognize that “if we can intervene early and can actually prevent abuse in the first place, then you are saving huge amounts of money. Obviously you are saving huge amounts of distress and trauma to the victims, but importantly, to government, you are saving many millions of pounds a year.”

Jon is working toward establishing prevention centers throughout the UK to provide advice and information to local providers and community members on how to prevent sexual violence.

Learn more about Jon’s work to prevent sexual violence by watching the full interview at https://youtu.be/lbGIO3TeQqI

David S. Lee

Director of Prevention Services
Manager, PreventConnect
California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA)