Public Health Issues
Sexual harm is a preventable public health issue. Learn about evidence-based prevention strategies and why Colorado needs a public health approach.
Sexual Harm Is a Preventable Public Health Issue
Sexual harm represents a significant public health issue that is, at its core, preventable. By understanding the root causes and risk factors, proactive measures can be taken to reduce its occurrence. Prevention efforts encompass a wide range of strategies, including comprehensive sex education, promoting healthy relationships and consent culture, providing access to mental health support and resources, addressing social norms that perpetuate sexual violence, and implementing trauma-informed policies that hold people accountable while supporting healing.
Early intervention and education can empower individuals to recognize warning signs, assert boundaries, and seek help. By investing in prevention and fostering a culture of respect and accountability, communities can create safer environments and reduce the prevalence of sexual harm — ultimately promoting the well-being and dignity of all.
What the Evidence Shows
Sex offense registries protect communities and reduce sexual abuse.
Decades of research shows registries do not achieve their intended goals and likely cause more harm than good. ATSA states: “The research to date on SORN[A] has not identified significant reductions in the incidence of sexual abuse or sexual offense recidivism as a result of this policy.”
Punishment alone is sufficient to prevent sexual harm.
Effective housing, employment, and community involvement are key to preventing recidivism — yet registration and supervision restrictions create significant barriers to all three. Prevention and trauma-informed treatment is far more effective than punishment alone.
The CDC classifies sexual violence as “a serious public health problem” requiring population-level prevention strategies — not just criminal justice responses.
A Public Health Approach
To prevent sexual harm, Colorado must adopt a public health approach that aligns with those taken for other public health crises — including HIV, opioid use, and the COVID pandemic. This includes:
- Primary prevention: Educating the general population about sexual harm, healthy relationships, consent, and boundaries
- Secondary prevention: Targeted outreach and early intervention for individuals and communities at higher risk
- Trauma-informed treatment: Strengths-based programs for both those who have caused harm and those who have survived it
- Community investment: Mental health resources, support systems, and school-based initiatives that address root causes
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that sexual violence is “a serious public health problem in the United States that profoundly impacts lifelong health, opportunity, and well-being.”
Colorado’s Opportunity
- In 2019, Colorado passed HB 19-1032, the Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education Act, requiring that sex education offered in schools be medically accurate, evidence-based, and inclusive — a critical upstream prevention tool.
- The 2021 SOMB reforms (HB 21-1280) expanded stakeholder input to include survivors, individuals on the registry, and family members — moving Colorado toward a more holistic, public-health-informed approach to managing sexual harm.
- Colorado’s SOMB data showing 3–5% re-offense rates for treatment completers demonstrates that evidence-based treatment works — and supports redirecting resources from punitive measures toward prevention and community-based programs.
- Despite this progress, Colorado still lacks a comprehensive statewide sexual harm prevention strategy that integrates primary prevention, early intervention, treatment, and community support into a unified public health framework.
Learn More
Child Sexual Abuse Is Preventable, Not Inevitable
Bridging Data and Practice in the Case for Prevention
What Is Sexual Violence?
Prevention Resources
- Prevention Global
- Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse — Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Circles of Support and Accountability — Council of State Governments Justice Center
- America Has Been Going About Stopping Child Sex Abuse The Wrong Way — Time Magazine
- Empirically-Based Dynamic Risk and Protective Factors for Sexual Offending — ScienceDirect
- Evaluating Child Sexual Abuse Perpetration Prevention Efforts: A Systematic Review
- B4U-ACT — Promoting services and resources for self-identified individuals
- Fast Facts: Preventing Sexual Violence — CDC
- Reframing Child Sex Abuse as a Preventable Public Health Issue — Psychology Today
Prevention Starts with Awareness
Share these resources with your network, contact your legislators, and support evidence-based approaches to preventing sexual harm in Colorado.