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On the surface, requiring people who have been adjudicated or convicted of sexually abusing children to register with law enforcement seems like a smart way to protect kids and prevent child sexual abuse. Two decades of research tell a different story.

This case's great pain and deep trauma date back to the 1940s and involve more than 150 clergy and staff and many hundreds of children and youth. Those survivors are the face of the critical efforts needed to stop others from experiencing the same harm.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Professor Elizabeth Letourneau has devoted her life's work to changing how people view child sexual abuse. In her TEDMED Talk, Elizabeth sheds light on how initiatives targeting juvenile sex offenders can be the best method to help prevent future offenses.

Only about 5% of sex crimes are perpetrated by people with prior sex crime convictions. Thus, after-the-fact interventions such as incarceration fail to address 95% of the problem. Spending enormous resources on punishment and almost none on prevention is a choice.