• Prior Arrests and convictions
• Had limited dating relationships
• An excessive interest in children or child     photography
• Associates and friends are inappropriately   young
• Limited peer relationships and/or socially isolated
• Excessive preference for spending time with children rather than adults
• Engages in activities with children which exclude other adults
• Gives excessive and/or inappropriate affection or gifts
• Skilled at manipulating children - leads rather than listens
• Abused as a child
• Frequent and unexpected job or address moves  

Appropriately asked questions in the recruitment process should identify whether these are present in an applicant.

5. Develop policies and procedures for dealing with harassment.  They should cover such things as defining what is inappropriate behaviour, set out who the policies apply to, appoint contact persons, state what will happen if the policies are breached.
6. Educate supervisors on safe practices.  For example, it is good risk management to ensure a supervisor is not alone with an athlete.
7. Have a media public relations strategy to deal with allegations of abuse etc.
8. Review or develop contracts between sports and recreation providers and supervisors.
9. Review the insurance cover of the sport and recreation provider to ensure claims of this nature against it or its supervisors are covered.

Conclusion

The above steps will minimise the chance of legal claims against supervisors and sports and recreation providers.  More importantly they should reduce the number of inappropriate incidents that are currently causing tragedies in the industry.

By Maria Shand, Sports Lawyer from Rigby Cooke Lawyers Melbourne.

                                                                  Summer 2000

* Taken from NAPCAN website information (see www.childsafe.net.au/NAPCAN/narecrut.html)