Pedophiles Are Not the Greatest Risk that Youth Organizations Face

We have seen a tendency for youth-servicing organizations (YSOs) to concentrate all of their efforts on preventing sexual predators from entering the organization. While hardening your organization against pedophiles is an important goal, placing too much emphasis there can distract from other equally important concerns.

First, there is no foolproof way to “detect” sexual predators. They are almost uncanny in their ability to lull suspicions and avoid discovery.  As more than one of our clients has said, “Until we heard the molestation charges, we thought he was the best employee we had ever had.”

Researchers working with sex offenders have been able to identify some common characteristics, but many of those become apparent only in hindsight. We simply don’t see them in the day-to-day activities of our YSO. Until we see how the story ended, we don’t see the significance of the clues scattered along the way.

A second problem with focusing on sexual predators is that, while sexual abuse may get all of the headlines, it is far from the only way that children can be harmed. Other forms of abuse and simple accidents harm far more children every year. We have seen many times that staff in child care centers, for example, have accidentally pulled a child’s arm, resulting in an injury so common that it has been known for centuries as “nursemaid’s elbow.”  Physical abuse, both reckless and deliberate, is far more common than sexual abuse, and emotional abuse is more common than both of them. Not only are other problems more common, but the injuries can be just as devastating. The parents of a child killed in a hazing incident will not be comforted to know that no sexual predators worked in your organization.

A comprehensive child protection policy must include all of the injuries that a child risks while in your care. If yours is a high adventure camp, then your safety rules for your ropes course is part of your child protection policy. If your group transports kids in a bus or individual cars, then your screening protocol for the drivers (i.e., DUI or other driving violations) is part of your child protection policy.  

Listing every safety rule for every program that you might have is beyond the scope of this post.  Our point is simply that you need to keep a broad perspective on the potential risks to children. You know better than anyone else the details of your programs and the safety rules that you need. Don’t focus so exclusively on screening out sexual predators that you forget to screen out bad drivers, ill-tempered physical abusers, or opportunistic sexual abusers.