1: Yesterday during @KaileyRoche thesis we spent a lot of time discussing stigma towards people w/ sexual interest in children as well as those who have been in conflict with the law for sexual offences. One topic that came up was consequences of stigma and it got me thinking

2: Part of stigma is an us/them mentality. We believe that people in the stigmatized group are categorically different than us. I think this is problematic in many ways but here is one way I only just started to think about based on our convo that may resonate with folks

3: As a back story, I will never forget my first experience working on a research project at a prison. I expected that the people I would meet would look like and act differently. Something about them would set them apart from people who don’t offend. I was dead wrong

4: what resonated with me was that these were people like you and I. If I met them on the street I would have no idea about their histories. This experience stayed with me throughout my career. I have realized that I was clearly buying into idea of the “other” due to stigma

5: Ide of the criminal other is detrimental to effective prevention programs that target the community (e.g., parents, youth serving organizations). If you think that people who look/act like monsters offend, you are going to be unaware of the uncomfortable facts of sex abuse

6: sexual abuse is mostly perpetrated by people known to the victim. If you are on the lookout for scary strangers, you miss important conversations you can have with your kids that could make all the difference, the signs that something might be amiss in the behaviour of someone

7: in that sense stigma may lead to less effective messaging in these wider community based prevention programs.