Kieran McCartan

• PhD
• Professor at University of the West of England, Bristol

The Sibling Sexual Behaviour and Abuse (SSB-A) Practice Outcomes Framework for services and organisations supporting and responding to sibling sexual behaviour and abuse. To support services and organisations in developing outcomes and evaluation measures using evidence and research on ssb-a.

This chapter will examine UK University's understanding and response to campus-based sexual abuse. It will discuss the extent to which policies, practices, and safeguarding have been developed, whether they have been fully imbedded, and what impact they have had. The chapter will end with a discussion of what UK Universities still need to do to sup...

Purpose of Review This paper reviews recent research into sibling sexual behaviour (SSB). This is an emerging professional and community issue that binds together a limited evidence base across research, practice and policy in psychology, criminology, politics, social work and policy studies. The review will demonstrate that a multi-disciplinary, l...

Prevention of the consumption of online child sexual exploitation material presents society with a host of new challenges and is a priority of the European Union (EU). Alongside the identification and prosecution of individuals who use child sexual exploitation material, there is a strong desire to prevent these offences before they occur. Due to t...

Many young people do not have a strong understanding of stalking-like behaviour; this chapter considers the challenges this presents with specific reference to autistic young people, focusing upon: prevalence, recognition, awareness and consequences of stalking-like behaviour. The validity of arguments which suggests autistic young people may be at...

This chapter draws together the findings of both of the studies, the literature review and the overarching picture of sibling sexual abuse in contemporary UK culture. This chapter provides key recommendations that link to developing a clearer recording criteria and definition of SSA, the reality and impact of young people who have been the victim o...

This chapter will detail the findings of the part of the project that was led by Dr. Sophie King-Hill at The University of Birmingham, supported by Abby Gilsenan, Jonathan Beavis and Purple Leaf and West Mercia Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (WMRSASC). The project had a number of research objectives that were underpinned by the overall projec...

The epilogue captures a survivor’s voice and tells their story. This narrative shows that sibling sexual abuse is complex and that its characteristics cannot be predicted nor expected.KeywordsRecoveryDisclosureFamilyLife- long impactSibling relationshipsLived experience

Chapters 1 and 2 provide a comprehensive and broad overview of the existing Sibling Sexual Abuse (SSA) evidence base. This chapter will provide the first piece of empirical evidence from the research. The chapter will start with a discussion of the context, background and methodology of the study by the University of West England with 18 adult vict...

This chapter outlines the project from which the research in this book originated. It outlines the context and intended outcomes on the ‘Sibling sexual abuse: supporting victims and survivors to recover, heal and rebuild their lives’ project that was funded by the Home Office Support for Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (SVSCSA) fund. It...

This chapter seeks to identify and explore core lessons learnt through the amalgamation of both studies. Furthermore, this section aims to critically examine the implications of the data considering broader societal and structural narratives surrounding sexual abuse. Utilising this exploratory analysis, we offer a detailed discussion of possible ne...

Ethical practice is nothing new for those who work in the criminal justice sector and policing has its own Code of Ethics within which police practice is framed. The ethical practices required by social researchers are of similar ilk, ensuring the researcher follows a process of moral practice, protecting participants and the credence of any study....

The way that we prevent as well as respond to sexual offending is at a crossroads as we are starting to talk in a new language, with a blended health and justice framework, but we are grounded in a punitive system. Where do we go from this point? How do we develop effective, evidence-based community-based programmes for people convicted of a sexual...

The development of policy, especially criminal justice policy, is often fraught and divisive with a plethora of short-term solutions to long-term problems. This chapter is going to discuss the challenges of policymaking in the arena of sexual offending, suggesting that currently we “think fast not slow”, but that in reality we want to “think, fast...

This book provides an up-to-date analysis of major issues in the field of sexual abuse, both established and emerging, and asks how we can develop the most evidence-based, fit-for-purpose approach in responding to and preventing it. Sexual abuse is a multi-disciplinary, international issue that exists at the crossroads of theory, practice, and rese...

This discussion piece argues for a refinement in our understanding of prevention in sexual abuse, suggesting that we include quaternary prevention on the grounds that this concept from medical literature has potential and helpful application to criminal justice and particularly to work with those who cause sexual harm. Located within the paradigm o...

Purpose of Review We are reviewing recent research into the community integration of men convicted of a sexual offence and their (risk) management. This is a high-profile political issue that binds together research in psychology, criminology, politics, health, public health, and policy studies. The review will demonstrate that a multi-disciplinary...

This research emanates from an anti-sexual violence bystander programme delivered at an English university. Fifteen students were identified through purposive and convenience sampling to take part in focus groups. Discussions emerged regarding atypical sexual harassment. There is a gap in the literature exploring sexual harassment outside of the ma...

This chapter focuses on the community dynamic risk management of individuals convicted of sexual offenses. It surveys public perceptions of sexual violence, because how citizens feel about their safety often drives political and legislative agendas. The chapter critically reviews the most common outcomes of those legislative agendas—measures instit...

The issue of sexual abuse is a global socio‐political one, which means that, despite international differences in sexual harm policy and practice surrounding sexual abuse, the creation and implementation of these policies and practices are politically sensitive. This chapter critically considers the risk‐management strategies that are “common” inte...

The literature on desistance from crime shows that desisters often engage in a process of rebiographing, crafting life stories – or “redemption scripts” – that make sense of their move away from crime. However, this literature has largely excluded nonwhite offenders and sexual offenders. The current study addresses these gaps by examining the desis...

Sexual abuse is a global issue and, therefore, responding to and preventing sexual abuse are global challenges. Although we have examples of and evidence for sexual abuse prevention initiatives internationally, these tend to come from a small, select group of countries (i.e., United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand,...

Background Internationally, the UN reports that an estimated 1 in 3 women experience physical/sexual violence during their lifetime. These rates vary across cultures, age, gender and sexual identity. However, what does not vary is that the majority (UK, 83%) will not report this. It is likely that many will attend mainstream sexual health services...

User experience and client satisfaction is capturing more attention in the field of social services. The provision of treatment services to individuals convicted of sexual offenses, in particular, has expanded exponentially over the last 20 years. This growing population is now interviewed, interrogated, investigated, assessed, managed, treated, su...

This article argues that understanding current approaches to sex offender risk management and its operationalization must account for front line situational decision-making practices and the culture from which they develop and operate. The research utilizes a mixed-methods approach, combining an online questionnaire survey (N = 227) with a series o...

The Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) is an international organisation that spans approximately 20 countries (including Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, France, Germany, Belgium, Israel, and South Africa, to name a few) with more than 300 international, non-American members. The ATSA international committee believed...

In Part 1 of this 2-part piece we focused on practitioners’ experiences of working in the field of sexual abuse. In this article we are going to focus on ATSA international members’ understandings and attitudes about the community integration of people convicted of a sexual offence. The article will focus on participants’ understandings of public a...

This paper examines police officer understandings of and attitudes to the sex offenders’ register, Violent and Sex Offenders’ Register (ViSOR) and Child Sexual Offender Disclosure Scheme (CSODS) in England and Wales – an under-researched area in the management of sexual offenders in the UK. This research is an adaptation of an American study utilis...

This chapter will highlight research and practice internationally on ways to educate the public regarding sex abuse and how successful they have been. The chapter will cover issues including the relationship between experts and the public, public criminology, media narratives as well as engagement and political positions, and debates, on this topic...

Real World Research provides a clear route-map of the various steps needed to carry out a piece of applied research to a high professional standard. It is accessible to those without a social science background while providing rigorous and fully up-to-date coverage of contemporary issues and debates. It brings together materials and approaches from...

The subject of false rape allegations is shrouded in anxiety, confusion and misunderstanding. Despite a growing body of quality research, there continue to be significant gaps in our knowledge about the topic, including the phenomenon of false allegations beyond rape and other sexual offences. The purpose of this article is to seek to deepen our un...

Sexual harm is a high-profile issue, both nationally and internationally, with the number of perpetrators entering and being managed by the Criminal Justice System continually increasing. These increases in the sexual offender population are the result of a ‘perfect storm’ of disclosures, reporting, recording, sentencing, and community management....

This article discusses the ethical, practical, and moral issues surrounding secondary prevention efforts of child sexual abuse from a professional and practice-based perspective. Transcripts of a semistructured consultation event with n = 15 international experts on the secondary prevention of child sexual abuse were analysed using thematic qualita...

Purpose Increasing numbers of convictions for the use of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) call for enhanced measures to prevent this type of offending. Strength-based approaches such as the good lives model have made significant contributions to the management of offenders who have sexually abused against children. The paper aims to discus...

Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) have recently become part of the criminal justice landscape. However, little has been documented on public views about COSA. The existing research on this topic is entirely quantitative, providing no insight into the reasons behind public support for COSA. This study addresses this gap by analyzing comme...

This book, the second of two volumes edited by Kemshall and McCartan, focuses on responses to sexual offending, and how risk is used by policy makers, stakeholders, academics and practitioners to both construct and respond to unknown and known sex offenders within the contexts of criminal justice, health and social policy. The chapters provide an o...

This book, the first of two volumes edited by McCartan and Kemshall, focusses on perceptions of sexual offenders, and how risk is used by policy makers, stakeholders, academics and practitioners to both construct and respond to unknown and known sex offenders within the contexts of criminal justice, health and social policy. The chapters provide an...

Summary: This paper reviews the current position in relation to sex offender registration and community notification in England and Wales. It reports on data collected as part of a wider research project evaluating law enforcement perspectives related to sex offender registration and notification and the management of sex offenders in the community...

The presentation discusses the mixed-method, national evaluation of 188 community Circles of Support and Accountability

Research suggests that only a more comprehensive multilevel approach to sexual violence prevention will integrate existing efforts to incarcerate offenders and provide services to victims into broader strategies to educate communities and change the very circumstances that allow sexual abuse to be perpetrated. With the growing interest in focusing...

This article explores current societal framings and understandings of sexual violence, particularly child sexual abuse. The article starts by explaining how societal perceptions of child sexual abuse are formed through implicit and explicit theories, followed by a brief examination of media, professional and public understandings of child sexual ab...

In the UK offenders are dealt with through punishment and/or rehabilitation models. One approach which has been steadily growing in popularity is restorative justice. This is paradoxical as we are living in an era of growing community and state punitiveness. This chapter discusses restorative justice as a means of reintegrating offenders, particula...

Introduction Public engagement is at the heart of not only criminology, but all social sciences. In recent years, criminology has developed a renewed interest in social engagement, with this professional–public dialogue being seen as essential to developing a rounded public interest in the discipline as well as related policies and practices (Loade...

This original edited collection explores the value of public engagement in a wider social science context. Its main themes range from the dialogic character of social science to the pragmatic responses to the managerial policies underpinning the restructuring of Higher Education. The book is organised in three parts: the first encourages the reader...

The community management of sex offenders has attracted much media and political interest in recent times, not least due to high-profile failures in risk management (Kitzinger, 2004; Thomas, 2013), as well as issues both historic (e.g., Welsh care home scandal, the Jimmy Savile case) and contemporary (e.g., the Ian Wakins case) with the policing of...

This paper discusses public attitudes to the current limited disclosure of sex offender scheme in the UK. The study focuses on two ‘countries' of the UK (ie, Northern Ireland and Wales) where, up until now, no direct research has been done with the public on their attitudes to the sex offender disclosure scheme. This study is based upon six sociall...

Human trafficking is a global phenomenon. The UK is predominantly, although not exclusively, a destination country for trafficked persons. There is a lack of empirical research and data available which addresses the reality of access by trafficked persons to certain means of communication (internet, mobile phone technology or a PC); therefore any a...

Whilst it is acknowledged that grooming and sexual abuse takes place both in the offline and online environment, the continued convergence of technologies means that the offline and online boundaries are increasingly blurred. This paper will discuss how mobile phone technology can be counterproductive to preventing sexual abuse and can help facilit...

This article discusses contemporary professional understandings of the UK Government's attitudes to and policies around the management of child sexual abusers. This study is based upon empirical qualitative research with a range of professionals' working in or around the area of child sexual abuse (practitioners, academics and members of the media)...

Kieran McCartan is a senior lecturer in criminol-ogy, having a background and current research interest in social construction; 'public criminol-ogy'; social risk; media representations; public protection; and child sexual abuse. ABSTRACT This paper will discuss professionals' contempor-ary definitions and understandings of paedo-philia, based upon...

Despite the current high-profile concern over paedophiles and paedophilic activity, there is no easily accessible or widely accepted multi-disciplinary definition of paedophilia. Commentators have pointed to a general contemporary misunderstanding surrounding the subject of paedophilia, and to the tensions between strong beliefs and facts in both s...

This research investigates student/trainee-professional implicit theories of paedophilia and their explanations for the current crisis of paedophilia. The research methodology is based on a previous research design (Sternberg, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 607–627, 1985), and consists of two interrelated studies. Study 1 (n=60)...

This research study sought to investigate the public perception of paedophiles. It was undertaken in Belfast (Northern Ireland) and Leicester (England) in an attempt to determine whether or not regional variations existed in relation to the public's perception of paedophiles. In doing this, the study sought to test four hypotheses; (1) That the pre...

Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester, May 2007. Awarded 2007. Paedophilia has become a major social issue; although, there remains considerable ambiguity in how society understands and perceives this phenomenon. This thesis will investigate professionals' as well as trainee/non-professionals' implic...