Ms Dee Nicholas1, Dr Marie Henshaw1
1Jesuits Social Services, Richmond, Melbourne, Australia
Biography:
Dee Nicholas is the Helpline Coordinator for Stop It Now! Australia, overseeing the operational and clinical delivery of the service while supporting a team of specialist practitioners. She holds a Master of Science in Forensic Psychology from Newcastle University, UK, and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Dee previously worked with Stop It Now! UK, developing expertise in child protection and the prevention of child sexual abuse. Her career spans correctional, legal, education and forensic settings, with extensive experience supporting individuals with complex needs and delivering evidence-informed prevention and intervention services.
Dr Marie Henshaw is a researcher and Clinical and Forensic Psychologist employed as the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Research Lead across Jesuit Social Services and Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. She conducts applied research in online child sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse prevention and strives to bridge the gap between research and practice. She is the lead developer of the CEM-COPE Program, an offence-specific group intervention program for people with a history of child sexual abuse material offences, and worked previously in practice roles at Stop It Now! Australia and Forensicare’s Problem Behaviour Program and Marrmak Program.
Abstract:
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a significant global problem, with technological advances increasing both the prevalence and forms of abuse. Addressing the scale and complexity of CSA requires a multifaceted response that extends beyond detection, prosecution, and post-offence management to include earlier intervention and prevention. A critical prevention opportunity lies in engaging individuals before sexual offending occurs or reoccurs. Stop It Now! Australia is a national early intervention service that provides evidence-informed support and action-oriented advice through an anonymous helpline and online resources for individuals concerned about their own, or someone else’s, sexual thoughts or behaviours towards children. The service aims to prevent CSA by increasing motivation to manage thoughts and behaviours, increasing awareness of the harms of CSA, addressing risk and protective factors, and supporting individuals to build safe, offence-free lives.
Drawing on practice experience from Stop It Now! Australia, this presentation examines the challenge of balancing public safety with human rights when working with individuals who may pose a risk to children. It explores how prevention services can reduce risk while enabling help-seeking, disclosure, insight, and behaviour change. Evidence-informed approaches, including motivational interviewing, risk-responsive practice, and strengths-based interventions, are discussed as strategies to promote accountability while reducing barriers to engagement. It concludes that human-rights-informed CSA prevention is not incompatible with child safety; rather, meaningful engagement and risk reduction are strengthened when individuals are provided with pathways to accountability, support, and sustained behaviour change before further harm.