NOTA Annual Conference 2018

By Kieran McCartan, PhD.

This blog is a reposting of a previous NOTA Blog posting – Kieran

 

The annual NOTA conference took place from the 19^th – 21^st September in Glasgow. The conference was a real mix of research, practice and engagement with colleagues from across the UK, Ireland and internationally (with attendees and speakers from a range of countries including the USA, Australia, Norway, Ireland, and from all four countries of the UK). In this blog I am going to take you on a whistle stop tour of the event.

 

The 2018 plenaries combined research, practice and innovate approaches from a very international group of speakers. The conference started on the Wednesday with two keynotes addressing the reality and impact of Pornography on youth understandings and perceptions of sex as well as their sexual experiences (Maree Crabbe) followed by an overview of the research on systematic pathways of development across the lifespan, ACE’s and the impact of trauma (Dr Jamie Yoder). The second day of conference (Thursday) had keynotes that talked to current research and understandings around normal sexuality, deviant sexuality and whereof our morality and ethical principles come into play in debate as well as treatment (Dr Rajan Darjee); as well as presentation of focusing on trauma inform care and practice on the frontlines in Scotland (Dr Lisa Reynolds). The last day of the conference (Friday) had 4 keynotes, the first two focused on a  range of topics including, the effectiveness of professionals perspectives terminology, learning and good practice around Child Sexual Exploitation (Jessica Eaton); and an update on desistence research and the importance of community engagement and the “service user” voice in the integration of people who have committed sexual offences into the community in a pro-social way (Dr Beth Weaver). The last two keynotes of the conference focused on sexual abuse in Scottish Football, discussing the work of the review and the interim report into the scale and nature of said abuse (Martin Henry); and finally, a presentation on the reality, impact and scale of sexual abuse with private schools over the past 30 (or so) years (Alex Renton). All the keynotes tied together ideas of the importance of Adverse Childhood Experiences in the lives of people who sexually offend, the roll of trauma in shaping their behavior and that prevention is needed, but more centrally that prevention is everyone’s responsibility. 

 

The workshops spanned a full range of topics and speakers (of which this is just a flavor) including, integration of people who have sexually offended back into the community (Karen Parish & Jane Dominey; Kieran McCartan; Tammy Banks & Sarah Thompson); public health approaches to sexual abuse and prevention (Kieran McCartan; Tamara Turner-Moore; Tammy Banks; Stuart Allardyce; Nicolas Blagden; Donald Findlater); online offenders (Donald Findlater; Roger Kennington); youth who sexually harm (Simon Hackett; Dale Tolliday; Jacqueline Page; Stephen Barry; Carol Carson; Stuart Allardyce & Peter Yates); female sexual offenders (Andrea Darling); treatment (Eleanor Woodford & Ben Evans; Gallagher; Geraldine Akerman); sexuality and sexual abuse (Michael Miner; Rajan Darjie) as well as pornography (Maree Crabbe). The workshops were a good mix of research, evaluation, practical working, professional learning and knowledge exchange.

 

In addition to the traditional conference activities NOTA 2018 also had an engagement event. This year we changed our focus from members of the public to professionals. We advertised the engagement event to professionals who have safeguarding as part of their jobs, but that safeguarding is not their main role (and therefore would not be attending the NOTA conference) including, teachers, foster carers, members of charities and NGO’s, etc. We had 150 participants sign up to attend the event but, unfortunately, bad weather in Glasgow lead to the closing of Glasgow Central Train Station which resulted in approximately 50 - 55 people attending; which, in the circumstances, was a good outcome.  The session heard from national (Stuart Allardyce, Graham Goulden & Kieran McCartan) and international (Maree Crabbe) speakers about the impact of pornography on youth, especially young men; what we can do to reduce toxic masculinity and the “crisis” surrounding young men; and how to promote positive, healthily sexuality.

 

NOTA 2018 also was covered by the Scottish Herald, which had a two-page piece in the main edition and this was republished on their website as well. The herald piece focused on the prevention of sexual abuse, including interviews with Stuart Allardyce, Marre Crabbe, Graham Golden, Lisa Reynolds and myself. For those interested please access it here.

 

NOTA 2018 fitted a massive amount of material in across three days, which left me informed, refreshed and looking forward to next year’s meeting in Belfast.

Redefining campus sanctions for sexual misconduct as a strategy for prevention

By Alison Hall (Executive Director, Pittsburgh Action Against Rape (PAAR) at alisonh@paar.net), Julie Evans (Director of Prevention& Victim Response, PAAR) at juliee@paar.net) & Julie Patrick (National Partners Liaison, RALIANCE at jpatrick@raliance.org)

The continued prevalence of sexual misconduct on college campuses requires sanctioning models that address current offending behavior while working to prevent future offenses.  If we truly want to engage students who are causing the harm we need innovative strategies to connect them with the needed services and prevention programs. This requires a collaborative response inclusive of key players from universities, sex offender treatment, and victim services.

Pittsburgh Action Against Rape (PAAR) brought together victim services, colleges and sex offender treatment professionals to examine sanctioning practices at three Allegheny County, Pennsylvania universities.  The team reviewed best practices in sex offender treatment and developed recommendations for training to assist universities in accessing a variety of accountability options.

What’s in a sanction?

The first step of the project was to review current sexual misconduct, Title IX responses, interventions, remedies for victims and sanctions for respondents found responsible for sexual misconduct. Existing sanctions lacked the key elements needed for campus safety - building prosocial skills with the goal of changing behaviors. Rather than intervene and change behaviors sanctions ranged from watching an online video to expulsion with no options along the continuum. Ultimately, college conduct boards lack the necessary tools and expertise to promote safer campuses.

College conduct boards were not asking behavioral questions which would identify risk and protective factors such as: how does the respondent view the person harmed, how does the respondent view the behavior? These are the questions ATSA members are utilizing in their work with offenders.

Recommendations

Sanctions must address current behavior and intervene to promote behavior change. Campuses need a tool to comprehensively look at the whole student, risk and protective factors and developing specific interventions and sanctions to promote safer campuses and prevention of sexual misconduct. This requires campuses to collaborate with sex offender treatment providers. Additionally, any sex offender treatment provider working with a college should follow ATSA’s standards.

What’s next?

PAAR is grateful for support for support from RALIANCE, a national partnership among leaders in the prevention of sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse. Founded in 2015 through a multimillion-dollar seed investment by the National Football League, RALIANCE is dedicated to ending sexual violence in one generation and supports an impact grant program with a specific funding category to prevent primary perpetration. 

PAAR is actively seeking additional funding to move into the next phase: development of a tool that utilizes a holistic approach to identifying and working with risk and protective factors.

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Good Things Happening in Poland and Italy

By David S. Prescott, LICSW

I had the honor of spending several days training in Wroclaw, Poland, last week. Two days went into a Master Class series training trainers and supervisors in their various areas related to Motivational Interviewing (MI), two days at a conference on MI and trauma, and three other days providing consultation on the use of the Good Lives Model (GLM) and MI for private organizations interested in implementing these approaches in Poland and Italy.

The real heroes of the story are people who work days, nights, and weekends to ensure the best possible services in the areas of trauma and addictions in their various countries. Iga Jaraczewska is a clinician who has worked diligently for over ten years to bring MI into Poland to replace older status-quo approaches to addictions. This has brought an increase in understanding how clinicians and other professionals can best respond to trauma. Iga has organized trainings all over Poland, as well as international conferences in Krakow, Warsaw, Torun, and other locations to bring in outside voices. These often involve a progression of introductory and advanced trainings with consult and supervision. Similar efforts are rising in Estonia, with the work of Inga Karton. Following along the same basic path as Iga Jaraczewska in Warsaw, is Domink Meinhart, located in the area surrounding Wroclaw. He has worked to ensure training, master classes, and supervision circles to put these methods into place with fidelity.

Their efforts are remarkable. Around the world, an ongoing phenomenon shows people like these working incredibly hard, often with little reward, to ensure that treatment services to marginalized people are as effective as can be. Among other areas of focus, Iga and Dominik have each taken a great interest in how MI and the GLM can be used to treat people with a variety of problematic sexual behaviors. Both approaches are inherently collaborative and strengths-based, an important consideration in light of research finding that the more coercive the treatment experience the less effective it likely it is to be and that low therapist empathy can be toxic. Iga produced an edited volume focusing in these areas, while Dominik has recently collected articles for the Polish Terapia. Each have built well-received organizations that focus on disseminating these methods with fidelity across a spectrum of professional disciplines.

Equally encouraging are the efforts of the students and other participants in these trainings. People routinely travel from around the country in order to attend various trainings and supervision sessions, often with little incentive beyond becoming a better therapist. As in the implementation of various models and methods in North America, these therapists submit recordings of their sessions to be reviewed by a supervisor, transcribed, and discussed in a group session with other therapists. I had the opportunity to sit in on a day of feedback sessions and felt fortunate to see just how supportive these groups can be.

Similar efforts are bringing these approaches into more areas of the criminal justice system in Italy. Previously, this blog focused on a group in Milan (https://sajrt.blogspot.com/2016/05/whats-on-in-milan-successes-and.html) including pioneers Carla Xella and Paolo Giulini. Now, a group led by Giacomo Salvanelli is working to expand these methods into other areas within Italy.

Most impressive of all is how all these people work to secure funding for their efforts. Very few people enter the human services with an eye on developing expertise in fundraising in challenging times. And yet, this is often what makes or breaks their efforts to ensure high-quality services for people who often have no voice in the systems that order their lives. Of course, much of the same happens around North America.  There are any number of people doing amazing things with unreasonably scant resources. Having had the great privilege of visiting many programs, it is always an honor to witness the efforts of people working behind the scenes to make trainings, conferences, and other forms of professional development happen.

Taken together, the efforts of these professionals show that therapeutic services improve when like-minded professionals get together with a common goal and purpose to exchange resources and ideas.

Integration into the community of people who have committed sexual abuse

By Kieran McCartan, PhD, David Prescott, LICSW, & Alissa Ackerman, PhD.

Over the years, our field has talked a lot about the use of language and the power of narratives in the field of sexual abuse. Words have impact. Words matter.  We often discuss whether we should use “victim” or “survivor” to discuss people whom have been directly impacted by sexual abuse and whether we should use labels at all. We have also discussed terms such as “sex offender” or the broad array of first person language that has emerged over recent years to describe the individuals that have committed sexual abuse. Likewise, there is the question of whether therapeutic activities should be called “treatment” or “management”. However, the one thing that we have not really discussed (and possibly one of the most important) is “reintegration” vs “integration”. This may seem like a minor semantic difference, but it’s more than that. It is an important debate, especially in terms of the experience of those who have victimized and those who have experienced sexual violence. This language can affect society’s view of each as well as the work that professionals do in the field. It is a conversation about transition and desistence.

The issue with reintegration is the addition of the prefix “re”. It indicates a return or a re-entry—this poses a problem? It assumes that they have been integrated into the community to begin with. In talking with anyone who works in the field of sexual abuse, it is common to hear them discussing their work in terms of changing people, changing attitudes and, most importantly, changing behaviors. The common thread that winds through discussion among police, probation, parole, treatment providers, and counsellors who work in the field of sexual abuse is that the person who has committed the abuse comes out of their service (i.e., prison, counselling, treatment, etc.) different, that they are a changed person. Herein lays the problem with the “re” in reintegration: We are not returning the person to the point that they were at pre-offence or pre-sentence, because that is a problematic and potentially harmful place. We are trying to integrate people who have committed sexual abuse into society, to successfully integrate many of them for the first time. What we see with these men (it’s mostly men that we are talking about) is that their lack of integration (whether socially, culturally, personally, psychologically or emotionally) contributed to their sexually abusive behavior in the first place. We are trying to help them move forward into a positive, productive, and engaging life, not back to the lifestyle that they had before.  

Thinking about integration versus reintegration enables us to view integration as being about the society, community, and individual’s social network working together to support the person. In contrast, reintegration too rarely looks beyond a return managed by professionals to similar circumstances. Therefore, we propose a view of integration that includes professionals playing a role, but that they are not alone in doing it. Integration is everyone’s responsibility, were as reintegration is often seen as the responsibility professional services. Past blogs have focused on the language that we use, what it means, and what its outcomes are. If we want people to take responsibility for their behavior and change we need to use language that reflects this goal.