Mental health articles

child sexual abuse from friends The focus of child sexual abuse is seldom on abuse by friends, perhaps because of the issue of how to separate normal sexual play among peers and abuse. Even though abuse by friends was one of the less prevalent types of abuse in Russell’s (1983) study, more than 4% of […]

child sexual abuse from acquaintances Sexual abuse by acquaintances is the single largest category of child sexual abuse, accounting for 16% to 50% of all abuse, depending on how this category is defined. Although acquaintance rape is now the subject of intensive investigation, the same cannot be said of acquaintance child sexual abuse. Indeed, although […]

Child sexual abuse from strangers One of the most frightening of all types of abuse is that by strangers. The fear, of course, is that children will be accosted by strangers in the children’s neighborhoods and will be abused, raped, and sometimes even murdered. The public seems to be most concerned about this type of […]

Underemphasis of extrafamilial child sexual abuse These analyses indicate that extrafamilial abuse is easily the most prevalent type of abuse, even though intrafamilial abuse is the abuse most often identified. Yet, while only approximately 5% of all committed child sexual abuse is by a biological father or stepfather and approximately 30% of committed abuse is […]

PREVALENCE OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE Several studies have attempted to determine the prevalence of child sexual abuse within specific populations. These studies are far different from incidence studies as they represent not only victims of child sexual abuse coming to the attention of authorities, but also those whose abuse was never reported and substantiated. As […]

INCIDENCE OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE Incidence studies vary in their ability to capture the number of abuse cases that come to the attention of professionals. There are three primary, ongoing attempts to determine the incidence rate of child sexual abuse. The most comprehensive is the National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, done every […]

Feminist Theory of child sexual abuse In the 1970s and 1980s, feminist writers began to discuss the relationship of child sexual abuse to the social environment (Herman, 1981; Rush, 1980). Feminists believed that child sexual abuse was symptomatic of a patriarchal society in which males had power over females. One of the ways in which […]

Child Sexual Abuse and Repeated Victimizations Child sexual abuse typically involves a child victim and a perpetrator known to the victim, usually a family member, caretaker, or neighbor. Th e impact of the abuse depends on the age of the victim and the perpetrator, behavior, type of contact, and perception of the abuse. Like other […]