Family Violence Chapter 4

Definitions of Child Sexual Abuse

-A number of key components that are generally regarded as essential in defining CSA. -Definitions should include sexual experiences with children that involve both physical contact and non-contact activities. -Sexual activities include sexual contact performed by the perpetrator on the child and vice versa. -Certain sexual acts are more recognized than others (parental nudity or noncontact behavior and kissing on the mouth or contact behavior). -One way to distinguish abuse is to evaluate the intention of the perpetrator. The second component is the adult's exploitation of their power. The third component addresses the age or maturational advantage of the perpetrator over the victim. -Assumption that children are incapable of providing informed consent to sexual interactions with adults.

Risk Factors

-Children of all ages are at risk of sexual exploitation. -No clear differences in rates of sexual abuse between race and ethnic groups have been identified, although Asian American children tend to have the lowest CSA rates. -No one risk factor applies to all. -Girls are nearly four times as likely to abused as boys. -Homosexual youth are 3.8x more likely to be abused than heterosexual youth, especially males. -Older children and adolescents tend to be more at risk. Rates of sexual abuse were highest for girls aged 14-17, 23% of whom experienced a sexual victimization in their lifetime. -Socioeconomic risk factors include: low self-esteem, susceptibility to persuasion, behavior difficulties, and emotional immaturity.

Why might a child be unable to consent?

-Developmental status -Adult's authority status -Although many definitions limit abuse to situations involving an age discrepancy of 5 years or more between victim and perpetrator, others include children as potential perpetrators if a situation involves the exploitation of a child by virtue of the perp's size, age, sex, or status.

Interventions for Offenders

-Multi-component CBT- Most common. -Most behavioral approaches use some form of aversive therapy that pairs an aversive outcome with sexually deviant fantasies. -Masturbatory satiation. -Chemical castration. -CBT can also target distorted beliefs, levels of empathy, and low self-esteem.

Risk and Protective Factors

-No single symptom or pattern of symptoms is present in all victims. -Many victims exhibit no symptoms at all, at least in the short term. -CSA situations are also associated with the severity of symptoms: whether a father or a stranger was the perpetrator. Consequences are particularly severe when the perpetrator is a father or someone the victim has a close emotional relationship with. -Perhaps the most consistent finding is that threats, force, and violence by the perpetrator are linked with increased negative outcomes.

How Common is Child Sexual Abuse?

-Of the approximate 3.2 million children reported to CPS in 2014, 8.3% were victims of CSA. -Approximately 60,000 total cases of CSA were substantiated. -The most up-to-date examination of NCANDS data suggests a 64% decline in CSA between 1990 and 2014. Other surveys suggest the same. -Compared with official stats, self-report surveys have the potential to present a clearer picture of the true rate of victimization. However, such surveys are not without their problems. Some men and women are reluctant to report childhood abuse. May also be biased by the retrospective recall.

Prevention of CSA

-School-based empowerment programs to help children avoid and report victimization became popular across the US. Two Components: -Primary prevention: Keeping abuse from occurring. -Detection: Encouraging children to report past and current abuse. -Stop it Now program.

Culturally and Developmentally Normative Sexual Behavior

-Sexual interactions between adults and children have occurred throughout history. Only recently a social problem.

Consequences of Abuse

-Sexualized behavior- 1/3 of victims. -PTSD and PTSD-related symptoms. -The most common problems among adult CSA victims are depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Additional effects include problems with interpersonal relationships, sexual adjustment, and occupational problems.

Pedophilia

A mental disorder where the individual has "recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a child or children". -Not all individuals act on their feelings. -Sometimes have emotional congruence with children. -Dis-inhibitors like alcohol. -Cognitive distortions may also be disinhibitors.

Enough Abuse Campaign

A statewide education and community mobilization effort whose mission is "to prevent people from sexually abusing children now and to prevent children from developing sexually abusive behaviors in the future". -Provides information about conditions and social norms associated with the occurrence of CSA and offers parents and child care professionals knowledge to identify and respond to sexual behaviors in children.

Legal Perspectives

All u.s. states have laws prohibiting the sexual abuse of children, but the specifics vary from state to state. -Laws typically define an age of consent. -Age of consent is usually 14-18 years. -Sexual contact between an adult and minor who has not reached the age of consent is illegal. -Most states define incest as illegal regardless of age. -California sexual abuse laws include child sexual assault and child sexual exploitation and both terms are explicitly defined. -California penal code also defines commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) and includes child sex trafficking as a form of CSA.

Operation Definitions of Child Sexual Abuse

Any completed or attempted sexual act, sexual contact with, or exploitation of a child (CDC). -Sexual acts include contact that involves some form of penetration between the mouth, penis, vulva, or anus of the child and another individual. -Sexual contact refers to intentional touching, by the caregiver on the child or vice versa, of the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks. -Exploitation (non-contact) includes exposing a child to porn, voyeurism, exhibitionism, through photos or film; sexual harassment of a child; prostitution.

Relationship to the Abused Child

Approximately 60% of sexual abuse reported to authorities is committed by either a biological or non-biological parent/partner. -However, self-report victimization surveys generally find that sexual victimization is more likely to occur outside the family. -Only about 10% of CSA victims do not know their offender.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation

CSEC. Sexual abuse by the adult and remuneration in cash or kind to the child or a 3rd person or persons. -Child is treated as a sexual and commercial object. -Child porn is defined by federal law under 18 U.S.C section 2256(8) as any "visual depiction" of an actual minor or a computer-generated image that is indistinguishable from that of a minor who is engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

Family Characteristics

Characterized by violence, dysfunction, and instability serves as a risk factor for CSA and is true for both families of victims and offenders. -CSA victims are more likely to live with a stepfather, foster father, adoptive father, or single parent. -Several studies have reported a greater likelihood of insecure childhood and adult attachment styles in CSA perpetrators. Deficits in empathy and intimacy. -Childhood history of abuse is the number one risk factor.

Internet Exploitation

Cyber-exploitation or online grooming and crimes against children. -Sexting: sending sexually explicit messages and/or photographs electronically.

Demographic Characteristics of Offenders

Data from NIS-4 suggest a relatively equal distribution of offenders across age groups for offenders 26 years or older. Tends to be two onset periods: adolescence and early adulthood. -The overwhelming majority of child sexual abuse perpetrators are male. -Adolescents are responsible for 40% of offenses against children. Most are male and 14. -Perp-victim sex differences varied depending on whether the offense was pedophilia or hebephilia. -Offended against child victims nearly 1/4 of the time and chose female victims in approximately 90% of the cases. -Offended against adolescents in approximately 40% of cases and chose females. -Females offended against children in about 40% of cases and adolescents in 45% of cases, choosing males as often as females.

Stop it Now Program

Developed by a national non-profit organization in Vermont and is one of the best programs. -Encourages offenders to report themselves and enter treatment.

Child Sexual Assault under California Law

Includes anal or vaginal penetration by the penis or other objects, oral-genital and oral-anal contact, touching of the genitals or other intimate body parts whether clothed or unclothed, and genital masturbation of the perpetrator in the presence of the child.

Interventions for Adult Survivors of CSA

Likewise requires a variety of approaches, depending on the specific therapeutic needs of the victim. Research on the effectiveness of therapy has been promising.

Summary of CSA

No one knows exactly how many children experience sexual abuse each year. -Conservative estimates say 20% of women and between 5-10% of men have experienced some form of CSA.

Child Sexual Exploitation under California Law

Primarily refers to non-contact activities involving pornography (preparing, accessing, or distributing obscene matter depicting a child) and activities that include the sexual exploitation of children for financial gain such as selling child porn or encouraging and/or coercing child prostitution.

Goals of Intervention

Primary goal in working with CSA offenders and in determining treatment effectiveness has been the evaluation of recidivism rates. -Nearly impossible to accurately calculate. -Unless the offender is arrested, it is impossible to determine if or when they re-offended. -There is preliminary evidence that men who chose medical therapy to reduce their sex drives demonstrate decreased sexual behavior and offense-supportive cognitions, and increased perceptions of control over their sexual urges.

The Child Sexual Abuse and Pornography Act of 1986

Provides for federal prosecution of individuals engaged in child porn, including parents who permit their children to engaged in such activities.

Societal Attitudes

Represent another risk factor that contributes to a climate where child sexual abuse can occur. -Stop it Now! reported that fewer than half of adults (44%) reported that CSA was not a major problem in their community. -Increase in sexualizing images of children.

The Parental Role in Child Empowerment

Studies have shown that parents not only want to be involved in preventing CSA but also are effective in teaching their children about sexual abuse and appropriate protective skills. Parents are particularly effective if given specific instruction in how to talk to their children about sexual abuse.

Interventions for Children

Trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy (TF-CBT). -Acronym: PRACTICE. -TF-CBT is particularly effective in reducing ptsd symptoms in children. However, additional components are needed to address the variability of responses to abuse. -The most successful therapist are those that treat the specific needs of each individual child. -Child-parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT): Play therapy based and combines parental support and education with the aim of fostering healthy parent-child relationships.

Modus Operandi of Offenders

Use specific tactics to both recruit victims and maintain their compliance. -Typically select children who are vulnerable. -Grooming.