Responding to Youth-to-Youth Sexual Abuse and Sexualized Behaviors
The thought that one youth may sexually abuse another youth does not occur to many people. Unfortunately, abuse between peers has increased 300% in the past few years. Youth-to-Youth sexual activity and sexualized behaviors often remain unreported in organizations because staff and volunteers are not comfortable documenting these situations, or may not know how.
YOUTH-TO-YOUTH INTERACTIONS
Most serious incidents of youth-to-youth abuse are preceded by more subtle incidents such as name-calling, taunting, or roughhousing. Interrupting these interactions early and establishing and communicating standards of conduct can keep the program environment safe. Our organization recognizes that the following interactions are high risk and should be prohibited:
In order to adequately respond to and track incidents within the organization, all sexual activity between youth and sexualized behaviors of youth must be consistently documented.
STAFF AND VOLUNTEER RESPONSE
Youth-to-youth sexual behaviors can include inappropriate touching, exposing body parts, using sexualized language, making threats of sexual activity, engaging in sexual activity, and similar types of interactions.
If staff witness youth-to-youth sexual behaviors, they are instructed to follow these guidelines:
SUPERVISORS RESPONSE
In the event that a supervisor receives a report of a youth’s sexual behavior or youth-to-youth sexual activity, the supervisor should do the following:
ORGANIZATIONAL RESPONSE
After the internal review of the sexual behavior or youth-to-youth sexual activity, the organization will determine what can be done to prevent a recurrence, such as:
Index: R10, R11