Negotiation techniques in the clinical setting: Book review of “Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss.

Sexual abuse is a type of violence comprising acts that occur without the victim's consent or to which the victim cannot consent or refuse, ranging from harassment of a sexual nature to unwanted acts of penetration (Basile et al. ; Shinde and Tendolkar ). Such abuse is a potentially traumatic experience with lasting implications for victims, families, communities, and society as a whole (Herman ; Barth et al. ). While sexual violence serves as a broad umbrella term in public health literature, we situate our focus within this wider continuum by using the term sexual abuse. We deliberately maintain this term as it directly translates the overarching Hebrew nomenclature “Pgiaa Minit” (The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel ) and is the official terminology utilized by local activists and training organizations to describe their “Sexual Abuse Prevention Teams”. To address this phenomenon, various responses have been developed over the years, formal and informal, such as laws, procedures, agencies, and various treatment and prevention centers (Hochhuyzer et al. ; Ran and Yosefsberg Ben‐Yehoshua ; Walsh et al. ). Furthermore, community responses such as sexual assault response teams (SART; Greeson et al. ), circles of support and accountability (COSA; Lowe et al. ), and community mobilization (Kai‐Zadok ) have emerged. In Israel, a community response has developed in the last decade composed of teams of community activists who volunteer to promote prevention and coping with sexual abuse in their communities (Frankenburg ; Piamenta ). The purpose of the current article was to describe these activists' perceptions of their role and experiences as members of sexual abuse prevention teams. Sexual abuse rates are high. Such abuse can occur throughout the entire life span, from childhood to old age, with childhood abuse constituting a risk factor for abuse at a later age (Kong and Easton ). Studies consistently show that most abuse is perpetrated by figures known to the victims (Friis‐Rødel et al. ; Jones et al. ). At the global level, sexual abuse during one's lifetime is reported by one in three women and one in five men (Keller‐Halamish et al. ; World Health Organization , ). In addition, 5%‐10% of boys and girls are exposed to penetrative sexual abuse, and up to three times that number are exposed to non‐penetrative sexual abuse (Gilbert et al. ). In Israel, according to the data, approximately 84,000 women are abused annually; in the national violence index last reported a decade ago, the rate of sex offenses in Israel was 10% higher than the average in OECD countries (Ministry of Public Security ). Regarding children, 18.7% of Israeli children aged 12‐16 reported exposure to sexual abuse, with a higher rate among boys (19.5%) than girls (17.9%), and among Arabs (23.2%) than Jews (17.7%) (Lev‐Wiesel and Eisikovits ). Due to the complex nature of reporting and inconsistency in terminology, official data are known to underestimate the true scope of the sexual abuse phenomenon (Basile et al. ; Vrees ). Indeed, a significant gap exists between self‐reports in studies and official reports to authorities, with a difference of up to ten times in reporting rates (Gilbert et al. ). This gap has been found in Israel and worldwide (Israel Police, 2022; The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel ) and may account, in part, for the need to develop informal responses for coping with this phenomenon. Regardless, the prevalence of sexual abuse makes clear that this phenomenon exists in all societies and is perceived as a wide‐scale social problem with severe and long‐term implications (see e.g., The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel ; The Public Committee for Policy Change Regarding Childhood Sexual Abuse, 2021).