Sibling Sexual Abuse: Practitioner Mapping Resource Launch Event

Join Dr Sophie King-Hill, Abby Gilsenan (RA) and expert colleagues in the field for the launch of the Sibling Sexual Abuse Practitioner Mapping Resource.

Sibling sexual abuse (SSA) appears to be up to three times as common and every bit as harmful to the child as child sexual abuse by a parent (Krienert and Walsh 2011, Stroebel, O'Keefe et al. 2013). Despite this, this form of abuse remains largely hidden and unaddressed. This event attempts to dispel this silence through the presentation of the mapping resource pilot project and other central issues relating to the treatment and recovery from sibling abuse. 

Sibling sexual abuse (SSA) is considered to be the most common form of child sexual abuse within the family setting in the UK. Children are more likely to be sexually abused by their siblings – brothers and sisters and stepbrothers and step-sisters – than by their parents. Yet, society’s awareness of sibling sexual abuse has trailed behind other child abuse issues and concerns. Support services and researchers agree it has received little to no attention, and there is a stark lack of academic literature on the subject.

Building on research conducted as part of the Home Office funded National Project on Sibling Sexual Abuse, in partnership with Rape Crisis England and Wales, this project sought to develop a resource to bolster practitioner confidence in working with children and families affected by sibling sexual abuse. Amalgamating data from work with both survivors and professionals in the field with work produced by Peter Yates and Stuart Allardyce for the Centre for Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse,  a ‘mapping resource’ targeted at frontline, child protection social workers was developed. The resource has been piloted across seven local authorities in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and developed in response to practitioner feedback.

This event represents the cumulation of this project, and the national launch of this open-access practitioner resource. The resource and findings from the project will be presented, alongside a series of discussions from academics and professionals in the field on understanding and tackling sibling sexual abuse.

Read more on the Sibling Sexual Abuse Mapping Tool: Pilot Project.

Event Programme

• Dr Sophie King-Hill (Senior Fellow, Health Services Management Centre) - How we got here and amalgamation of research
• Abby Gilsenan (PhD Student and Research Assistant, School of Social Policy) - The Project and findings
• David Russell (Community Safety & Justice Manager at Midlothian Council & previous early intervention Senior Practitioner for third sector children service) - Restorative approaches with families in SSA
• Stuart Allardyce (Director of Stop It Now! | The Lucy Faithful Foundation) - CSA centre work with Allardyce and Yates
• Professor Kieran McCartan (Professor of Criminology at the University of West England) -  The wider aspects CSA in which SSA is embedded
• Purple Leaf (WMRSASC) - Current work on Sibling Sexual Abuse
• Amy Adams (PhD student, School of Social Policy) - Work in Progress presentation of PhD research on SSA.
• SARSAS - Getting it Right: A National Hub for Adult Survivors of SSA 
• Nancy Morris - An international perspective and SSA Awareness Day