How Should We Respond When Youth Cause Sexual Harm?

Most child sexual abuse is committed by someone the child knows. So when a survivor speaks up, what happens next matters enormously.

In this piece, Elizabeth Clemants asks: when our goal is prevention, is automatic system escalation always the right response? She makes the case that restorative justice is not a softer alternative to punishment but a different framework entirely, one that creates the conditions for lasting safety rather than silence.