ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the problems inherent in looking after a child or young person who is known to have engaged in some form of sexually inappropriate or sexually abusive behaviour with another child. The chapter is structured around a central theme: how to minimise the risk of further episodes of abuse (a child protection issue) whilst at the same time helping to promote the development and welfare of the young abuser (a child-care issue). This is not an easy task, requiring a balance to be maintained between three sets of factors: the young abuser, the context in which he lives, and access to potential child victims. The balancing task is made more difficult by the dynamic nature of each of these factors; children develop and change, and do not physically stay in one place. Consequently, the risk a young abuser presents is always open to change. The process of managing risk therefore requires planning, monitoring and evaluation, sometimes over a period of several years. In addition, in common with all other management tasks, it involves making decisions; for example, about where the young abuser should live, or about the most appropriate types of therapeutic intervention. Decision-making requires information, and it is the quality of this information, and the decisions and actions that flow from it, that are fundamental to the management of risk.
