It is frequently said that “you can’t improve what you can’t measure.”
The tools most organizations use to prevent sexual abuse are not, on their own, enough to prevent sexual abuse. On the contrary, sexual abuse and misconduct (SAM) is rising. Adult-on-child sexual abuse has doubled in the last ten years. Child-on-child sexual abuse has increased five times. The compliance-based tools most organizations use to prevent sexual abuse, which broadly haven’t changed in twenty years, need upgrading. Badly.
Though many organizations – notably SafeSport, various Churches, and insurers – collect a great deal of data, no one is currently collecting the data needed to reverse rising sexual abuse frequency or consequences.
With the right data, we can identify which additional controls are needed to reduce sexual abuse. We will also be able to determine which activities SAM Risk Managers need to perform to ensure that the children in their care are as safe as possible and that their organizations are as safe as possible from the consequences of failing to prevent abuse.
On the basis that the more you know about a risk, particularly how to manage it, the less risky it is, with the correct information, we will be able to show any SAM Risk Manager:
- where, how, and to whom the minors and vulnerable adults in their care are most vulnerable to sexual abuse;
- the most effective ways of protecting them;
- whether they are using the most effective tools as effectively as they could; and
- when and how they must adapt their controls to accommodate changes in sexual abuse risk, risk management, or their organization.
That there is no more powerful sexual abuse risk management tool than data is a BOKRIM core principle.
