Sexual Politics and Child Protection: They Don't Mix

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-46
Author(s):  
Richard D. Krugman
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Sexually Abused ◽  
Sexual Politics ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Gays And Lesbians

The article by Jenny, Roesler, and Poyer in this issue of Pediatrics takes a look at a purported link between homosexuality and the sexual abuse of children. They find no such evidence. The study was prompted by the passage of a constitutional amendment in Colorado in 1992 that prohibited communities from enacting laws including homosexuals in antidiscrimination statutes. The amendment has subsequently been ruled unconstitutional by the Colorado Supreme Court, but other states are considering such legislation as of this writing. Part of the argument used by proponents of these amendments has been that children are at risk of being sexually abused by homosexuals, and therefore the inclusion of gays and lesbians as a class in antidiscrimination statutes would be hazardous to children and would protect molesters.

scholarly journals Association between child sexual abuse and mid-life employment earnings.

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Bouchard ◽  
Rachel Langevin ◽  
Francis Vergunst ◽  
Melissa Commisso ◽  
Pascale Domond ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Sexually Abused ◽  
Economic Outcomes ◽  
Kindergarten Children ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Socioeconomic Background ◽  
Official Report

Importance: Individuals who have been sexually abused are at a greater risk for poor health, but associations with economic outcomes in mid-life have been overlooked. Objectives: We investigated associations between child sexual abuse (≤18 years) and economic outcomes at 33-37 years, while considering type of report (official/retrospective) and characteristics of abuse (type, severity, and chronicity). Design: This cohort study used data collected for the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Kindergarten Children. Setting: The Quebec Longitudinal Study of Kindergarten Children is a population-based sample. Participants: Participants were 3,020 boys and girls attending kindergarten in the Canadian Province of Quebec in 1986/88 and followed up until 2017. Main outcome/Measures: Child sexual abuse (0-18 years old) was assessed using both retrospective self-report questionnaires and objective reports (notification to Child Protection Services). Information on employment earnings was obtained from government tax return records. Tobit regressions were used to test associations of sexual abuse with earnings adjusting for sex and family socioeconomic background. Results: Of the 3,020 participants 1,320 [43.7%] self-reported no sexual abuse, 1,340 [44.3%] had no official report but were missing on the retrospective questionnaire, 340 [11.3%] reported retrospective sexual abuse, and 20 [0.7%] had official report. In the fully adjusted model, individuals who retrospectively reported being sexually abused earned US$4,031 (CI=-7,134 to -931) less per year at age 33-37 years, while those with official reports earned US$16,042 (CI=-27,465 to -4,618) less, compared to participants who were not abused. Among individuals with retrospectively reported abuse, those who experienced intra-familial abuse earned US$4,696 (CI=-9,316 to -75) less than individuals who experienced extra-familial abuse, while participants who experienced penetration earned US$6,188 (CI=-12,248 to -129) less than those who experienced non-contact abuse. Conclusion and Relevance: Child sexual abuse puts individuals at risk for lasting reductions in employment earnings in adulthood. Early identification and support for sexual abuse victims could help reduce the economic gap and improve long-term outcomes.

scholarly journals Why Cleveland Still Matters: Connections with a New Era

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Bacon ◽  
Susan Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Abuse ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Sexually Abused ◽  
Abused Children ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Sexually Abused Children

This chapter explores the lasting impact of 1987 Cleveland child abuse crisis in the UK in which 127 children were diagnosed by two paediatricians as having been sexually abused. It highlights how this resulted in tensions, misunderstandings and stresses in the interface between the public and the child protection system, and persistent challenges of creating and sustaining a successful multidisciplinary approach to intervention and protection. It argues that the experience in Cleveland provided unique information about the effects of intervening in child sexual abuse, especially where children are trapped in silence and only come to light by way of a proactive intervention. These children remain difficult to help and the best way of intervening remains contentious. The authors challenge the ethos that leaves sexually abused children vulnerable in the face of investigative and evidential hurdles and suggest ways forward.

Childhood Sexual Abuse and Violence

2018 ◽  
pp. 97-115
Author(s):  
Jyoti Mishra Pandey ◽  
Abhishek Pandey ◽  
Preeti Mishra
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Sexually Abused ◽  
Multidimensional Approach ◽  
Children At Risk ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
The World

The current chapter will focus on how serious this concern is and how this can be identified and overcome with different psychological methods or techniques. Childhood is a phase of innocence. The darker side of the world is yet to be known to them. Sexual abuse and violence is seen to occur in all ages, in all socioeconomic classes, and nearly in all countries with some differences in the magnitude. Consequences of child sexual abuse and violence include impaired lifelong physical and mental health. Many a times a person who was sexually abused in his/her childhood remains have some experiences that haunt them may be throughout his/her life. These may be guilt or shame of not able to stop the abuser or didn't tell it to others. Sexual abuse in children is very difficult to identify and may even harder to see. Knowledge of the risk factors for child maltreatment can be used to identify children at risk and may represent opportunities for prevention. Preventing child maltreatment before it starts is possible and requires a multidimensional approach.

Forensic Evaluation of the Sexually Abused Child

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-398
Author(s):  
William F. Enos ◽  
Theodore B. Conrath ◽  
James C. Byer
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Sexually Abused ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Forensic Evaluation ◽  
Child Victims ◽  
Physical Evidence ◽  
Examination Protocol ◽  
Evidence Collection ◽  
Collection Methods

Results of a 16-year forensic study of 162 cases are presented. A forensic examination protocol is delineated, laboratory specimens/evidence collection methods given, and an anatomical chart of the prepubescent female genitalia with a pictorial atlas of female abuse trauma provided. The number of child victims per 100,000 at-risk population was static v the population increase and increased v victim's age. More than 80% of all cases and 82.1% of positive cases involved girls. Of all victims, approximately 40% were positive based on history, physical evidence, laboratory evidence, and/or eyewitness deposition. Alleged incestual perpetrators accounted for 21.97% of female and 3.3% of male cases reported and 20% of female and 0% of positive for findings of sexual abuse.

Malpractice & Negligence: State Supreme Courts Limit Therapists’ Duties to Third Parties

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-205
Author(s):  
Megan Cleary
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
New Hampshire ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
State Supreme Courts ◽  
Recovered Memories ◽  
Supreme Courts ◽  
Repressed Memory ◽  
University Of Colorado

In recent years, the law in the area of recovered memories in child sexual abuse cases has developed rapidly. See J.K. Murray, “Repression, Memory & Suggestibility: A Call for Limitations on the Admissibility of Repressed Memory Testimony in Abuse Trials,” University of Colorado Law Review, 66 (1995): 477-522, at 479. Three cases have defined the scope of liability to third parties. The cases, decided within six months of each other, all involved lawsuits by third parties against therapists, based on treatment in which the patients recovered memories of sexual abuse. The New Hampshire Supreme Court, in Hungerford v. Jones, 722 A.2d 478 (N.H. 1998), allowed such a claim to survive, while the supreme courts in Iowa, in J.A.H. v. Wadle & Associates, 589 N.W.2d 256 (Iowa 1999), and California, in Eear v. Sills, 82 Cal. Rptr. 281 (1991), rejected lawsuits brought by nonpatients for professional liability.

scholarly journals Role of Narrative and Social Networks in Thwarting Violence and Sexual Abuse in Young People’s Lives

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (7) ◽  
pp. 2172-2190
Author(s):  
Margareta Hydén ◽  
David Gadd ◽  
Thomas Grund
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Young People ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Sexually Abused ◽  
Her Family ◽  
The Social ◽  
Work Intervention

Abstract Combining narrative analysis with social network analysis, this article analyses the case of a young Swedish female who had been physically and sexually abused. We show how she became trapped in an abusive relationship at the age of fourteen years following social work intervention in her family home, and how she ultimately escaped from this abuse aged nineteen years. The analysis illustrates the significance of responses to interpersonal violence from the social networks that surround young people; responses that can both entrap them in abusive relationships by blaming them for their problems and enable them to escape abuse by recognising their strengths and facilitating their choices. The article argues that the case for social work approaches that envision young people’s social networks after protective interventions have been implemented. The article explains that such an approach has the potential to reconcile the competing challenges of being responsive to young people’s needs while anticipating the heightened risk of being exposed to sexual abuse young people face when estranged from their families or after their trust in professionals has been eroded.

scholarly journals Early Prevention of Maternal Sexual Abuse

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Gerke ◽  
Tatjana Dietz
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Early Prevention ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Hebrew University ◽  
Research Findings

AbstractChild sexual abuse has been discussed thoroughly; however, marginalized groups of victims such as victims of child sexual abuse in early childhood and victims of maternal sexual abuse have rarely been considered. This essay combines these two relevant perspectives in child protection and aims to pin out future directions in the field of child abuse and specifically maternal sexual abuse and its early prevention. In the course of the 7th Haruv International PhD Workshop on Child Maltreatment at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in 2019 the topics of maternal sexual abuse and early prevention of child maltreatment in Germany were discussed and intertwined. Problems concerning the specific research of maternal sexual abuse in early childhood and prevention were identified. Both, maternal sexual abuse as well as sexual abuse in early childhood, i.e. before the age of three, are underreported topics. Society still follows a “friendly mother illusion” while recent cases in German media as well as research findings indicate that the mother can be a perpetrator of child sexual abuse. Similarly, sexual abuse in early childhood, namely abuse before the age of three, is existent; although the recognition of it is difficult and young children are, in regards to their age and development especially vulnerable. They need protective adults in their environment, who are aware of sexual abuse in the first years of life. Raising awareness on marginalized or tabooed topics can be a form of prevention. An open dialog in research and practice about the so far marginalized topics of maternal sexual abuse and sexual abuse in early childhood is crucial.

scholarly journals Maternal History of Child Sexual Abuse and Maladaptive Outcomes in Sexually Abused Children: The Role of Maternal Mental Health

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110139
Author(s):  
Rachel Langevin ◽  
Martine Hébert ◽  
Audrey Kern
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Sexually Abused ◽  
Maternal Mental Health ◽  
Ptsd Symptoms ◽  
Abused Children ◽  
Maternal History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sexually Abused Children

The effects of child sexual abuse (CSA) have been found to surpass generations as maternal history of CSA is associated with increased difficulties in sexually abused children. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this association. The present study aimed to test maternal mental health symptoms including psychological distress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and dissociation as mediators of the relationship between maternal CSA and children’s internalizing, externalizing, and dissociation symptoms in a large sample of sexually abused children. A total of 997 sexually abused children aged 3-14 years old and their mothers were recruited at five specialized intervention centers offering services to sexually abused children and their families. The children were divided into two groups depending on their mothers’ self-reported history of CSA. Mothers completed a series of questionnaires assessing their mental health and children’s functioning. Maternal history of CSA was associated with increased maternal psychological distress, PTSD symptoms, and dissociation following children’s disclosure of CSA. In turn, maternal psychological distress and maternal dissociation were associated with increased child internalizing, externalizing, and dissociation symptoms. Maternal PTSD symptoms were associated with child internalizing symptoms. Maternal mental health difficulties mediated the association between maternal CSA and sexually abused children’s maladaptive outcomes. Clinicians should assess for possible history of CSA in mothers of sexually abused children and determine how best to support them to cope with the aftermaths of their child’s disclosure and with their own traumatic past.

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