Current News Articles
As well as news articles on the work of Stop It Now!®, both in Minnesota and nationally, there are many thought-provoking news articles on the prevention of child sexual abuse.
Stop It Now! featured in the Pioneer Press
ABUSE INTERRUPTED– Group aims to prevent the sexual abuse of Children by reaching adults at risk and those who care about them
Stories about the sexual abuse of children are spread across the headlines and splashed over our TV screens. Usually, these stories focus on the worst of the worst - hard-core predators whose compulsion has gone unchecked, with horrifying consequences.
These stories can leave us wringing our hands, outraged, afraid, worrying that our only option is to lock all offenders up and throw away the key.
Yet these stories don't represent the full reality of child sexual abuse. And they don't represent our only option for dealing with people who would sexually abuse a child.
What's been missing, in our view, is a concentrated effort to stop abuse before a child is harmed by reaching adults who are at risk of sexually abusing a child and those who are in a position to stop them. Read more
Article From:
Pioneer Press
By Yvonne Cournoyer
Published: April 12, 2007
Stop It Now! in the News
Controversial Billboard Aimed at Stopping Sexual Predators
It seems talk of sex offenders is everywhere. It's in the news, it's the topic of community meetings and many parents worry their child could be next. Yvonne Cournoyer thinks we've got it all backwards. "We wait until someone harms a child, gets caught and then we throw the book at them." Cournoyer says the focus should be on prevention. Her goal is to stop the problem before it starts. She works with Stop It Now! It's a program that tries to help potential sex offenders before they commit a crime. The campaign includes a radio advertisement and a billboard that is situated along I-35 in Carlton. Read more
Article From:
WDIO Eyewitness news
By Kim Johnson
Published: May 8, 2007
Prevent Child Abuse America on Stop It Now!
Since 1995, Stop It Now!’s confidential, toll-free national Helpline has offered supportand resources to thousands of people who have telephoned anonymously to discuss a topic that many of them thought was unspeakable... their concerns about their own or others’ sexualized thoughts or behaviors toward children. Many callers report that they have never spoken about the subject out loud before. Over the years, our callers have taught us some valuable lessons as well.
We’ve learned that all too often, misguided images about who sexually offends have blinded people to early warning signs in kids and adults. Sadly, missed signs are missed opportunities. Read more
Article From:
Prevent Child Abuse America
By Maxine Stein
Published: March 23, 2007
Sexual child abuse prevention
Studies show one out of every five girls, and one out of every twenty boys are sexually abused as a child. Most of those cases, eighty-eight percent never even get reported. As state representatives tighten laws to keep sex offenders off our streets, an area organization is dealing with the issue in another way. Talking with potential sex offenders one on one, before they ever get the chance to touch a child... Read more
Article From:
KIMT News Channel 3
By Michael Benning
Published: March 2, 2007
Experts: Focus on 'stranger danger' overshadows child abuse in the home
Peter Pollard agrees with the overall goal of using the Internet to weed out adults who would sexually abuse children.
Yet Pollard, the public education director for the national advocacy group, Stop It Now, said he's fearful that all the attention the media and investigators pay to Internet predators may overshadow a larger fact -- children are still more likely to be abused by people they know rather than by strangers. Read more
Article From:
North West Indiana Times
By Joe Carlson
Published: December 3, 2006
Radio ad campaign hits snag
Mankato station among several with content concerns
Stop It Now! Minnesota, after seeking to run radio ads directed at men who sexually abuse children said it has decided not to air its ads in Mankato after a station refused to run them before 6 p.m. and threatened to stop them if the community objected. Read more
Article From:
Mankato Free Press
By Dan Linehan
Published: November 2, 2006
Community Re-entry Recast as Primary Prevention (pdf)
In the absence of an informed public debate on the re-entry of those who have been convicted of sex crimes, fear-based laws are being enacted across the country. Recent trends have made community re-entry the trigger point for society’s most venomous and simplistic responses toward people with a history of sexually offending. Ironically, the re-entry process also has the potential to become one of the best forums for creating the conditions for a safer community and preventing the sexual abuse of children. Read more
Article From:
Sex Offender Law Report
By Deborah Donovan Rice
Published: August/September 2006
MARKETING SEXUAL ABUSE PREVENTION Stop It Now! uses marketing concepts and research to reach potential abusers Simply described, social marketing borrows strategies from soft drink, paper towel, and other consumer goods advertising to persuade people to change social behaviors and norms. Successful examples include motivating people to use seat belts, stop smoking, and use designated drivers. But the theories are stretched when the audience includes one of the most vilified groups in society, and the message runs sharply counter to conventional wisdom.
Stop It Now! affiliates in the United States and United Kingdom have been using social marketing concepts for more than ten years to advance two groundbreaking ideas:
- Many people who sexually abuse children want, and will use, treatment to control their impulses.
- All adults are responsible for noticing warning signs and engaging with people at risk of sexually abusing a child, before a child is harmed
Read more
Article From:
Behavioral Healthcare
By Peter Pollard
Published: May 2006
Child Sexual Abuse Prevention in the News
Sexual Violence Prevention
Prevention work focused on adolescents is key to any comprehensive strategy to prevent sexual violence. In order to prevent first time victimization and perpetration, from a primary prevention perspective, adolescent boys and girls are at a developmental stage where lifelong behaviors are shaped. Adolescents are learning how to perform their socially influenced gender roles, and how to act-out their gender-based sexual scripts. Appropriately timed prevention strategies can reduce future sexual violence. In this article, we will review the foundations of sexual violence prevention work. Then we will explore the use of education sessions to prevent sexual violence, and then review more comprehensive strategies, such as community mobilization, changing social norms, social marketing, and public policy work. Read more
Article From:
The Prevention Researcher
By David S. Lee, M.P.H., Lydia Guy, B.A., Brad Perry, M.A., Chad Keoni Sniffen, B.A., and Stacy Alamo Mixson, M.P.H.
Published: April 2007
Sexual Child Abuse Prevention - To Catch A Predator
Do child predators bamboozle you? Is the headline from an email I received this morning from Yello Dyno [A child protection program].
“We’ve been bamboozled long enough. The old saying ‘out of sight, out of mind’ has become the social norm, much to the delight of child predators.” -- The Yello Dyno email continues.
Yes, I agree we have been bamboozled long enough by predators--and society is also being bamboozled by Yello Dyno. Yello Dyno’s focus regarding child sexual abuse looks at the sexual child abuse predator outside the family. This is totally misleading. Studies reveal that 80% of children, who are sexually abused, are abused by a family member; 19% are abused by people the child knows and trusts. Only 1% are abused by a stranger. Read more
Article From:
Ezine Articles
By Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD
Published: March 23, 2007
Understanding Treatment for Adults and Juveniles Who Have Committed Sex Offenses (pdf)
The purpose of this brief is to provide a broad overview of current research, professional literature, and practice trends relative to treatment for sexually abusive individuals. Although specialized clinicians may find this brief to be of interest, the primary intended audience is the range of other management professionals seeking to understand key issues about treatment for adults and juveniles who have committed sex offenses. Read more
Article From:
Center for Sex Offender Management
By Dr. Kurt Bumby
Published: November 2006
What can be done to stop predators?
After a recent Dateline series entitled "To Catch a Predator," Dateline invited Dr. Fred Berlin, an associate professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore who has 25 years of experience working with adults with sexual behavior problems to provide perspective on who sexually abuses children. Key questions included whether or not pedophilia can be cured with more severe punishment and better legislation and can these men even be successfully treated. Read more
Article from:
MSNBC News/Dateline
By Chris Hansen
Published: February 3, 2006
At Stop It Now! Minnesota, we believe it is important to engage children in accurate, age-appropriate conversation about all aspects of sexuality. In keeping with that view, we thought this article might be of interest to readers.
Sex Ed for the Stroller Set
Like many other parents and educators, the mothers chatting over lemonade and coffee cake in Susan Vartoukian's toy-strewn home maintain that sex education - once and mostly still an awkward fixture of the pubescent years - should begin early. And when they say early, they mean it: preferably from birth, or if not that, from toilet training age. "Parents don't have the luxury of silence anymore," said Nanette Ecker, a sex educator at the Nassau County chapter of Planned Parenthood, who led the group. Read more
Article from:
The New York Times
By Jodi Kantor
Published: November 17, 2005
Copyright New York Times
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