Most child sexual abuse is perpetrated by someone known to the victim. Thus some health professionals suggest that many children can avoid being victimized if they are taught about their right to say no, the difference between "okay" and "not-okay" touches, and strategies for coping with an adult’s attempt to coerce them into inappropriate intimate contact. A recent study of sex offenders revealed that children’s saying no to the offender is an effective strategy for preventing child sexual abuse (Leclerc et al., 2011).
As indicated in Chapter 12, parents often avoid discussing sex with their children. Therefore it is probably unrealistic to expect better parent-child communication to significantly protect children. Furthermore, parents themselves are often the abusers. The following list, drawn from the writings of a number of child abuse specialists, offers