Understanding & Preventing Child Sexual Abuse in Schools

Flagship Presentation:

Professor Bernard Leclerc.

In this flagship professional learning event for Board Members, Human Resource Teams, Leadership Teams and Principals, world renowned child abuse prevention expert, Professor Benoit Leclerc, will present a vitally important online seminar on Understanding and Preventing Child Sexual Abuse in Schools and Youth Serving Organisations. Join Professor Leclerc as he explores:

Join Professor Leclerc as he explores:

1. Empirical evidence summary on offenders and the manipulation process:
   1. Offenders and their motives.
   2. Methods of offending (manipulation strategies).
2. Warning signs for recognising offenders based on empirical evidence:
   1. Methods of offending (manipulation strategies).
   2. Allegations.
   3. Emotional congruence with children.
3. Recommendations for prevention:
   1. Offenders insights on prevention (recruitment and policies)
   2. International perspectives on priorities for prevention (education, recruitment, situational prevention).
   3. Timepoints for intervention in YSOs and suggestions.

The presentation will focus on school settings.

About our guest speaker:

Professor Benoit Leclerc has more than 20 years of experience examining crime patterns and sexual offending.

He has clinical experience conducting risk and sexual deviance assessment of sex offenders and is an international leader on the development and application of crime scripts and situational prevention to crime problems.

Professor Benoit Leclerc has led several funded research projects involving interviews with incarcerated sex offenders and has been conducting research on child sexual abuse in youth-serving organisations since 2002.

Recently, with the collaboration of Australian police agencies, he developed a crime script of the distribution and production of child sexual exploitation material on the dark web, and undertook work for Blue Card Services around recruitments and screening methods.

He has also been consulting on Project Safeguard (a response to AFP Operation Tenterfield) and the Child Safety Review since the beginning of 2024.

He is editorial member of several journals, including Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment.