Submission in relation to Queensland's Sexual Violence Prevention Framework

We welcome this opportunity to help shape Queensland’s Sexual Violence Prevention Framework and commend the Queensland Government for undertaking this initiative. The importance of preventing all forms of sexual violence, and meeting victim/survivors’ needs cannot be overstated. This submission reflects in particular on the two focus areas of:1.Education, awareness and cultural change; and2.Supporting victim/survivors and holding perpetrators accountable.The background paper Sexual violence prevention: Having the conversation asks: ‘What do you think causes sexual violence?’ and ‘What do you think needs to change so sexual violence doesn’t occur in our communities?’ These topics have formed the focus of our recent research.Richards’ (2018) study examined what members of the public think causes child sexual abuse. Only limited prior research had been conducted on this topic. Taken together, findings from this scant body of literature suggest some adherence to the view that sexual interest in children is innate (Jahnke et al. 2015), and that sexual offending against children is caused by the cycle-of-abuse (Furnham & Haraldsen 1998) – in other words, the view that victims of child sexual abuse later become perpetrators (see further Richards 2019). Richards’ (2018) study found that members of the public subscribe to four main causal beliefs about child sexual abuse:•that perpetrators are “born that way” and cannot control their sexual preference for young children;•that perpetrators are mentally ill;•that perpetrators were victims of child sexual abuse themselves; and/or•that perpetrators simply make a choice to sexually abuse children. In reality, sexual violence, including child sexual abuse, has multiple and complex causes. Importantly, however, while members of the public are often correct in their assumptions about what causes child sexual abuse, the typically adhere to one, favoured, causal explanation rather than adopting a more nuanced view that takes into account these diverse underpinnings