The past several months has seen multiple reports of respected and trusted adults accused of inappropriate sexual contact with children and youth. Friends for Youth has also seen an increase in the numbers of inquiries about our resource, SAFE (Screening Applicants for Effectiveness): Guidelines to Prevent Child Molestation in Mentoring and Youth-Serving Organizations) that many program staff use in screening and assessing their volunteers. This webinar takes a closer look at Red Flags during the application and monitoring process – and how to use recommended tools to your advantage to uncover more information. This presentation will cover qualities and characteristics of perpetrators of child sexual abuse that we’ve learned from research on convicted child molesters and from our own 30+ year history of providing safe and effective mentors to vulnerable youth. Program Director Sarah Kremer is joined by Executive Director Becky Cooper, who co-authored our resource and first began looking into how to assess volunteers even before background checks were available.

1. Learning from Mistakes:
Strengthening Youth Safety
with Research-Based
Screening Practices
Becky Cooper
Executive Director
Sarah E. Kremer, ATR-BC
Program Director
February 2012 Webinar

2. Webinar Logistics:
Adding Comments
• All attendees muted for best sound
• Type questions and comments in the question box;
responses will either be direct to you or shared with all
attendees
• “Raise your hand” to be unmuted at end to ask question
live during webinar
• Works best for telephone or headset-to-computer
connections
• Please monitor background noise

3. Panelists
Becky Cooper Sarah Kremer
Executive Director Program Director
Friends for Youth Friends for Youth’s
Mentoring Institute

4. Link to slides and recording
of webinar will be posted to
http://
www.friendsforyouth.org/
Webinars.html
Resource links included in
follow-up email
Survey as you exit webinar

5. Research
• Mentor screening is applicable to all types
of programs, practices, organizations,
settings that serve youth
– Provide introduction and access to highly
vulnerable children
– Gain trust of parents and legitimize
relationship

6. “ A percentage of predators will target
child-service groups because they
provide access to samples of highly
vulnerable children and often there
are opportunities for isolated access.
Many of these children have already
been molested, making them more
vulnerable to the predator.”
Dr. Perry Sirota

7. Case Study
• 01/11 Baltimore, MD B-Moor Youth • 11/09 Grand Rapids, MI Public School
Services Executive Director mentor/advocate
• 12/10 Monterey, CA BBBS mentor • 11/09 St. Paul, MN Public School
• 10/10 Baltimore, MD Friendship coach/mentor
Academy mentor • 10/09 Buffalo, NY caseworker/mentor
(registered sex offender)
• 08/10 Franklin, NJ residential home
• 08/09 Lakeland, FL church mentor
counselor/mentor (female)
(informal)
• 08/10 Mobile, AL Mobile Youth • 07/09 Tulsa, OK Big Brothers Big
Advocate Program mentor Sisters mentor
• 05/10 Bartow, FL career mentor • 06/09 San Diego, CA church minister/
• 02/10 Danbury, CT Jericho music teacher/volunteer
Partnership Executive Director • 01/08 Nashville, TN Big Pal Little Pal
• 01/10 DC Peaceaholics Counselor/ • 12/06 Boulder, CO Boulder County
Mentor Partners mentor

8. Challenges
• No evidence-based guidelines
• Denial of issue
• Pressure to conceal incidents
– Potential liability
– Loss of credibility
• Many incidents of child sexual abuse go
unreported

9. Challenges
• No mandated standard
• Inconsistencies across agencies
• Patchwork of state and federal statutes
complicates process of obtaining
information authorized to research
• Errors and inconsistencies in databases
• Background checks may not indicate
problems with either safety
• Youth mentors need different process

10. Research
• None found to evaluate effectiveness of
screening and monitoring practices
– One study focused on one specific tool used to
identify potential physical abusers and concluded
to be insufficient on its own
– Second study surveyed tools/processes without
analyzing effectiveness
– Research behind The Diana Screen is
unavailable to general public, as more
transparency increases chance for tool to be
compromised

11. Research
• Significant ethical problems to conduct
research and potentially violate confidentiality
• Borrow from related allied fields: psychology,
social work, education, youth development
• Recommendations also based on practitioner
knowledge, another form of research

12. Perpetrators
• 90% are men; number of women
growing but still perceived differently
• Most of these recommendations based
on male perpetrators who sexually
abuse boys because of this prevalence

13. Perpetrators
• Cannot be identified by comparison to profile
or checklist or criminal background check
• Diverse in socio-economic background, level
of education, religious preference, ethnic
heritage, and age
– Oprah: Conversation with Child Molesters, parts 1 – 3,
Winter 2010
– Oprah: The Secret Life of Child Molesters, Summer 2002
– Chicken Hawk: Men Who Love Boys, 1994, Adi Sideman,
Director

14. Perpetrators
• Relate better to children, including listening
• Talk to children as if equal partners
• Seek as many opportunities to have access
to youth of specific preferences
• Feel misunderstood and discriminated by
society
• Usually intelligent enough to recognize
problem
• Rationalize act by emphasizing positive
impact on child

15. Perpetrators
• Employment in menial work
• Passive personality
• Low self-esteem and interpersonal inadequacy
• Lack of empathy
• Fear of intimacy
• Inability to form relationships with adults
• History of
- Sexually abused as child
- Alcoholism
- Depression
- Frequent moving
- Poor parent-child relationships

16. Dynamics of the Abuse
“Grooming” oneself: convince self of
interest and justification
- Majority of child molesters have been
molested as children themselves
- May know it is not acceptable

17. Dynamics of the Abuse
“Grooming” community: becoming known and
trusted by community, as well as family and/or
members of youth organization
- Parents chosen for being vulnerable and lonely, too,
and may not wish to end relationship even after abuse
is revealed
- Families and communities may “discount” what they
see, hear, and feel

18. Dynamics of the Abuse
“Grooming” child: developing relationship
in order to win trust, becoming
indispensable, isolating from family, and
approaching to see if sexual contact is
possible
- Child may receive pleasure or other benefit
from perpetrator
- May involve threats, bribes, trickery

19. Informed Intuition
• Judgment that appears quickly in
consciousness
• May not be fully aware of underlying
reasons
• Strong enough to act upon
• In conjunction with having relevant
knowledge

20. Informed Intuition
“I have investigated hundreds of child
predator cases involving thousands of
victims. In the case of every single victim,
there was a woman -- mother, agency staff,
teacher -- who looked back and said, “I
thought something wasn’t right. I had a
funny feeling about him.”
Detective Steven McEwan, SJPD Child Exploitation Unit

21. Highly
Recommended Written
materials
by Research:
Creating Informed
Intuition
External
Holistic Final
documents
Decision
Portrait
of
Applicant Observations
Impressions

22. Red Flags: Extreme Behavior
Examples:
• Very impatient with process
• Overly cooperative
• Secretive about activities or is too
busy to talk for very long

23. Red Flags: Focus on Personal Needs
Examples:
• Describes desired match specifically
• Recently experienced major life change
and needs friends in life
• Wants to terminate position suddenly
without reason

24. Red Flags:
Problematic Background Indicators
Examples:
• History of being abused, neglected, or
sexually victimized
• Police record, even if seemingly unrelated
to crimes against children
• Applied/was not accepted or “didn’t like”
other local youth-serving programs

25. Red Flags:
Over-Involvement with Children
Examples:
• Overly-involved in teaching, scouting,
church youth groups, etc.
• Over-indulges child/youth; unable to set
limits
• Involves other boys/girls on outings when
not expected

26. Red Flags:
Under-Involvement with Adults
Examples:
• Upon examinations, adult
connections are superficial
• Lack of adult dating experiences or
relationships
• Difficulty providing references that
know him/her well

27. Red Flags: Unhealthy Attitudes
Examples:
• Believes children should be treated as
equals to adults
• Wants to be one to teach child/youth
about sex education
• Overstates problems with child’s family;
tries to get agency involved

28. Red Flags:
Problematic Personal Interests
Examples:
• Gives vague answers when asked about
interests (i.e., hang out . . .)
• Expresses strong interest in camping,
hunting, hiking, backpacking, etc.
• Child/youth complains about too much
sedentary time (i.e., watching TV)

29. Learn from Failure
• Critical view of mentor and mentee –
why did it fail?
• Reexamine application materials –
were there any flags missed?
• Apply new knowledge – how will you
do things differently in future?

30. Webinar Special
Order SAFE online at
www.mentoringinstitute.org
and use promo code
SAFEMENTOR
to receive 20% off!

31. Thank you!
Link to slides and recording
of webinar will be posted to
http://
www.friendsforyouth.org/
Webinars.html
Resource links included in
follow-up email
Survey as you exit webinar

32. March 15, 2012
Innovative Matching Strategies
This month's webinar will begin with an introduction from Dr. Tim Cavell, review
best practices for matching mentors and mentees, then go beyond best practices
to feature innovative matching strategies from mentoring programs all over the
country - programs that strive to not just make matches but make effective
matches that lead to meaningful, long-lasting relationships.
Date: Third Thursday of every month
Time: 10:00 am - 11:15 am PST
Registration details: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/245605009
32

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