Child Sexual Abuse Flashcards
What are the statistics of disclosure
- Fewer than half of the victims tell anyone at the time of the abuse, and a large percentage never reveal the abuse until asked for research purposes
- Not all children who are sexually abused disclose and as many as 60–70% delay disclosure into adulthood
What are the barriers young people face
limited support, perceived negative consequences and feelings of self-blame, shame and guilt, when choosing to disclose
When are children more likely to disclose
- children disclosed in situations where the theme of child sexual abuse was addressed or activated;
- children revealed that they were sensitive to others’ reactions and whether their disclosures would be misinterpreted
- A study of sixth and ninth graders in Finland revealed that most children had disclosed to someone, usually a friend (48%).
- However, only 26% had disclosed to adults, and even fewer had reported their experiences to authorities (12%).
- Boys were less willing to disclose CSA than girls
Boys as victims
- Hohendorff et al., (2017) showed that victims faced significant levels of disbelief and discrimination.
- Practitioners were unprepared to handle cases involving sexually abused boys.
- Underscores the social invisibility of sexual violence against boys.
Outline the demographics of boys as victims
- from 1993 to 2012, the rate of reporting of boys increased 2.6-fold whereas there was a 1.5-fold increase for girls.
- ## In 1993, the sex ratio of girls to boys was 2:1, while by 2012 this ratio changed to 1.14:1
ROSH reports where sexual abuse was recorded as a reported issue have increased every year since 2011-12 : by ______% in 2019-20 compared with 2018-19.
6.1
CSA in the Australian Context
Unlike the US, Australian CSA has been increasing year on year
Outline the issues associated with Online CSA
- Increasing access to the internet has seen an upward trend in cases of online child sexual exploitation.
- Most commonly this includes grooming, live streaming, consuming child sexual abuse material, and coercing and blackmailing children for sexual purposes.
- 29.3 million reports were received in 2021 compared to 21.7 in 2020 and 16.9 million in 2019.
Outline child trafficking demographics
- estimated that between 300 and 1000 persons are victims of trafficking a year.
- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that 28% of trafficking victims worldwide detected in 2016, were children.
- 72 per cent of all girls and 23 per cent of all boys who were trafficked, were done so for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
What are the symptoms of child sexual abuse victims
- psychosocial symptoms (emotions, behaviours, toilet training, development)
- signs of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- A clear symptom pattern was lacking and about half of the confirmed severe victims of CSA did not display any psychosocial problems.
- it is difficult for experts to identify confirmed CSA victims on the basis of symptoms.
what causes CSA effects to be worse
when penetration is involved, violence, a closer relationship to the perpetrator, multiple offenders, longer duration and more frequent contact
do all CSA victims experience abuse-related problems
no, 40% of children did not develop any issues
relation between CSA and mental health
25 year-olds who experienced attempted or completed sexual penetration as children had rates of mental health disorder (including suicide ideation and attempts, depression and anxiety, substance dependence) that were 2.4 times higher than those not exposed to child sexual abuse
Outline the effect size of CSA and psychological outcomes
SA is associated with negative psychological outcomes, but that the effects are small
outline the coeffects of CSA
- Problem of establishing effects of CSA - coexists with other difficult life circumstances e.g., negative home environment or other forms of abuse which may account for the poor long-term adjustment.
- Often associated with low levels of parental support and high levels of parental conflict.
What are the three generations of CSA research
- First generation: a catalogue of the short-term and long-term effects of CSA
- Second generation: identifies variables that moderate the relationship between CSA and negative outcomes
- Third generation: mediating processes through which CSA produces long-term outcomes