Positive action

Abstract

Given all the obstacles to acknowledging, detecting, stopping and preventing child sexual abuse, how can we develop our awareness and skills in order to work positively and effectively against it? This book has attempted to suggest some strategies. So far we have considered child sexual abuse as a social problem, caused by individuals who exploit positions of power and access to those weaker than themselves; we have also examined how the power of individual child-molesters is underpinned by the general imbalance of power between the sexes, and how the institutionalisation of power in general may condone or even encourage child sexual abuse. The problem is clearly vast and leaves many of us with a feeling of hopelessness. This chapter therefore seeks to encourage some recognition of our own powers in combating the sexual abuse of children.