Five Pennsylvania Counties Report Reduced Child Sexual Abuse Rates After Awareness & Training Campaigns

After five Pennsylvania counties implemented an intervention to prevent child sexual abuse (CSA), the incidence declined for both substantiated and unsubstantiated reports compared to a group of control counties. The intervention, called the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative (SHCI), was implemented in 2018 and ran through 2020. The initiative was evaluated every six months over three years by examining CSA report rates in the intervention and control counties. Over the three-year SHCI intervention period, there were 110 fewer substantiated CSA cases and 320 fewer unsubstantiated CSA reports across the intervention counties.

The SHCI consisted of a media community awareness . . .