Moore Center Conversations on the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse

Elizabeth Letourneau, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Mental Health and the director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. For more than 30 years she has focused on child sexual abuse prevention, practice, and policy. Dr. Letourneau’s work has garnered approximately $35 million in grants and gifts, and has resulted in more than 100 scientific papers and chapters and one edited volume What Works with Sex Offenders: Contemporary Perspectives in Theory, Assessment, Treatment and Prevention. She is an internationally recognized expert in child sexual abuse prevention and advises the European Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, the World Bank, and other government and Big Tech entities focused on preventing child sexual exploitation and abuse. Her research on sex offender registration has been cited in several U.S. state supreme court cases, by state legislatures, and by the American Law Institute in their revised Model Penal Code. Dr. Letourneau is currently nominated to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Board of Scientific Counselors and is the 2022 recipient of the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rebecca Fix, PhD, is an assistant professor working in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health within the Department of Mental Health, and a faculty affiliate of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse. She is also a licensed clinical psychologist who has done therapy with survivors of trauma, including adolescents in carceral systems for illegal sexual behavior. Her research focuses on promoting mental health equity and equity in legal outcomes within the juvenile legal system and on interrupting pathways from childhood maltreatment to use of sexual and physical violence during adolescence. Dr. Fix has over 60 peer-reviewed publications, the majority of which are first authored publications, and her work has been funded by federal and local organizations as well as through competitive internal funding mechanisms. In recognition of her expertise, Dr. Fix has been invited to consult with the Southern Poverty Law Center and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Amanda E. Ruzicka, MA, is a senior research associate at the Department of Mental Health and deputy director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research focused on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of effective strategies to prevent child sexual abuse. Ruzicka is a co-developer of three prevention interventions for adolescents and adults: the Help Wanted Prevention Intervention, the Responsible Behavior with Younger Children Program, and the Responsible Behavior with Younger Children Program for Teens with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Ryan T. Shields, PhD, is an assistant professor in the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Prior to joining UMass Lowell, Shields was an assistant scientist and associate director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research centers on the intersection of criminal justice and public health and he studies child sexual abuse, sexual abuse prevention, and sex crime policy, with a focus on youths and young adults with problem sexual behavior. Shields is a co-developer of the Help Wanted Prevention Intervention.