Introduction

This special edition brings together contemporary research exploring the impacts, experiences, and support needs of those impacted by child sexual abuse. This includes those who have directly experienced child sexual abuse, and those who have experienced child sexual abuse indirectly, such as family members of victims and survivors, or of perpetrators. It also includes research that explores the wider societal impacts of sexual abuse on children/young people, parents/carers and wider communities.

We welcome articles that:

• Address any form of child sexual abuse - whether perpetrated by individuals and/or groups; peers, siblings and/or adults; online and/or offline; and within any environment (family, community, institution etc). 
• Explore the experiences, views and/or needs of those impacted by child sexual abuse, in relation to: the abuse itself; how services, or others, responded to this; and/or the impact on individuals’ relationships or wider lives. 

Articles should report on research that has directly engaged with those whose needs and experiences are being shared. 

Whilst recognising the varying language used to describe child sexual abuse in different geographical jurisdictions and within different professions, we would ask contributors to adhere to the Luxembourg guidelines in their article: Luxembourg Guidelines - ECPAT Where not possible to use these in the reporting of data (for example, because of the language used in the study being reported on) please include a commentary on the language, drawing on the principles of the Luxembourg Guidelines.

List of topic areas

• Prevention of child sexual abuse
• Experiences of child sexual abuse
• Service responses to child sexual abuse
• Relational impacts of child sexual abuse
• Societal impacts of child sexual abuse

 

Guest Editors

Prof Helen Beckett, 
University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom 
[email protected]

Dr Theresa Redmond, 
Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom
[email protected]

Prof Rachel Armitage, 
Huddersfield University, United Kingdom 
[email protected]

 

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. 
Author guidelines must be strictly followed.
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

If interested in submitting a paper for consideration in the special edition, please send a 250 word abstract to [email protected] by 17th July. The Guest Editors will review submitted abstracts and notify authors of decisions by 31st August 2024, with full papers then due for submission by 31st December 2024
 

Key Deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 3 May 2024
Closing date for abstract submission: 17 July 2024
Decision on abstracts: 31 August 2024
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31 December 2024    
Abstracts should be 250 words. Email for abstract submissions: [email protected]