Child sexual abuse can cause significant physical and emotional harm to a child, which lasts into adulthood. What are the myths and misunderstandings about child sexual abuse? The book explores the prevalence, forms and impacts of child sexual abuse, and the responses to disclosure of child abuse by children and survivors. How can society break the silence, bring perpetrators to light, and better protect our children? Also includes: worksheets and activities, fast facts, glossary, web links, index
The number of confirmed cases of child sexual abuse in the United States rose from 6,000 in 1976 to 113,000 in 1985 and rose again to 300,000 in 2000. Understanding Child Sexual Abuse explores the dynamics, effects, treatment options, and preventive measures available to both the children and the adults involved in child sexual abuse. Chapters provide: Emphasis and guidance on seeking counseling; Pathways for victims to seek renewed, healthy, and productive lives; Options available for rehabilitating abusers; Personality traits common to abusers; Victim responses to the trauma of abuse; Outlin
Child sexual abuse can cause significant physical and emotional harm to a child, which lasts into adulthood. What are the myths and misunderstandings about child sexual abuse? The book explores the prevalence, forms and impacts of child sexual abuse, and the responses to disclosure of child abuse by children and survivors. How can society break the silence, bring perpetrators to light, and better protect our children? Also includes: worksheets and activities, fast facts, glossary, web links, index.
Why is child sexual abuse committed primarily by men and male adolescents, unlike other forms of child abuse? Is child sex offending, rather than being a deviant masculine sexual practice, related to normative masculine practices, that is, practices structured on dynamic and changing relations of power? Using a practice-based sociological approach, the relationship between masculinities, sexualities and child sexual abuse is analysed and the power/powerlessness theory is developed to explain the predominantly male problem of child sex offending. The theory postulates that, because the social construction of masculinities involves the construction of dynamic and changing relations of power between men, men's lives are characterised by a combination of power and powerlessness. The book argues that an offender's experiences of powerlessness as a result of his relationships with other men is the key to understanding child sex offending, since sexuality is a key social practice for the alleviation of experiences of powerlessness and for establishing relations of power with other men. In particular, the theory argues that a man's particular attachment to the link between sexuality and experiences of masculinity and power will be a key factor for determining how he does sex and whom he chooses as a sexual partner. In the final chapter, the theory is tested through a re-analysis of offender interviews
In the past 20 years, the progressive uncovering of child sexual abuse in institutional settings has reverberated across the globe with simultaneous investigations across Europe and the English-speaking world. However, most books on child sexual abuse are narrowly focused and do not situate this most distressing of human behaviours within a social or historical context. Children, Sexuality, and Child Sexual Abuse examines child sexual abuse from a broader perspective in order to understand how and why child sexual abuse is perpetrated, by whom, under what circumstances, and with what societal consequences for victims and perpetrators. This book will be an essential reference for all those working in the field of child sexual abuse. Beginning with histories of childhood and sex, and their intersections, the book goes on to analyze sexual development, sexuality, and sexualized behaviour in children and adolescents. This is followed by an examination of the extent of child sexual abuse in the English-speaking world, including its prevalence in the Indigenous communities of Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and in once-trusted societal institutions including the Church, orphanages, and schools. The book focuses on issues of concern to all those who encounter the problem of child sexual abuse and addresses questions such as: How and when do children disclose child sexual abuse? What are the characteristics of memory that affect reporting? How are disclosure claims assessed? What are the effects of having experienced child sexual abuse? Finally, there is an examination of young people who offend sexually.