Research Group Four
Responses and Prevention
Sylwia Kieran
Sylwia is a doctoral researcher at City St George's, University of London. Her funded PhD research examines how secondary schools respond to adolescents' problematic and harmful sexual behaviours, aiming to contribute to more effective and equitable prevention strategies within school environments.
Her interdisciplinary work intersects sociology, criminology, psychology, education, and gender studies. Sylwia holds an MSc in Psychology, an MA in Political Science, and a BSc in Media and Communication. Before her PhD, she worked with several UK-based NGOs and as a freelance consultant, focusing on preventing sexual and gender-based violence.
Jo Curtis, Charlotte Kite, Amy Grubb
In England and Wales, police recorded 209,556 sexual offences of any kind in the year ending March 2025, while victim-based surveys estimate much higher rates of offending - suggesting 898,000 victims despite far more restrictive inclusion parameters.
Highlighting this discrepancy between actual and recorded incidence, research indicates that in cases of rape, 83% of women, and 80% of men, do not disclose the offences to police. Slow progress has been made in addressing the ‘dark figure’ of sexual offending, with attitudinal barriers such as Rape Myth Acceptance seemingly persevering and even proliferating in altered forms within younger generations, changing the social landscape regarding permissible sexual behaviours.
The objective of this systematic literature review is to develop a clear, contemporary, and representative picture of existing knowledge regarding Rape Myth Acceptance of adolescents and young adults based in the UK. From 4 databases, 3,123 records were refined to 15 articles for final inclusion.
Data was extracted and thematic analysis performed to ensure a systematic and rigorous approach. Eight themes were identified: Desensitisation and Trivialisation, Victim Blaming, Myths Around Men, Heteronormativity and LGBTQ+ Rape Myths, Ambiguity and Myths in Consent and Sexual Violence Conceptualisation, Alcohol Rape Myths, The Victim-perpetrator Relationship, and The Impact Of Age.
These themes highlight the concerning impact and prevalence of Rape Myth Acceptance in adolescents and young adults in the UK. Implications include education and training for professionals to support victim reporting, particularly in young-adult-centred contexts and the Criminal Justice System. Directions for future research are introduced, addressing the identified need for greater exploration, assessment, and intervention in this population.
Erifili Efthymiadou, Paige Moran, Vicky Young
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation delivers the Stop It Now UK and Ireland helpline, the most widely accessed helpline in the UK and internationally used by at-risk individuals seeking support to desist from sexually offending against children.
Available evidence from studies involving at-risk individuals using the helpline indicates positive changes across attitudes and behaviours related to online child sexual abuse (CSA), as well as their motivation and ability to self-manage their behaviour and engage in protective actions, including support-seeking.
Despite indications of positive change, evaluation of expected outcomes across these studies was retrospective and did not involve monitoring at-risk individuals’ change over time. The current mixed-methods study was, therefore, developed to produce prospective evidence on the extent to which the helpline contributes to improvements across at-risk individuals’ welfare needs, their confidence in their ability to self-regulate, as well as their perceived risk for and engagement in CSA offending over time, as they engage with the helpline.
To this end, the above outcomes are assessed across 225 participants, monitored at the beginning and end of a participant’s first call and at a 3-week follow up call, and are reviewed against participant characteristics, type of supportive actions delivered by helpline practitioners, and participants’ satisfaction with the helpline.
Findings will inform service development by evaluating what works well and opportunities for improvement, and help tailor service delivery in line with individual risk and protective factors associated with (re)offending.