Children who are at risk of growing up to be sex offenders can be identified at an early age, a conference has been told.
Speakers from Dublin's Northside Inter-Agency Project said young people do not suddenly sexually offend in adolescence but that such behaviour develops over time, often in early childhood.
The speakers - Ms Joan Cherry from the Mater Child Guidance Clinic, Mr Keith O'Reilly from the Eastern Health Board (EHB) and Ms Mary Tallon from Temple Street Children's Hospital - were making a joint presentation to the annual conference in Glasgow of the National Association for the Development of Work with Sex Offenders.
The project was started by staff from the Mater, the EHB and Temple Street to treat adolescents who have sexually abused children.
In a study of 22 adolescents in its programme, the project found that 86 per cent had been subjected to emotional abuse, 64 per cent to physical abuse and 23 per cent to sexual abuse.
More than half the families of the adolescents were known to child-care agencies before the abusive behaviour was discovered.
"We are thus increasingly interested in the idea of perpetration prevention. That is, how can we as parents, educators and professionals identify at an early age children who may be at risk of sexually offending, and what responses do we put in place to reduce the risk of these children actually offending," said Ms Cherry.
Research suggests that factors which increase the possibility of a child becoming a sex offender include:
Being sexually abused.
An abnormal sexual environment. This could be one in which the child is exposed to high levels of sexual activity, or one in which all acknowledgment of sexuality is rejected.
Learning to use sex to compensate for serious problems such as the loss of a parent, continual coldness from parents or not having anyone to confide in.
Inconsistent treatment of the child by carers in early infancy.