As reported in Child Maltreatment 2013, out of the estimated 905,000 victims of child abuse and neglect reported in the United States in 2013, 8.8% were victims of sexual abuse. 1 This means that in that year over 79,600 children were sexually abused in the United States. “There is general agreement among mental health and child protection professionals that child sexual abuse is not uncommon and is a serious problem in the United States.” 2 Sexual abuse has a very broad definition. According to the American Psychological Association, “a central characteristic…is the dominant position of an adult that allows him or her to force or coerce a child into sexual activity.” 3 The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act defines sexual abuse as: A. “the employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of any child to engage in, or assist any other person to engage in, any sexually explicit conduct or simulation of such conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct; or B. “the rape, and in cases of caretaker or inter-familial relationships, statutory rape, molestation, prostitution, or other form of sexual exploitation of children, or incest with children” 4 There are many different types of sexual abuse, some more extreme than others. Sexual abuse falls into two categories: contact and non-contact. 5 Sexual abuse involving contact “may include fondling a child's genitals, masturbation, oral-genital contact, digital penetration, and vaginal and anal intercourse” and non-contact sexual abuse could include “exposure, voyeurism, and child pornography.” 6 All sexual abuse, no matter how severe or mild by definition, is damaging to the young child and can affect his/her neurological and psychological development and health, and affect him/her throughout life. Sexual abuse negatively affects a young child’s neurological development. It causes toxic stress, a type of stress which children are unable to manage by themselves. 7 According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, exposure to toxic stress during early childhood can impair and disrupt development of brain circuits, which “can cause an individual to develop a low threshold for stress, thereby becoming overly reactive to adverse experiences throughout life.”8 High levels of stress hormones can also affect the child’s immune system and cause “cog... ... middle of paper ... ... Symptoms · Attempts to touch the genitals of others · Sexualized play · Detailed and age-inappropriate knowledge of sexual activity · Excessive masturbatory behavior · Reluctance to undress · Avoidance of touch · Increased startle response · Hypervigilance · Extreme fluctuations in heart rate (above 100 bpm or below 60 bpm) · Sleep disturbance (bed wetting, nightmares) · Drastic change in appetite somatic complaints · Enuresis/encopresis · Substance use · Fatigue/exhaustion Emotional Symptoms · Regression to younger developmental stage · Lack of affect · Withdrawal/depression · Anxiety/irritability/fear · Phobias · Excessive guilt · Feelings of helplessness · Low self-esteem · Obsessive ideas · Self-hate · Hyperalertness · Dissociation Behavioral Symptoms · Abrupt change in behavior or personality · Aggression · Excessive crying · Over compliance · School adjustment problems/sudden drop in school performance · Temper tantrums · Truancy or runaway behavior · Self-mutilating/suicidal ideation/gestures/attempts · Flashbacks/Avoidance · Nightmares · Lack of trust/social isolation/lack of friendships · Hyperarousal ChildTrauma.org
Child sexual abuse is an umbrella term describing offenses in which an adult engages in sexual activity with a minor or exploits a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification (NSPCC, 2016). The American Psychiatric Association states that "children cannot consent to sexual activity with adults," and condemns any such action by an adult as "a criminal and immoral act which never can be considered normal or socially acceptable behaviour" (American Psychological Association, 2016). Only at the beginning of the 1900s did Western society begin to value children as persons who’s "creative and intellectual potential require fostering" rather than "cheap labour" (Heller, 2012).
Sexuality is defined in many ways, for the sake of this papers clarity sexuality will be defined as, sexual feelings and interactions that are defining features of romantic intimacy. (Fering 2009) Child sexual abuse (CSA) is defined in the International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences as "any [sexual] action that is inflicted upon or must be tolerated by a child against their own will or any [sexual] action about which the child cannot make a decision due to their physical, emotional, mental, and verbal inferiority." Statistics for the prevalence of CSA range from anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of women to 5 to 10 percent of men according to Deegener. (2002)
According to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, an estimated 777,200 children were determined to be victims of abuse or neglect by a protective service agency in the United States in 2008, and 9.1% of these children were determined to have been sexually abused (Draucker, 2011). Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a prevalent problem in the United States that is associated with many long term psychological, behavioral, social and physical effects on men and women (Draucker, 2011). These effects can make a person’s life a living hell. They turn someone into a person that they may not have been if the tragic event didn’t happen to them.
Some examples of sexual abuse include rape, forced anal and oral, forced touching or masturbation. Sexual abuse is when a child is forced or encouraged to take part in physical and sexual contact. Some signs of sexual abuse are a child knowing sexual vocabulary that is inappropriate for their age. Another sign that a child is being sexually abused is that they will act sexually inappropriately for their age and they will encourage other children to do the
Child abuse is physical maltreatment of a child’s body (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abuse). Which is the beating of a child with any item or object, for example a belt, fist, stick, and ruler. Federal law calls it impact trauma which I think is another phrase for physical violence (https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/whatiscan.cfm). Also it has a form called incest (http://www.ct.gov/dcf/cwp/view.asp?a=2556&Q=316956#Typesofneglect). Besides beating like you heard in the sentence before there are unimaginable ways to do child abuse. Child abuse can be physical but it has a non physical counterpart called neglect. There are other non appropriate versions to. The ones I am talking about deal with bodily functions that are inappropriate for school terms. If you want to know what they are go to www.ct.gov to find out the rest. Those ways might gross that is why they are inappropriate. Also cutting of a is child abuse (http://www.ct.gov/dcf/cwp/view.asp?a=2...
Child abuse has been a worldwide occurrence for many years, but many reports are kept hidden because the children are either too scared to speak on the issues at home, or they simply do not know any better. Every year in the United States there are roughly 3 million reports of child abuse. There are many forms of child maltreatment, including neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation, and emotional abuse. Child abuse should have never began in the first place, but now is the time to end it.
Sexual abuse is the act of forcing someone into sexual activity or taking advantage of a person sexually without their consent. This affects the victim’s psychological and emotional well-being, and no matter
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).
Sexual abuse includes any sexual act in which one person has not agreed to it. A woman can be sexually abused by means of, but not limited to force, coercion, blackmail, threat, or embarrassment. Sexual abuse may occur when a woman is forced to perform, watch, or in any other way engage in sexual acts. This includes but is not limited to vaginal, anal and oral sex, fondling, touching, disrespect of privacy, such as showering, being forced to watch pornography or view pornographic pictures, being forced into sexual poses, or being verbally abused in a sexual manner (Morris and Biehl 36, Haley 14).
Encouraging a child to take part in any form of sexual activity including stripping and masturbation.
Finkelhor D. Hammer H. & Sedlak A. J. NISMART Bulletin: Runaway/Thrownaway Children. Sexually Assaulted Children: National Estimates and Characteristics. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/214383.pdf
Over the years, child abuse and maltreatment has become more prevalent. There were 3.3 million child abuse reports in 2010 (Child Abuse Statistics). Do you know an individual who has been abused or mistreated as a child? Child abuse goes on much more than what individuals would like to believe. For every report of child abuse, two more cases unfortunately go unreported (Child Abuse Statistics).
There are many different types of victims we have discussed over the course of this class, but we’re only going to talk about two types in the following paper. These two types of victims are common just as any another victim across America. These include sex assault victims and child abuse victims, which are both primary victims in cases. The two share a tie together, both are a victim of abuse and can cause lifelong consequences, but they also pose many differences as well. Many questions arise when talking about victims, for example why is a child or adult being abused and what are the life altering affects to these actions. Throughout this paper we discuss both sexual assault victims and child abuse victims and compare and contrast between the two.
Child-on-child sexual abuse is another important aspect of sexual assault among children. This involves one or many other children or adolescent youths engaging in sexual behaviors with another child without the involvement of an adult (Terry 519). The group of other children uses physical force, threats or emotional manipulation to compel their fellow into sexual acts. Siblings have also been reported to victimize their brothers or sisters in sexual acts at tender ages.
More importantly, “60 percent of children who are sexually abused do not disclose and most are acquaintances but as many as 47 percent are family or extended family” (The Scope of, 2016). The prevalence of child sexual abuse is difficult to determine because it is often not reported; experts agree that the incidence is far greater than what is reported to authorities (Child Sexual Abuse, 2012). Startling statistics represent the depth of the issue. Globally, prevalence rates show that a range of 7-36% of women and 3-29% of men experience sexual abuse in childhood (The Scope of, 2016). “The U.S Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau report child maltreatment 2010 found that 9.2% of victimized children were sexually assaulted” (Child Sexual Abuse,