Sexualized Doll Play among Young Children: Implications for the Use of Anatomical Dolls in Sexual Abuse Evaluations

To determine the value of using anatomically correct dolls in diagnostic interviews of young children suspected of being sexually abused, the records of 83 children who were less than 7 years of age and who were evaluated at Yale-New Haven Hospital because of a suspicion of sexual abuse were reviewed. The dolls were used in 60 cases (72%). When the dolls were used, children provided significantly more information than by interview alone about what had happened and about the identity of the suspected perpetrator. Children less than 3 years of age, however, were unable to provide details about the abuse despite the use of the dolls. The ratings of the likelihood that sexual abuse had occurred were based on all of the information in the case including that obtained through the diagnostic interview with the dolls. When these ratings were compared with the ratings based on evidence obtained solely from noninterview data, the likelihood of abuse was higher in 35% of the cases. It was concluded that substantially more information is provided by young children when anatomically correct dolls are used and that the likelihood of detection of abuse is increased when information from the child is included in the assessment.

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Child sexual abuse prevention programs that target young children.

Violence against children in the family and the community. ◽

10.1037/10292-012 ◽

1998 ◽

pp. 317-337 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

N. Dickon Reppucci ◽

Deborah Land ◽

Jeffrey J. Haugaard

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Child Sexual Abuse ◽

Young Children ◽

Prevention Programs ◽

Abuse Prevention ◽

Sexual Abuse Prevention ◽

Child Sexual Abuse Prevention

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Horses and Corpses

Screw Consent ◽

10.1525/california/9780520295407.003.0005 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 117-134

Author(s):

Joseph J. Fischel

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Child Sexual Abuse ◽

Young Children ◽

The State ◽

Human Relations ◽

Final Point ◽

Men I

In the state of Washington, in the early 2000s, several men regularly convened together to be penetrated by horses. Around the same time, three men in Michigan tried to exhume a woman’s corpse so one of the men could penetrate it. I consider these strange scenarios to puncture the good liberal’s posture. The good liberal defaults to consent: sex with horses must be wrong because horses cannot consent and sex with human corpses must be wrong because corpses cannot consent. But consent is startlingly inapposite. Horses and corpses are not the kinds of things to which a consent inquiry reasonably applies because consent is a human construct for governing human relations. These meditations lead to unsettling conclusions about child sexual abuse. The modern notion of the “child” presupposes adult superintendence because children are creatures incapable of consent. But then why should it matter that children cannot consent to sex? Sex between adults and young children is wrong, but not primarily because of the lack of consent. The final point of the chapter is about men. I surmise that what these men sought in sex was not gendered dominance but a break from the strictures of gendered dominance.

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Young children: the visibility paradox

Online Child Sexual Victimisation ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447354505.003.0004 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 87-112

Author(s):

Corinne May-Chahal ◽

Emma Kelly

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Law Enforcement ◽

Child Sexual Abuse ◽

Young Children ◽

Sexual Violence ◽

Family Members ◽

Image Databases ◽

The Past ◽

Traditional Sense ◽

The Subject

This chapter reviews what is known about child sexual abuse media, with a particular focus on the abuse of young children (those under the age of 10). Young children are seldom the subject of research on sexual violence, yet the online-facilitated sexual abuse of these children is known to exist. In the past, child sexual abuse has been described as a hidden phenomenon that is made visible through a child's disclosure or evidence in and on their bodies. Online child sexual victimisation (OCSV) experienced by young children is still hidden in this traditional sense but at the same time highly visible through images that are both detached from the child yet traumatically attached through their creation and continued circulation throughout childhood. Indeed, most of what can be known about OCSV and younger children is through analyses of images harvested online and analyses of law enforcement and non-governmental organisation (NGO) image databases. These sources suggest that OCSV involving young children is different from that experienced by those who are older. It more often involves parents, carers, and family members; it is legally and developmentally impossible for children to consent to it; and images and videos of the abuse are more likely to be trafficked.

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