Children Sexuality And Child Sexual Abuse

In the past 20 years, the progressive uncovering of child sexual abuse in institutional settings has reverberated across the globe with simultaneous investigations across Europe and the English-speaking world. However, most books on child sexual abuse are narrowly focused and do not situate this most distressing of human behaviours within a social or historical context. Children, Sexuality, and Child Sexual Abuse examines child sexual abuse from a broader perspective in order to understand how and why child sexual abuse is perpetrated, by whom, under what circumstances, and with what societal consequences for victims and perpetrators. This book will be an essential reference for all those working in the field of child sexual abuse. Beginning with histories of childhood and sex, and their intersections, the book goes on to analyze sexual development, sexuality, and sexualized behaviour in children and adolescents. This is followed by an examination of the extent of child sexual abuse in the English-speaking world, including its prevalence in the Indigenous communities of Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and in once-trusted societal institutions including the Church, orphanages, and schools. The book focuses on issues of concern to all those who encounter the problem of child sexual abuse and addresses questions such as: How and when do children disclose child sexual abuse? What are the characteristics of memory that affect reporting? How are disclosure claims assessed? What are the effects of having experienced child sexual abuse? Finally, there is an examination of young people who offend sexually.

Making a unique contribution of placing the current sexual exploitation of children and adolescents firmly in its historical context, this book looks at the family's and society's roles in child and adolescent sex abuse. Unlike most previous studies, this study allows a range of responses from negative to positive and avoids the methodological problems inherent in many other studies. Most studies combine the age groups of children and adolescents, whereas this study separates these different age groups and compares the nature and outcome of sexual experiences of children with those of adolescents. Utilizing sophisticated analytical measures, the author's findings repudiate many commonly held assumptions and serve to calm current hysteria regarding sexual abuse of minors. Written to disseminate findings that could be helpful in realistically confronting the phenomenon of human sexuality, the results presented in this book dispel many current myths about early sexuality, including ethnic differences. The author wanted to separate scientific inquiry from the perpetration of pervading mores or social norms, and identify the real menaces to healthy adult functioning.

The sexual abuse of children is now seen as an enormous problem; first, because there is an increasing awareness that it is more prevalent than previously thought, and second, because it gives rise to so many complex questions. How is sexual abuse to be defined? What are the effects of abuse? How can the victim be helped? How can abuse be prevented? These two comprehensive volumes cover a wide spectrum of basic and applied issues. Expert contributors -- including physicians, attorneys, psychologists, philosophers, social workers, and engineers -- address such relevant topics as epidemiology, animal models, legal reforms, feminist scholarship, child pornography, medical assessment, and diverse models of psychotherapeutic intention.

Why is child sexual abuse committed primarily by men and male adolescents, unlike other forms of child abuse? Is child sex offending, rather than being a deviant masculine sexual practice, related to normative masculine practices, that is, practices structured on dynamic and changing relations of power? Using a practice-based sociological approach, the relationship between masculinities, sexualities and child sexual abuse is analysed and the power/powerlessness theory is developed to explain the predominantly male problem of child sex offending. The theory postulates that, because the social construction of masculinities involves the construction of dynamic and changing relations of power between men, men's lives are characterised by a combination of power and powerlessness. The book argues that an offender's experiences of powerlessness as a result of his relationships with other men is the key to understanding child sex offending, since sexuality is a key social practice for the alleviation of experiences of powerlessness and for establishing relations of power with other men. In particular, the theory argues that a man's particular attachment to the link between sexuality and experiences of masculinity and power will be a key factor for determining how he does sex and whom he chooses as a sexual partner. In the final chapter, the theory is tested through a re-analysis of offender interviews.

The inspiration for much of my writing comes from my direct work with abused children and their families. However, I was prompted to write this book by my experiences as a lecturer in child protection training for a variety of pro fessional workers. I realized from the anxious questions asked and feelings expressed that, despite the fact that many professionals are unlikely to encounter a high incidence of child sexual abuse cases in the course of their careers, the subject is one that provokes considerable concern, confusion and distress. While front-line investigative personnet -such as child care social workers, specialist police officers, police surgeons and paediatricians -have a number of anxieties about working with child sexual abuse cases, they can usually avail themselves of specific training, detailed books and articles and the support of experienced colleagues to help sustain them through any difficulties. It is non-investigating workers on the periphery of child protection work, many of whom are health professionals, who are left feeling worried and vulnerable. They may encounter only one or two cases of child sexual abuse during their careers, and because the numbers they have to work with are small, their employers, perhaps understandably, are reluctant to give them any special training in child protection work.

What is “normal sexual behavior” in a child? Childhood sexuality is an often neglected field in sex research. There is very little literature about what one might call “normal child sexual behavior.” The existing literature on child sexuality gives the impression that the only way in which children figure in sexological research is as objects of sexual abuse. The child, as a subject learning about sexuality and capable of experiencing sexual pleasures, doesn't seem to exist in scholarly papers. Childhood Sexuality: Normal Behavior and Development does not focus on sexual abuse but instead deals with what can be described as “normal” sexual behavior and development in children under age 12. This valuable book offers information about the relationship between age and sexual development, both mental and physical, in both males and females. Childhood Sexuality: Normal Behavior and Development explores several issues, including: what children ages two to six think or know about sexuality the ways that children learn about sexuality and procreation the process of body discovery among children what normal sexual behaviors to expect in children of various ages the importance of growing up in a positive environment the differences in sexual development between children of the same age and gender ways to get honest answers from children and parents about sexuality Comprehensive and enlightening, Childhood Sexuality examines the difficulties of gathering this information from children and gives insight into questions that need to be answered in the future. This guide delivers a diverse look at the complex and intriguing topic of normal child sexuality and the progress that is being made in this area of research.