What I learned from our child sexual abuse survey: ‘rational paranoia’ can help parents protect their kids | Michael Salter

You have to walk a fine line between managing risk and going overboard – and building trust with your children is key

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This week we launched the findings of the largest, nationally representative child sexual abuse perpetration survey ever undertaken in Australia or globally. We anonymously surveyed almost 2,000 Australian men about their sexual feelings and behaviours towards children. The findings were alarming and sent shock waves around Australia and the world.

We found that men who abuse children are, on average, doing relatively well, from a superficial point of view: often married, good income, strong friendships and family networks. Even more concerning, we found that men who abuse children were more likely to work with children than men who don’t. This was a difficult finding because we don’t want to stigmatise men in child-focused careers – we need more of them! I’m a man and I’ve dedicated my career to children. But we also need to keep kids safe.

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Dr Michael Salter is the Professor of Criminology at the School of Social Sciences at UNSW and an expert in child sexual exploitation and gendered violence

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