What makes child abuse stop?

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What makes abuse stop?

NSPCC research in progress

Lorraine Radford, Susana Corral and Debra Allnock

The overall aim of this two year qualitative study is to explore the range of resources and strategies that children may have drawn upon to prevent, resist and/or stop abuse. It also explores what barriers may have prevented children from being able to stop abuse.

Specifically, our objectives include:

to explore in depth young abuse survivors' experiences of the circumstances, relationships, contextual factors and interventions that contributed to stopping abuse in childhood
to investigate in context the role of personal strategies and informal support in stopping abuse in childhood
to investigate survivors' perceptions of what interventions in context were appropriate and helpful in stopping abuse to better inform prevention and community safeguarding.

In-depth interviews will be undertaken with 80 young people aged between 18-24 who are survivors of abuse. Understanding the processes involved in children's abilities to prevent and/or stop abuse occurring and the barriers that prevent them from doing so, from the perspectives of survivors themselves, is crucial for the development of effective support services and wider education campaigns.

The study is currently in the early design phase - further information will be posted at a later date.