“Taking Action to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse: Strategies for Your Community” - the first Massachusetts statewide conference on child sexual abuse - was held on Saturday, April 5, 2003 from 8:30am to 4:30pm at the John Hancock Conference Center in Boston, MA.

Sponsored by MCSAPP and the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) the conference is an integral part of the 3-year project to develop and evaluate promising sexual abuse prevention programs in community pilot sites. Lessons learned at the conference will be used to guide future efforts throughout the state and country.

The April 5th conference featured two-keynote speakers, a survivor’s panel, and an afternoon of workshops showcasing several promising child sexual abuse prevention initiatives.

Dr. Vincent Felitti of Kaiser Permanente, the country’s largest HMO, kicked-off with the day with a presentation of his ground breaking Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study. Felitti discussed how his research team tracked over 58,000 Kaiser patients and confirmed a link between child sexual abuse and other adverse childhood experiences, with the major health risk behaviors that underlie the leading causes of death in the United States, including cancer and heart disease.

Jan Hindman, a child abuse clinician and researcher, shared her insights from over twenty-six years of experience working with child sexual abuse victims and perpetrators. By reviewing data on nearly 1,000 offenders, Hindman has documented that the causes of offending behavior can be better understood by looking at not necessarily what happened to children but what did not happen to them. Hindman identified tools that parents and families can use to protect their children from this offending path so that community prevention efforts will be more comprehensive and, therefore, more effective.

A panel of survivors and advocates challenged common, dangerous stereotypes and misconceptions about sexual abuse survivors and offenders currently prevalent in the media and popular culture. Panel members examined how these myths contribute to a society that allows child sexual abuse to flourish. Many myths develop in response to our need to defend ourselves from considering that the sexual abuse of children can directly affect our lives. By examining the facts about offenders and victims, we will be able to empower ourselves to discourage perpetrators from harming our children.