ATSA Forum - Vol. XXIX, No. 3
Summer 2017  (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
Regular Features
 Editor's Note
 President's Message
FAQ
 Is pornography use safe for those convicted of a sexual offence?
Featured Articles
 Prosocial Treatment Methods for Juveniles Who Sexually Offended
 The Relationship between Implicit and Explicit Evaluations of Sexual Aggression and Sexually Aggressive Behavior
 Child pornography offenders: Profiles of a complex group
Students' Voice
 Processes Accounting for the Covariation Between Hypersexual and Psychopathic Traits
Book Review
 Treatment of High-Risk Sexual Offenders: An Integrated Approach
ATSA News
 Changing The Journal Name
 Apply for the ATSA Fellow for 2017
 2017 Election
 ATSA International Committee: An introduction
 2017 ATSA Conference: Exhibit and Support Opportunities
 Win a Free Conference Registration
 New ATSA Conference Event
 Keeping up with the news
 Legislative update
 New ATSA Members

ATSA International Committee: An introduction

Kieran McCartan, Committee Chair

Welcome to the first piece by the newly formed international committee!

Context

Sexual harm is a global issue that impacts individuals, communities and all societies. This means that we need a global solution that reflects a shared understanding of sexual harm that can be adapted to different countries and regions globally as appropriate. Internationally there are many organisations that prevent and respond to sexual harm, including but not limited to our sibling organisations NOTA, IATSO & AZASTA. While some may consider ATSA to be an American organisation it is truly international with approximately 300 members from 19 (non-USA) countries. The majority of ATSA’s international members are from Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Europe (i.e., Italy, Sweden, Germany, etc); but we also have members from Japan, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Israel and South Africa to name a few other countries.

The international component of ATSA’s membership is important because transnationally we face a lot of similar issues relating to sexual harm and use a lot of the same, or similar, tools and research; therefore it’s important that we talk, share and reflect on practice, research and policies.  

Aims, Objectives & Membership

The newly formed international committee came into being in January 2017 with the development of some coherent aims and objectives that were presented to the board. The newly formed international committee has three roles;

1. To support the development of ATSA internationally and increase recruitment;
2. To make sure the voices, opinions and knowledge of these ATSA members are heard in the organisation more clearly; &
3. To increase the visibility of ATSA and its mission outside of the USA in existing and new member countries.

The role of the international committee is to stimulate debate, to reflect upon current practice (positive and challenging) and to consider ways that we can work together. The international committee aims to meet these roles in the following ways:

1. The recruitment of international members onto all standing committees, including the recruitment of an additional international (non-Canadian) member. The idea would be that the international member would be there to give an alternative view, share good practice and feed material back to the international committee (which they would be a member of).
2. Develop a new international committee comprised of international members who are the international representatives of other ATSA committees. The role of this committee would be to develop a coherent international voice within ATSA, act as a sounding board for ATSA/International issues and feed into boarder debates.
3. The international committee would have a knowledge exchange session at the ATSA conference to share good practice and debate international issues. The idea is that we get a range of international views on contemporary and emerging issues/topics. This may be a pre-conference workshop, concurrent session, or roundtable debate. This could be written up for the Forum or broken down into a number of blogs for dissemination to the wider ATSA membership.
4. To encourage international members to share their affiliation to ATSA in events that they speak at where appropriate.
5. To bring international issues, development needs, training needs and opportunities to ATSA’s attention when appropriate.

Once the ATSA executive board agreed to the International committee’s remit I reached out to all the international members of ATSA to see who was interested in being involved. I had lots of positive responses from international members, not all of whom could be as involved as they wanted to be, and consequentially we formed the first iteration of the international committee.

Moving Forward

Currently we are navigating how we can chat, debate and work together because up until now it has been through email and conference call (but conference calls across numerous time zones can be challenging); this will come through time and experience. We have plans for updates and outreach on international issues through the various blogs (SAJRT Blog, NOTA prevention blog), publications (ATSA Forum, NOTA news) and conferences (ATSA; NOTA; IATSO; AZATSA) that we are involved in. This year at the ATSA conference in Kansas City we have two events planned;

• 1^st Meeting of the international membership.

Date, time and location: TBC (see conference brochure for more details).

This will be an open meeting for all international members to come together at conference to chat, network and meet.

• International roundtable: International Approaches to Understanding and Managing Risk of sexual recidivism

F-32: Friday 27^th October, 3.30 – 5pm, ROOM TBC

The roundtable will discuss international similarities and differences in approaches to managing sexual recidivism risk posed by individuals convicted of sexual offences. The speakers will focus on what the risk management of sexual recidivism looks like in their country, focusing on good practice and challenges followed by a panel debate. The session will allow us to reflect upon and consider the realities of our current approaches to managing risk of sexual recidivism across jurisdictions. The roundtable will include speakers from the UK, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, New Zealand and the USA.

We are here to speak for and represent all international ATSA members, please do reach out to us by email or in person through conference.