Objectives: The thesis comprises two parts. Firstly, a systematic review (SR) systematically examined meta-analytic studies assessing the prevalence of sexual abuse in childhood. A meta-analysis sought to systematically identify and synthesise data from studies providing prevalence estimates of contact and non-contact child sexual abuse (CSA) as self-reported by adolescents within the past 10 years. Methods: Consistent with Cochrane Collaboration guidelines, the systemic review adopted a comprehensive search of electronic databases and additional sources, including communication with authors working in the field, and the use of ancestry and descendency approaches between February 2013 and March 2014. The meta-analysis also adopted an equally systematic search conducted from March 2013 to June 2014. Assessment of quality and risk of bias were conducted on the included studies using PRISMA criteria and STROBE guidelines. Results: The systematic review identified six meta-analytic studies for review. The quality of studies and the range of definitional and methodological factors studied varied; results sections were well covered, whereas, quality and risk of bias within studies were generally poorly addressed. Prevalence estimates varied considerably and high heterogeneity was consistent across all analyses. Nine population studies measuring prevalence of contact and non-contact CSA were included in the meta-analysis. Meta-analyses were conducted overall and across male and female populations. Prevalence estimates varied considerably across studies, with contact CSA ranging from 2% to 39.8% and overall non-contact CSA, estimates ranged from 1% to 24.6%. Substantial heterogeneity was present across all analyses and therefore findings should be interpreted with caution. Nevertheless, the findings were thought-provoking and most likely due to differences in definitions of CSA and inconsistent use of validated instruments. Conclusions: Child sexual abuse is an international problem which is highly pervasive across all societies and populations studied. Females consistently report higher rates of CSA than males, and some Asian countries, namely China, produce relatively lower CSA estimates, even controlling for a wide range of methodological factors and study characteristics. The considerable heterogeneity was apparent both between and within studies and it appears likely based on the current findings, and in the context of previous research, that there are a wide range of methodological and socio-demographic factors which moderate CSA prevalence estimates. More specifically, the lack of a universally recognised definition of CSA proves especially problematic for researchers. The issue is further complicated by use of non-standardised instruments and inconsistent reporting and dissemination of findings. There is a need for future epidemiological studies to adhere to universal guidelines using standard definitions, standardisation of instruments and standardisation of reporting and dissemination to facilitate development of health policies, resource allocation and prevention initiatives for clinical and social services.

Background: Previous research has demonstrated that a history of childhood maltreatment can lead to significant negative consequences across multiple domains of functioning. A significant minority of individuals remain resilience to such negative consequences, necessitating further research into the factors which protect against negative outcomes in young people who have experienced adversity. A systematic review of the literature was carried out in order to assess the evidence base for factors that predict adolescent resilience following childhood maltreatment. Several factors across the individual, family and community level were identified, however, evidence regarding these factors was mixed. Factors that have been shown to predict resilience in other age groups require further validation within adolescent samples. Aim: The first aim of this study was to investigate the role of resilience in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and psychological distress. The second aim was to address a possible role for attachment in mediating the relationship between childhood maltreatment and resilience. Method: Adolescents aged 13 – 17 who were attending Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services were asked to complete measures of childhood maltreatment, individual resilience, attachment and psychological distress. Results: Resilience was shown to mediate the relationship between maltreatment and psychological distress. Attachment avoidance was found to mediate the relationship between maltreatment and resilience but not when emotional reactivity was included in the resilience index. Attachment anxiety did not mediate the relationship between maltreatment and resilience, however, maltreatment history was found to moderate the relationship between attachment anxiety and resilience. Discussion: Generalisability of this study was limited due to possible bias within the recruited sample. Implications of the significant results are discussed along with suggestions for future research.

Between 1/5 and 1/3 of all cases of sexual abuse in the UK involve children or young people as perpetrators (Hackett, 2004). Siblings may account for somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the victims of these children (Hackett et al., 1998; Shaw et al., 2000; Beckett, 2006; Allardyce and Yates, 2009; Ryan, 2010a). There is increasing evidence that sibling sexual abuse may have very damaging consequences for victims, at least as damaging as sexual abuse by a parent (Rudd and Herzberger, 1999; Cyr et al., 2002), yet there is ongoing debate over how to differentiate harmless sex play from harmful sibling sexual abuse (Caffaro, 2014). How social workers make sense of sibling sexual behaviour is of interest in light of their role in making decisions regarding the intervention of the State in private and family life. However, research on how social workers make decisions has so far been limited to situations concerning abuse by a parent, with almost no attention having been paid to situations where a child in the family is the source of risk. This grounded theory study analyses the retrospective accounts of decisions made with respect to separation, contact, and reunification by 21 social workers in Scotland regarding 21 families in which sibling sexual behaviour has taken place. The study finds that social workers make these decisions intuitively and in relationship with children and families, influenced by a cognitive orientation, a practice mindset: ‘siblings as better together’. This mindset comprises three underlying perspectives: children as vulnerable and intending no sexual harm to others; sibling relationships as non-abusive and of intrinsic value; and parents as well-intentioned protective. These perspectives encourage a focus on immediate safety rather than emotional harm, and could be said to extend Dingwall et al.’s (1983) ‘rule of optimism’ in these cases where a child is the source of abuse within the family. In keeping with the findings of serious case reviews concerning abuse by a parent (e.g. Sinclair and Bullock, 2002; Brandon et al., 2012), there is a danger of the victim child becoming lost.

This thesis explores the role and relevance of the concepts of participation and service user involvement for work with sexually exploited children and young people. The central research questions are: how do young people at risk of, or affected by sexual exploitation, experience their rights to involvement in decision-making processes about their care? What is the meaning and value of the concept of participation from service users’ own perspectives? And what are the gains of involving these young people in decision-making processes about their care? The research involved in-depth qualitative interviews with twenty young service users and ten practitioners. Three theoretical frameworks underpin the study; a constructivist approach to childhood; sociological approaches to agency, and discourses of children’s participation rights. The analysis of data was informed by both narrative and grounded theory approaches. The thesis argues that young people’s perspectives on professional welfare, though rarely recorded or allowed to inform policy and best practice, shed new insight onto the efficacy and limitations of existing child protection practice with adolescents at risk of sexual exploitation. Consideration is given to how young people experience and respond to services, including their decisions about disengaging from or circumventing professional support. The thesis concludes that these demonstrations of agency and power, though often interpreted as deviant, are essentially rational and often protective. Through this lens young people’s agency is recognised as a resource rather than a problem. The thesis concludes by arguing that the ability of support services to protect young people affected by sexual exploitation is contingent on the degree to which they involve young people in decision-making about their care. Rather than standing in opposition to paternalistic approaches to protection, the narratives suggest that participation and empowerment are necessary conditions of a protective service, especially for those considered most marginalized or vulnerable.

Die empirische Untersuchung setzt sich mit der aktuellen Beratungstätigkeit der "insoweit erfahrenen Fachkraft" und deren Rahmenbedigungen gemäß § 8a Abs. 4 SGB VIII im Freistaat Sachsen auseinander.:Inhaltsverzeichnis Abkürzungsverzeichnis ................................................................................. - 8 - Abbildungsverzeichnis .................................................................................. - 8 - Tabellenverzeichnis ....................................................................................... - 8 - 1. Einleitende Worte zum Aufbau und Anliegen ....................................... - 8 - 2. Die Entstehung und Entwicklung des Schutzauftrages nach § 8a SGB VIII .......................................................................................... - 11 - 2.1 Die Einführung des § 8a SGB VIII .................................................... - 11 - 2.2 Die Entstehung des Bundeskinderschutzgesetzes ........................... - 12 - 2.3 Zentrale Regelungen des neuen Bundeskinderschutzgesetzes mit Auswirkungen auf das SGB VIII ....................................................... - 14 - 2.4 Schutzauftrag der öffentlichen Jugendhilfe ....................................... - 15 - 2.5 Schutzauftrag des freien Trägers ..................................................... - 16 - 2.6 Erweiterung des Schutzauftrages ..................................................... - 19 - 3. Problemklassifikation ........................................................................... - 20 - 4. Qualitätsbestimmungen für die „insoweit erfahrene Fachkraft“ ...... - 22 - 4.1 Strukturqualität der „insoweit erfahrenen Fachkraft“ ......................... - 23 - 4.1.1 Ansiedlung der „insoweit erfahrenen Fachkraft“ .......................... - 23 - 4.1.2 Die Qualifikation ......................................................................... - 24 - 4.1.3 Fachlicher Austausch, Supervision, Fort- und Weiterbildungen .. - 28 - 4.1.4 Regelung der Kosten .................................................................. - 29 - 4.1.5 Datenschutz ................................................................................ - 30 - 4.1.6 Haftung ....................................................................................... - 32 - 4.2 Prozessqualität der „insoweit erfahrenen Fachkraft“ ......................... - 33 - 4.2.1 Regelung der Kontaktaufnahme und des Einsatzfeldes der „insoweit erfahrenen Fachkraft“ .................................................. - 33 - 4.2.2 Aufgabe der „insoweit erfahrenen Fachkraft“ .............................. - 35 - 4.2.3 Fachberatung nach § 8a Abs. 4 SGB VIII ................................... - 36 - 4.2.4 Dokumentation ........................................................................... - 37 - 4.3 Ergebnisqualität der „insoweit erfahrenen Fachkraft“ ....................... - 38 - 5. Der bisherige Forschungsstand .......................................................... - 39 - 6. Design und Umsetzung der eigenen Untersuchung ........................... - 41 - 6.1 Ziel der Untersuchung ...................................................................... - 41 - 6.2 Untersuchungsleitende Fragestellungen .......................................... - 42 - 6.3 Der Fragebogen als Forschungsinstrument ...................................... - 43 - 6.4 Stichprobenkonstruktion und Feldzugang ........................................ - 45 - 6.5 Untersuchungsdurchführung ............................................................ - 46 - 7. Analyse und Diskussion der Ergebnisse ............................................ - 47 - 7.1 Beschreibung der Stichprobe ........................................................... - 48 - 7.2 Wie sind die Rahmenbedingungen für den Beratungsauftrag der „insoweit erfahrenen Fachkräfte“ geregelt? ...................................... - 52 - 7.3 Welche Beratungsaufgaben werden von diesen wahrgenommen und wo liegen deren Grenzen? ........................................................ - 60 - 7.4 Wie wird die Qualitätssicherung geregelt?........................................ - 71 - 7.5 Welches fachliche und berufliche Profil zeichnet die „insoweit erfahrene Fachkraft“ aus? ................................................. - 82 - 8. Rückschluss auf den bisherigen Forschungsstand ........................... - 86 - 9. Fachempfehlungen für die Weiterentwicklung der örtlichen Praxis . - 88 - 10. Schlussbemerkung ............................................................................... - 92 - 10.1 Erkenntnistransfer ............................................................................ - 93 - 10.2 Fragen für Anschlussforschungen .................................................... - 94 - Literaturverzeichnis ..................................................................................... - 95 - Anhangverzeichnis .................................................................................... - 103 -

This thesis explores the practices and perceptions of the courts and professionals in child contact proceedings where domestic violence is an issue and the implications of this for mothers, with particular reference to Practice Direction 12J which establishes the framework for best practice to be followed in such proceedings. In-depth interviews were undertaken with 29 family lawyers and Cafcass officers covering a broad geographic and demographic area, and the reported cases to which the Practice Direction applies were reviewed. The resulting data were analysed utilising discourse analytic and qualitative approaches, drawing on a feminist poststructuralist approach and also insights from autopoietic theory. It was found that the ‘presumption of contact’ and an acontextual, legalistic approach to domestic violence reinforce each other and have a powerful normative influence on professional and judicial perceptions and practices. Dominant parental subjectivities of ‘implacably hostile mothers’ and ‘safe family men’ continue to resonate with many courts and professionals, who focus on promoting contact rather than safeguarding mothers and children. Despite more judges and professionals gaining a broader understanding of the coercively controlling nature of domestic violence, only recent, very severe physical violence warrants the holding of fact-finding hearings on disputed allegations and provides sufficiently ‘cogent’ reasons for family lawyers to support mothers in opposing contact and for courts to refuse contact. The notion that domestic violence is morally reprehensible and a significant failure in parenting, and that women’s desires for safety, wellbeing and autonomy are morally legitimate, finds very little expression. This study concludes that in order to regain a valid and authoritative voice for women in current family law we need to expose and disrupt law’s construction of the ‘scientific truth’ about children’s welfare, the dominant parental subjectivities to which it gives rise, and the ‘safe haven’ of law’s ideal post-separation family.

This study aims to contribute to our knowledge about the under researched area of sexual grooming, first of all, by reviewing the available literature to establish a baseline of understanding and secondly by considering three different perspectives, which expanded our understanding further. In depth interviews, lasting between one hour and a total time of approximately four hours, were conducted with five adult survivors of child sexual abuse, six child sex offenders and six police officers with child protection experience. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse the interview data, which identified four main themes: vulnerability, offenders’ self grooming, entrapment and grooming shadow. These themes highlighted an ecological view, which acknowledged the multiple factors influencing an individual’s experience of childhood sexual abuse, and recognised the dynamic nature of sexual grooming, including its apparent link between childhood experience of this phenomenon and adulthood. Attribution and perceived power were the most significant influences within the sexual grooming process. The analysis was used to develop a new definition and two models of sexual grooming, which capture the complexity of this phenomenon. These models provide a framework within which to understand sexual grooming and furthermore to communicate this understanding to a non-academic audience. The Grooming ‘Cycle’ is of particular value with regard to raising public awareness, which is an important aspect as the research has revealed that child protection can only be effective if everybody takes responsibility for it.

There is a high prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA) in India and the UK (Laccino, 2014). However, there is a lack of research on culturally-specific aspects of psychotherapy offered to child and adolescent survivors of CSA in both these countries. Therapeutic interventions with sexually abused children raise complex concerns due to the heterogeneity based on the developmental stage of children; varied impact, presenting difficulties and needs; and characteristics of abuse, age, gender, ethnicity and cultural factors. Numerous therapeutic interventions for CSA have been documented, with varying theoretical constructs, structure, content and outcome (Reavey & Warner, 2001), ranging from cognitive behavioural, psychoanalytic, humanistic and feminist paradigm (Misurell, Springer, & Tryon, 2011). Most of these approaches do not provide sufficient guides to therapy (Reavey & Warner, 2001). Few of these are widely studied and clinically accepted, while most lack empirical evidence. Although existing studies conclude that therapy is better than no treatment, there is lack of consensus on treatment characteristics important in child and adolescent sexual abuse therapy (Hetzel-Riggin, Brausch, & Montgomery, 2007). Further, little is known about culturally-specific holistic and coherent responses to CSA. A Constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2006) study was conducted to investigate therapeutic approaches practiced by professionals in India and the UK with child and adolescent survivors of CSA, and to understand the factors that govern the choice of an approach or model adopted. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 32 professionals (16 each in India and the UK) from different settings including statutory, voluntary and private sector. NVIVO 10 was used for data management and analysis of the digitally recorded and transcribed interviews. Although there is a growing emphasis on evidence-based therapies, with most empirical studies focussing on traditional forms of psychotherapy, the actual practice of the professionals interviewed reflected a more fluid, flexible, multi-modal, ecological and integrative approach to CSA-therapy. The findings indicate that the therapeutic interventions progress through four different phases, based on the goals identified by professionals. The goals in turn are influenced by the socio-cultural context, structural factors, and/or trauma understanding of the professionals. Four phases identified in the study are: 1. Social Action Framework, with the goal to identify silenced and invisible children, particularly in a culture of silence and suppression in India; 2. Stabilisation and Resilience Building Framework, found to be practiced in India and the UK, with the goal to ensure safety and build the foundation for ensuing phase of therapy; 3. CSA-Trauma Resolution Framework, where the goal is to uncover the sexual abuse details to facilitate recovery and reintegrate the traumatised child, more visible in therapeutic practice in the UK; and 4. Maintenance and Relapse Prevention Framework, with the goal to prevent relapse and protect from revictimisation and future developmental difficulties. These phases may be mutually exclusive, follow a linear trajectory, or there may be a back and forth movement from one phase to the other. These four phases were integrated to construct a culturally relevant, ecological-based theoretical model of CSA therapy with child and adolescent survivors.

Child maltreatment is a pervasive societal concern that has affected countless young people, families, communities and nations with detrimental effects at the physical, psychological, neurobiological and social levels. Despite exposure to chronic adversity, a remarkable number of individuals are able to display resilience and demonstrate positive adaptation following their experience of trauma. This thesis aims to examine the impact of attachment and coping styles in the context of resilience following child maltreatment utilising a systemic framework. Chapter One provides an overview of the theoretical literature relating to resilience, attachment, coping and child maltreatment. Chapter Two explores the construct of resilience and critiques the Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC; Connor & Davidson, 2003) as one of the few standardised measures of resilience. This measure focuses on assessing internal factors that promote positive adaptation following adversity with little attention given to external or systemic drivers in the resilience building process. In order to understand the protective role of attachment and coping and its impact upon resilience at multiple levels of functioning, Chapter Three presents a systematic review that explores the literature on the effects of attachment and/or coping styles on resilience following child maltreatment within the framework of a socio-ecological approach with a particular emphasis on female experiences. Chapter Four presents an empirical paper exploring the impact of multiple maltreatment experiences (victimisation, perpetration and abuse types) upon attachment, coping and resilience with an exclusively female sample. Chapter Five summarises the conclusions and limitations from all the chapters in the thesis discussion.

Familial child maltreatment continues to be an area of concern in child protection proceedings which often involves the psychological assessment of parents. Research has demonstrated that a significant number of parents assessed in child protection proceedings report experiences of victimisation in their own childhoods. While the consequences of childhood maltreatment are well known, few studies have focused on the intergenerational patterns of child maltreatment amongst mothers involved in child protection proceedings. This thesis attempts to explore the transmission of maternal child abuse and neglect through systematic review of literature in the field, a study comparing mothers who abuse with mothers who neglect, and a critique of a psychometric measure of personality in parents subject to child protection proceedings. Understanding interpersonal differences in intergenerational neglectful and abusive mothers involved in childcare proceedings may lead to the development of effective interventions which may disrupt the generational transmission of child maltreatment.