ABSTRACT
Young people who have sexually harmed other children, young people or adults may be dismissed or demonised by society. Professionals who work with these young people may prioritise issues regarding the risks they pose to others and ensuring that other children are kept safe. This chapter will focus on vulnerability in relation to work with this group of young people, who have frequently experienced trauma and abuse themselves before harming other people. The challenge of balancing risks, needs, concerns and vulnerabilities will be shown to have wider applicability for other groups of young people. Calder (2008: xx) writes that ‘the field of sexual abuse … is the birthplace of
many of the recent significant conceptual and practice developments in risk assessment’. A wide range of assessment tools have been developed to facilitate an understanding of risk from these young people, and many of these incorporate issues of the young person’s own vulnerabilities and needs. These tools, which initially drew from the field of adult sex offending, are now having a reciprocal influence on work with adults and beyond. It is hoped that notions of vulnerability and a more holistic approach have a similarly wide application beyond this specific field. Turnbull and Spence (2011: 941) helpfully separate out different notions of risk
regarding young people who are seen as being:
vulnerable to external risks (including abuse and accidents), a risk to themselves (from their behaviour or bad decisions) and a risk to society, either now or in the future (through unemployment, criminality and antisocial behaviour)
It will be seen that some professionals (particularly from the justice field) are expected to focus on the third of these, the risk young people pose to society.
In contrast, other professionals and family members will have a greater concern for the young people themselves and their own vulnerabilities.
