Child Sexual Abuse And Depression Essay

Sexual abuse can be hard to define because of the many different forms it can take on, the different levels of frequency, the variation of circumstances that can occur. Until a child is fit to function as a self-supporting and informed adult, we have an obligation not to take advantage of their lack of power or protection to inflict damage, or demand submission to acts that are not in their own best interests within. Children are being abused every day in different countries. While commonly accepted wisdom had been that childhood sexual abuse results in long lasting negative outcomes.

The statistics of prevalence for child sex abuse varies because of all the unique cases of child sex abuse that is reported. Although, statistic show that one in three girls will be sexually abused at one point in the United States and boys are one in seven to be sexually abused (Anderson, 2014). Children are not susceptible to crime as shown in the statistics because predators like pedophiles have fetishes towards little boy or girls. One study found that 10% of children experienced or came close to experiencing a form of sexual violence which would include rape, sexual assault, or harassment (Anderson, 2014). The numbers shown in the statistics are higher because of the unreported cases. 30% of cases involving child sex abuse are reported to the local authorities and 73% to 87% of female adolescents who are abused sexually are not treated or identified by by the community (Anderson, 2014). Child sex abuse is also costly because it costs the United States an estimated $103 billion for the abuse and negligence (Anderson, 2014). On another note, 80% of children who have been sexually abused have symptoms of PTSD (Anderson, 2014).

As time progresses on, more reports of child sexual abuse (CSA) have been documented. According to Colangelo and Cooperman, CSA is defined as “the use of a child under 18 years of age as an object of gratification for adult sexual needs and desires.” Another definition of CSA is “sexual abuse [that] occurs whenever one person dominates and exploits another by means of sexual activity or suggestion.” (Hall, M., & Hall, J., 2011) it is difficult to

“A University study found 20.6% of women and 10.5% of men reported non-penetrative childhood sexual abuse by the age of 16 and that 7.9% of women and 7.5% of men reported penetrative childhood sexual abuse by the age 16 years. (Mamun, Lawlor, O’Calloghan, Bor, Williams. & Najman, 2007 Queensland University

This paper explores 11 published articles which report on results from research conducted on the links between child abuse and adult physical and mental health. The articles vary in their themes and ideas of child abuse in relations to trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress, juvenile offenses, and teen dating violence. Other articles suggest adult criminal behaviors, incarceration and parenting styles of those who were abused as children. This paper examines the relationship within one another of how child abuse affects those children in later years and stages of life.

with Research conducted on the characteristics of female sexual abusers uses three specific case examples of young girls, ages: ten, twelve, and sixteen. In two of three case examples, the girls had reported being sexually abused at a young age. The third girl, age sixteen, did not explicitly state she had been sexually abused, but has close ties with her father who is a known sex-offender,; therefore it is believed that she has been sexually abused during childhood. A review of adolescent offenders of sexual abuse, under the age of 21, shows: “Chi-square analyses showed significant associations between those who targeted children and being sexually abused or having a family member subject to sexual abuse” The study also reports that those that have experienced sexual assault at a young age, and have been reported to sexually assault other children typically have poor relationships with peers and family members in addition to experiencing two or more instances of

Gibb and Chelminski (2007) examined childhood emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and the diagnoses of depressive and anxiety disorders in adult psychiatric outpatients. Research showed that major depression are strongly related to the reports of childhood emotional abuse than to physical or sexual abuse. According to Rose and Abramson [1992] “The experiences of childhood emotional abuse, the children may begin to make more negative attributions, which then may develop into a more general negative attributional style that would contribute vulnerability to depression”.

An estimated 39 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse exist in America today (Darness2Light, 2009a ). This figure continues to grow daily as perpetrators of this crime continue in this destructive path. The definition of child sexual abuse is the force, coercion, or cajoling of children into sexual activities by a dominant adult or adolescent. Sexual abuse of children includes touching (physical) sexually including: fondling; penetration (vaginal or anal using fingers, foreign objects or offenders organs; oral sex, or non-physical contact including: sexual comments; indecent exposures; masturbating in a child’s presence; child prostitution or child pornography (Child Welfare, 2009a).

The subject of victimization and childhood trauma and neglect, especially sexual victimization is in desperate need of additional awareness despite the increase in the research literature over the past three decades. Youth who experience any form of victimization, whether it be sexual, emotional, and/or physical throughout their childhood are known to have difficulties in their childhood and adolescent development (McCuish, Cale & Corrado, 2015). The abuse they experience can be from their caregivers, sexual victimization by acquaintances and strangers, assaults by peers and can be exposed to violence in their neighborhoods (Finkelhor, Ormrod, Turner and Holt, 2009).

Due to the rise of domestic violence in many families, psychologists are helping affected children cope and confront their emotional imprisonment by using various methods. Over the years, there has been a drastic increase in domestic violence cases. In many instances, the children are most affected in the involvement of the violent disputes. Psychologists study the behaviors of affected children and develop a plan of treatment that aim towards the child’s overall health. Psychologists provide the best treatment by immersing themselves inside the child’s situation and connecting with what the child sees. Furthermore, psychologist use a strategy of taking small steps in the overall treatment. Sadly, over the years, there’s been an increase

In order to examine where there is a relationship between male childhood sexual victimization and sexual offending in adulthood we need to know the operational definitions. Sexual child abuse has three portions of it which would include touching, sexual offenses (assault), non-touching, sexual offenses (sexual grooming) and sexual exploitation. Touching sexual (assault) offenses would include: fondling, making a child touch an adult’s sexual organs, and penetrating a child’s vagina or anus no matter how slight with a penis or any object that doesn’t have a valid medical purpose. The non-touching sexual (sexual grooming) offenses include:

Child sexual abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year, but the number of unreported instances is far greater, because the children are afraid to tell anyone what has happened (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry). Childhood sexual abuse is a traumatic experience affecting the lives of not only the victim, but those close to the victim as well. Many think there is only one person truly traumatized, but in fact, everyone involved is affected. The victim has to deal with their experience the rest of their lives. They may be more at risk for other mental issues as well, including depression. The family involved has to deal with its pain, often causing hardship and discord within the family. This is especially true

Sexual abuse to children happens across every socioeconomic status, ethnic, cultural, religion and education. Getting treatment for a victim of child sexual abuse is a difficult process because of the lack of trust by the child. When child sexual abuse occurs the victim’s family has a difficult time talking about the abuse, which leads to the family pretending the abuse never happened. Once the family

Research conducted in the United States of America clearly identifies an interaction between victim age and abuse characteristics (USDHHS, 2003). There exists a negative correlation between the onset and prevalence of physical neglect and victim age, for instance, indicative of a young child's dependency upon the caregiver for supervision and nurture (Mash & Wolfe, 2005). The incidence of physical and emotional abuse is also most prominent during developmental periods of independence, specifically the early, pre-school and adolescent transitional stages of development (ibid). Sexual abuse has prevailed most consistently, however, from an onset of age 3 throughout childhood, highlighting the vulnerability of children across the age-spectrum (ibid). Nevertheless, victim gender is emphasised as an influential variable within the incidence and nature of sexual abuse; for females have accounted for up to 80% of reported victims and are more likely to be abused by male family members in contrast to male victims, where the perpetrator of abuse is more likely to be a non-family male offender (USDHHS, 2003; Berliner & Elliott, 2002).

There are many forms of child abuse. Not only can children be physically abused, but they are also in danger of experiencing sexual abuse. In the more recent years, child sexual abuse has come to the attention of a larger part of society. As such, it is becoming more openly discussed. Child sexual abuse is a growing problem, and the stories that have begun to circulate around the world work to illustrate just how serious the problem is. Despite what society is lead to believe, the sexual abuse of a child is the least common out of all forms of child abuse. Out of the different types of child abuse, neglect is the most common, followed by physical abuse, and then sexual abuse comes at the bottom. Still, of all the cases of child abuse reported to and substantiated by authorities, approximately 15% of them concerned sexual abuse. ). It is possible that there are more cases of child sexual abuse, however, and they simply are not being reported. Due to the number of undisclosed cases of child abuse, researchers have conducted various prevalence studies over the years to determine the true number of sexual abuse of children. These studies have determined that around 20% of women and 5-10% of men in America in were sexually abused as children. A great deal of controversy surrounds the number of male victims of child sexual abuse, due to a lack of quality studies. The problem with prevalence studies is that they don 't all share the same definition of abuse, nor do they share