Sexual Abuse And The American Association For Marriage And Family Therapy Essay

Of the many problems faced by children and adolescents, few provoke such moral outrage as childhood sexual abuse. Many times, as on the television show “To Catch a Predator”, such abuse can be inflicted by strangers who may gradually become familiar with the child online. Sadly, however, often times the perpetrator of sexual abuse on children is someone much more familiar to the child- someone the child may even love.

Sexual abuse is a prevalent crime that can have numerous short and long term effects on a victim. It describes as any form sexual activity that is accomplished by force or threat where consent is not given. This includes rape, molestation, incest, and other similar forms of non-consensual sexual contact. The effects of sexual abuse are not the same for every victim, victims may feel varied responses and emotions that can depend on own situations. The act of abuse may had happened a long time ago or be more recent.

Sexual abuse, specifically from a male, generates many negative consequences, especially to the victims involved. Male violence occurs all over the United States and has been steadily rising (Hooks 117). In Bell Hooks’ article, “Feminist Move to End Violence”, she discusses the reason why male violence is occurring. She explains, “While male supremacy encourages the use of abusive force to maintain male domination of women, it is the Western philosophical notion of hierarchical rule and coercive authority that is the root cause of violence against women, of adult violence against children, of all violence between those who dominate and those who are dominated” (Hooks 118). Due to the relevance of male violence today, feminist writers have been addressing this issue and its impact in their novels.

Parents who perpetrate or suffer from intimate partner violence are more likely to be parents who mistreat their own children. The explanation that links these two together is dissociation, which allows parents who are abusers to remain distant from and minimize sympathy toward their victims. Additionally, there is a higher rate of dissociation disorders among intimate partner violence survivors and perpetrators. The objective of the study performed by Webermann, Brand, and Chasson in 2004 was to see how prevalent intimate partner violence is among those who commit childhood maltreatment. To gather this data, dissociative disorder clinicians reported on the rates of childhood maltreatment and intimate partner violence from 275 patients and assessed the associations between childhood maltreatment and partner violence. The results showed that there was a correlation between the two factors and that physical abuse was associated with physical spouse violence, while neglect was associated with emotional spouse violence (Webermann, Brand, & Chasson, 2014).

“Intimate partner violence” (IPV) not only includes spousal abuse (as does “domestic violence”), but also extends to unmarried, cohabiting, and same-sex couples. Moreover, IPV, is also not restricted to physical abuse; threats of physical abuse, or sexual abuse, and emotional abuse are all considered different forms of intimate partner violence. Intimate partner violence is a major public health concern in the United States that often results in terrible consequences for victims, families, and communities at large. According to the CDC, “[i]n an average minute, about 24 people are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner”. Furthermore, The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that intimate partners

Many children that are sexually assaulted have many deficit after the assault. Corwin & Keeshin (2011) states in sexual abuse, genital injuries may result in acute pain and increase the risk of long-lasting effects such as sexual dysfunction, urinary problems, sexually transmitted infections such as human immunodeficiency virus and reproductive problems. (p.2). Sexual abuse is not only physical but it is psychological as well as is it emotional. Especially with being sexually abuse, the child would be in so much pain, and at the same time try to figure out what just happening to them. Not just that there is a chance that they might get diseases like sexually transmitted diseases, but they may experience dysfunction in their body like urinary problem because their bodies has not fully developed. The other side effect according to Corwin & Keeshin (2011) some child victims of sexual abuse display few initial effects, the majority show some signs of posttraumatic stress, and more than one-third meet diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Another effect that this may have according to Corwin & Keeshin (2011) is

Domestic abuse is a very concerning public health problem and it can happen to anyone. It can happen whether you are male, female, black, white, rich, or poor. There are many different categories of abuse, which include physical, psychological, sexual, and economic abuse. They are all equally life changing and can leave permanent scars. These wounds could be on the outside or hidden on the inside.

Our society is caught in a struggle to do what is right for the victims of sexual abuse. The publics opinion of what is considered sexual abuse can vary, as does the laws of the states making up the United States. It is a little confusing, to me, how being considered an adult in one state does not guarantee that the same individual would be treated the same way in another state. But it is a fact of life, the laws are different. Merriam Webster dictionary defines sexual intercourse with a person who is below the statutory age of consent as statutory rape. The age that a person can legally give consent to sexual intercourse varies between states. In the state that I live in, North Carolina, the legal age of consent is 16 years of or older. The

Sexual abuse is very common throughout the entire world. It happens to everyone, male or female. Sexual abuse is considered a crime. What is sexual abuse? How do you prevent it from happening? Or what to do if you were ever assaulted? Many people ask themselves these questions when hearing or talking about sexual abuse.

The third distinctive argument is that sexual abuse puts teens at risk for teen pregnancy. When someone is sexually assaulted they usually do not report it in fear of what others may say or think of them. As a child, children are unaware of whats right from wrong putting them at a higher risk to be abused. Under-aged children tend to suffer sexual abuse from someone closer to them like a parent, aunt/uncle, sibling, or even a babysitter. Because children do not know that any form of touching someone who does not consent to it is sexual abuse they tend to suffer from abuse longer. Researchers Boyer and Fine (1992) have argued that the trauma of sexual victimization may harm normal developmental process. As these children grow older and

A three-year-old child approaches the court bench and places her hand over the Holy Bible, swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. She takes a seat at the witness stand while clenching her stuffed animal in her small innocent arms. She gently brushes the bouncy blonde curls from her face as she looks into the eyes of her rapist. For one so small, she is quite strong. I am proud to admit that I was this little girl, and I am a survivor.

In the research article “Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying Recovered-Memory Experiences of Childhood Sexual Abuse”, people have sometimes reported forgotten memories of childhood sexual abuse from long ago. People suddenly recalled memories of being sexually abused. The researchers from this article recognized two subgroups of those who reported recovered memories, with each group having different cognitive profiles. Those whose memory recovered through therapy had a high susceptibility to the construction of false memories, but no tendency to misjudge their past remembering. The people who recovered memories naturally were prone to forget prior incidents of remembering, but showed no increase to mechanisms that cause recovered-memory experiences.

The historical overview of child’s childhood had always being depicted as nonexistent. Abuse and neglect were part of their everyday day lives. Children were supposed to be as efficient as an adult but yet were limited to the wants and needs of their parents, as they were view as belonging to them. I was not until recently that the maltreatment towards children was broken down into four categories which are physical abuse, physical neglect, sexual abuse, and emotional neglect. On this paper I will be focusing sexual abuse; the long term impact of sexual abuse in the child’s cognitive abilities as well behavior and the overall emotional state and how resiliency plays a roll on the child’s overall adjustment.

Financial abuse references the exploitation of an elderly person’s assets, income, or other resources. This is a very common form of elderly abuse, since the elderly may be wealthy from a lifetime of saving, vulnerable from diminishing mental capacity, and/or trusting because of their reliance on others. The following are some of the more common types of financial abuse (cons, scams, and fraud are covered separately, in the next section).

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