Laura Staats

Laura Staats, MSW, APSW

Program Manager at Children’s Wisconsin

[email protected]
 

Lessons Learned

• The context and needs of youth with disabilities are often overlooked or not considered when writing policies for preventing child sexual abuse in youth serving organizations.
• Despite knowing that people who want to harm a child use sophisticated manipulation tactics, much child sexual abuse prevention continue to center on teaching children (including those with disabilities) how to recognize safe or unsafe people rather than adults changing the conditions or situations that are allowing abuse to take place.
• Across the field of child sexual abuse prevention, there is a lack of research on incidents of child sexual abuse of youth with disabilities and even less empirical research on primary prevention in this population. Available research is often outdated, leaving limited guidance for prevention in current context. 

Resources Developed

• https://www.a2awisconsin.org/A2AWisconsin/Prevention.htm - Workshop on using best practices in policies & procedure to prevent child sexual abuse. Additional modules and context to be added surrounding focus populations, including youth with disabilities, with anticipated completion in 2026.
• https://www.a2awisconsin.org/WCSAP1/Infographics/CS_A2A_Questions-to-As… - \ Safe Programs - Safe Kids

Suggested Resources

• Scott Modell – Modell Consulting Group https://www.modellconsultinggroup.com/
• Jones, L., Bellis, M. A., Wood, S., Hughes, K., McCoy, E., Eckley, L., Bates, G., Mikton, C., Shakespeare, T., & Officer, A. (2012). Prevalence and risk of violence against children with disabilities: A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. The Lancet, 380(9845), 899–907. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(12)60692-8
• Legano, L. A., et al. (2021). Maltreatment of Children With Disabilities. Pediatrics, 147(5): e2021050920. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-050920

Collaborative Areas of Interest

• Prevention of problematic sexual behavior in youth
• Primary prevention of child sexual abuse in youth serving organizations
• Boundary setting, boundary crossing identification, and the prevention of grooming behaviors (i.e. perpetrator manipulation) towards individuals, families, communities, and organizations