Mental health articles

Identification of victims of child sexual abuse Statutes at both the state and federal levels are largely sufficient to provide for the identification of victims of child sexual abuse. The problem is primarily in the implementation of these statutes. Therefore, only two suggested changes to existing statutes are made, First, it is suggested that CAPTA […]

Tension between children’s and sexual abuse offender’s rights Child protective services is mandated to protect the rights of children, whereas the criminal justice system is mandated to protect the rights of the accused. Within the current system, the rights of the accused appear to take precedence. While there are various reasons to make this statement, […]

Prioritization of child sexual abuse by caregivers The previous section indicated that although CAPTA guidelines and state statutes afford protection to victims of all types of child sexual abuse, the implementation of these statutes has resulted in a system of unequal access to protection and resources based upon the identity of the offender. As a […]

Child sexual abuse statutes The premise is that policies, programs, and statutes of child sexual abuse (or society’s response to child sexual abuse) are grounded within the historical and often myth-bound conceptualization of child sexual abuse. The purpose of the previous section was to show that the outcomes of these policies, programs, and statutes are […]

Professional response to child sexual abuse This section now considers professional responses to victims and nonoffending mothers once sexual abuse is identified. Again, these sections compare the profession’s response in child sexual abuse to that information available in the empirical knowledge base. Studies presented in this section are more varied than in the previous section […]

Identification of child sexual abuse The first area considered is society’s ability to identify child sexual abuse. Here presents data on sexual abuse that occurs within the general population and compares the data to that reflecting society’s ability to identify abuse. In other words, this table reflects society’s ability to adequately identify and respond to the […]

Current conceptualization of child sexual abuse Moving forward to the current period, the empirical knowledge base presented in this book provides a very different perspective of child sexual abuse. Child sexual abuse is a sociological problem of immense proportions. Approximately one-third of girls are sexually abused before their 18th birthdays, as are approximately one-seventh of […]

Decision to screen In and investigate in child sexual abuse When a report is made to child protective services, the report is either screened in or out, but only those cases that are screened in are investigated. Child protective services cannot screen in and investigate all reported cases—nor should they. What is important to consider, […]

Attributions made by professionals in child sexual abuse The first area that is consideredis how professionals attribute blame and responsibility in incidents of child sexual abuse. Judgments that professionals make about who is to blame for the abuse are important to consider because they establish a framework within which to understand decisions about interventions made […]