Delivered by Christiane Sanderson

It is estimated that one third of child sexual abuse (CSA) is perpetrated by children with some as young as seven engaging in harmful sexual behaviour, with a 2024 National Police Chiefs Report highlighting that over 50% of reported CSA is committed by children and young people. Such peer on peer abuse is commonly seen in sexual harassment and sexual bullying, both online and offline, peer on peer sexual exploitation, and the use of sexual violence and rape in gangs. A more hidden type of peer on peer sexual abuse is sibling sexual abuse.

This training will examine the range, nature and dynamics of peer-on-peer CSA, its impact and long term effects. The focus will be on distinguishing between typical age appropriate consensual sexual curiosity and sexual experimentation and atypical sexual behaviour which is non-consensual and sexually harmful . The aim is to enable therapists and practitioners to identify sexually abusive behaviour, including siblings, to help clients to differentiate this from consensual sexual experimentation and make sense of their experience. It will explore the role of grooming and how sexual abuse and sexual violence is normalised by being presented as consensual, normal or desirable, rather than harmful sexual practices. Strategies such as grooming and enticement that lure peers into engaging in non-consensual harmful sexual behaviour will be identified, alongside the impact date rape, and spiking, to provide a deeper understanding of peer on peer abuse and how these make it harder for survivors to identify their experiences as sexual violence.

Emphasis will be placed on technology assisted online harmful sexual behaviour, including the legacy of sharing sexual images online, and how this impacts on survivors as well as real world sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape to enable survivors to identify their experience as sexually abusive so they can begin to legitimise their experiences as sexual violence and how this has impacted them. Participants will have the opportunity to develop further skills when working with survivors of peer on peer abuse and the importance of adopting a relational, trauma informed, strengths based approach to facilitate recovery and healing.

This training will specifically look at:

• How legitimising the abuse and adopting a relational, Trauma Informed Model can facilitate recovery and healing
• The range of peer on peer sexual abuse both online and physical sexual violence and rape including gang rape
• The nature of technology assisted harmful sexual behaviour in children
• The hidden nature and dynamics of sibling abuse
• The nature of typical developmentally appropriate consensual sexual exploration between peers and siblings
• The nature of atypical non-consensual sexual behaviour between peers and siblings
• The role of grooming and normalisation of harmful sexual behaviour
• The long term effects of peer on peer sexual abuse including the sharing of sexual images