DIRECTOR'S WELCOME
Welcome to MOORE.
We work to prevent child sexual abuse before it happens.
Child sexual abuse affects one in nine children. When you add in online exploitation the figure increases to one in five, or nearly half a billion children worldwide. Most sexual offending against children is actually caused by other children. In the US it’s about 70%.
The effects of child sexual abuse can be pervasive, long-lasting, and severe.
It’s associated with increased risk for mental health disorders like anxiety, depression, and PTSD; with health risk behaviors like smoking and problem drinking; and with medical diseases including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and cervical cancer, to name just a few of the many possible outcomes.
Our work documented that survivors earn about $300,000 less than non-abused adults across their lifetimes, and we’ve documented an economic burden to the United States that exceeds 9 billion dollars annually.
Knowing all this you would think that preventing child sexual abuse would be a funding priority, but it is not. That’s why we are committed to PREVENTING IT FORWARD. What does that mean?
It means investing in current and future generations to ensure children everywhere can grow up free from sexual abuse.
It means prioritizing prevention research, science, and programming, today.
It means recognizing that to prevent victimization at scale, we need to understand and address the risk factors for perpetration.
It means elevating the wisdom of survivors now, so their voices – our voices – are never again silenced.
And it means political and commercial courage to implement effective policy and practice, because child sexual abuse is preventable, not inevitable.
Join us.
Elizabeth J. Letourneau, PhD
Moore Family Professor, Department of Mental Health
Director, MOORE | Preventing Child Sexual Abuse
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health