IzKK - Information Centre Child Abuse and Neglect

The IzKK is a nationwide interdisciplinary resource supplying information, consultancy and network services in support of primary-, secondary- and tertiary-level prevention of child abuse and child neglect. As a national and international centre linking research, professional practice and government, the Centre improves transparency and fosters productive collaboration between the different domains.
The IzKK provides access to data across a broad spectrum and mediates two-way links between field experience and research findings. With the overall aim of furthering needs-based development of prevention work to protect children from violence, it initiates and promotes innovative working approaches based on comprehensive interdisciplinary understanding of the issues. The Centre thus both supports the work of qualified practitioners and stimulates new initiatives aimed at combating child abuse and child neglect.

Plan of Action for the Protection of Children and Teenagers from Sexual Violence and Exploitation

In September 2011 the German government adopted a new "Plan of Action for the Protection of Children and Teenagers from Sexual Violence and Exploitation". It follows up the Plan of Action from 2003 and takes into account findings and recommendations outlined by the Round Table on the Sexual Abuse of Children and the World Congress in Rio. On the basis of these findings it brings all specific measures together under the roof of one overall strategy. Its goal is to improve the protection of boys and girls from sexual violence und exploitation. It focuses on the following core areas:

• Prevention
• Intervention
• Communication Networks
• Trafficking in Children for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation
• Sexual Exploitation from Travelling Sexual Offenders
• Research and Knowledge
• International Cooperation

Plan of action 2011

German expert report about "Sexually Transgressing Children: Practical Approaches and their Empirical Foundations"

An expert report of Peter Mosser for the Informationcentre Child Abuse and Neglect at the German Youth Institute in Munich.

Over the past years, sexual transgressions among children have drawn attention initially in the practical fields of work and finally with some delay also in research. The first and foremost goal is to protect children from sexual transgression by other children because such transgression can harm the affected children seriously which is equivalent to the consequences of sexual abuse committed by juveniles and adults. Secondly, children with sexualized behavior run the risk of becoming transgressors themselves because of their increased vulnerability for dysfunctional interpersonal experience. Thirdly, pronoun­ced sexual abnormalities indicate a general psycho-pathological bur­den which may further develop through the various developmental phases.

Children who show sexualized behavior can be supported effectively within the framework of tem­porary treatment programs. In addition, the sig­nificance of working with attachment figures is evident and sufficiently empirically validated. How­ever, significant conditioning factors, which are presumed necessary for sexually prominent behavior to develop must be assumed to exist exactly within the systems which must b­e activated for cooperation. Therefore, successful interventio­n strategies need suitable cooperation agreements between the various players of chi­l­d welfare who are aware of this con­fl­i­c­t intrinsic to the topic because the previously pra­ctic­al experiences reported in Germany indicate high dropout rates primarily of children below the age of criminal responsibility.

The task of taking into account the specifics of sexually transgressing children compared to adolescent sex offenders presents a great challenge. In this connection, this expertise should make a contribution to incite a qualified debate.

Report