Primary Cause Of Childhood Sexual Abuse

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.

Every year thousands of children are abused. This abuse can be physical, emotional or sexual in nature. All forms of abuse are wrong, all forms of abuse are harmful, but childhood sexual abuse can cause major emotional and physical harm in our adolescents. Before we can properly treat these victims we must first have a solid grasp of how and why sexual abuse occurs, the typical effects of the abuse and how the abuse changes the child's stages of development.

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

The Psychological Model of Abuse tells us how families function. It also tells us that when a family breakdown occurs it should be recognised as a family dysfunction. “A dysfunctional family is a family, in which conflict, misbehaviour, and often abuse on the part of individual members of the family occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions.” (www.en.wikipedia.org, 01.03.2011). Taking this quote into consideration it tells us that all of the problems within the one family are taken out on one child. However it could also mean that all the children in the family are abused. This is often referred as a scapegoat which means that the families’ problems are recognised in one of the family members. This theory believes that if the family takes part in a therapy it will restore any deprived relationships. Therefore this therapy will prevent the children or child in the family from getting abused. However I do not believe that taking part in a therapy will stop someone from abusing their

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 sexual child abuse issue has become of significance within the United States as an alarming focus in the past 30 years. Sexual child abuse (SCA) is such an extensive topic and yet as time progresses this subject is more unrestricted for discussion, various dialogs are provided to make parents and care-takers aware of the signs of potential sexual child abuse. Seminars are provided to and for children to teach methods in identifying any possible perpetrators and report any peculiar behavior they may come across. However, how fortunate are children from other countries in reporting or discussing this same issue when something so violated occurs to them? According to Alpert, J.L., Brown, L.S., & Courtois, C.A., (1998), there have been findings that are constant in supporting that at least 20% of American women and 5% to 10% of American men have experienced some type of sexual abuse in childhood and that such abuse has transpired without regard to origin, race, or socioeconomic status. In an urban study however, which concentrated in Leon, Nicaragua, determined that sexual abuse defined childhood and adolescence as younger than age 19 Olsson, A., Ellsber, E., Berglund, S., Herrera, A., Zelaya, E., Pena, R., Zelaya, F., & Persson, L.A. (2000). Additionally, according to the Nicaraguan study sexual abuse was described as any sexual act by an older individual towards a child who is 12 years of age or younger.

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is growing and becoming more prevalent around the world (Aspelmeier, Elliott, & Smith, 2007; Karakurt & Silver, 2014; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007). As such, CSA acquired concern as being a serious problem in recent decades. CSA is any type of sexual relation with a child, who is unable to consent, through force, threat, or dishonesty to assure participation. Consequently, CSA associates with psychological difficulties, such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Sexual abuse constitutes a serious violation of children’s rights and human dignity. Sexual abuse occurs when a person uses their power over a child, and involves the child in any sexual act. The power of the abuser lies in their age, advantage, superiority of intellectual or physical development, or in a relationship of authority with

Child sexual abuse is serious and treacherous offence. The World Health Organization defines child sexual abuse as any sexual activity which the child does not comprehend and consequently, is unable to give informed consent. The Canadian Family Violence Laws definition of child sexual abuse is any activity in which a child is used for sexual purposes. The child maltreatment section under Health Canada states that child sexual abuse activities include fondling, intercourse, incest, sodomy, exhibitionism, and commercial exploitation through prostitution. It is no doubt that child sexual abuse is considered a crime throughout the world. However, slight emphasis is given to the causes of this crime. The goal of this essay is to provide an intricate

Juvenile sexual offenders more frequently experienced internalizing problems, had poor self esteem, social isolation and more frequently experienced sexual abuse in their early childhoods than non-sexual offenders. In addition, juvenile sexual abusers also exhibited more problems in their peer relationships. There is other research that has shown substantial evidence for a relationship between juvenile sexually abusive behavior and family dysfunction, and violence. Typically speaking abusers grew up in dysfunctional families characterized by inconsistent care, known parental criminal behavior and substance use. They

The issue of child sexual assault has been present since the beginning of history. There is however, surprisingly little research that has been done on it prior to the 1960s and 1970s. As the Director of Children’s Services at the American Humane Association Vincent De Francis stated in 1969, “social work ‘literature seems devoid of reference to or content on this subject [the sexual assault of children],’” (Myers, 2008). In 1975, David Walters, an American politician, stated, “‘Virtually no literature exists on the sexual abuse of children,’” (Myers, 2008). The idea that very little was found on the topic is rather disturbing. Most of the information that is available now was gathered after the mid-1980s when interest in the subject arose (Fenkel, Ormrod, and Chaffin, 2009).

Introduction: I feel that dealing with clients who are the survivors or current victims of abuse is the most intricate and sensitive subject I have studied. Emotional and physical abuse of children and adults can take place at any age, in any country or culture and at any level of society. Forms of abuse are massively varied and can be motivated by many factors including sexual gratification, control, fear or even love.

“Sexual abuse is divided into four categories: traumatic sexualization, stigmatization, betrayal, and powerless” (Kinnear). Traumatic sexualization is due to inappropriate sexual experiences which results in the child avoiding sex or has problems with sexual identity. Stigmatization is based off the child who blames themselves for the abuse they encountered. The victims may feel guilty and withdrawal from their friends and family. Betrayal is the third category, which is defined based off children being sexually abused by a trusted adult. This could be a family member or a friend they have known. The result ends by the victim having difficulty trusting adult figures. The last category is subjected as powerless. Victims who experience this category will feel helpless. They do not understand how they can stop the abuse and will feel overwhelmed from it. Abused victims will experience one of these categories from being neglected (Kinnear).

Childhood sexual abuse is a significant issue children face in our society that has long term consequences. Sexual abuse in any form is a traumatizing experience regardless of age, but sibling sexual abuse is believed to be more common than parent-child incest. This form of abuse has long term effects such as lack of self-esteem, poor leadership qualities, developing an eating disorder, substance abuse, suffering from depression and/or suicidal behavior. Society often minimizes sibling sexual abuse the long term effects it has. For example, possessing leadership skills like strategic thinking, motivating others, being charismatic, and assertiveness are important aspects of everyday life not only for work environments, but school

Biological theory is the best theory that explains sexual offenses. The biological theory is concerned with the behavior of humans and physiological factors. These factors create the human being, which are lead between nature and nurture. Nature is the genetics and nurture is the behavior that is developed from environment around us. The behavior for human is learned, this can be learned from environment around them like the people. As example, as son will learn from his father, if the father is violent towards the mother, there is aggressive attitudes. This connects to biological theory because there is a hormone that deals with sexual behavior arising with the offenders body. This is where there is “aggression and high level of testosterone”