The many kinds of sexual abuse of young children
OUTPUT TYPE: Chapter in Monograph
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2004
TITLE AUTHOR(S): L.Richter, C.Higson-Smith
SOURCE EDITOR(S): L.Richter, A.Dawes, C.Higson-Smith
KEYWORDS: CHILDREN, SEXUAL ABUSE
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 2661
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/7967
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/7967
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
One of the reasons why we understand relatively little about the sexual abuse of pre-pubertal children is that we think and speak about child sexual abuse as if it were one thing; as if all episodes of sexual abuse of a young child followed the same pattern, were prompted by the same motivations, and led to the same consequences. Rather, there are several distinct kinds of sexual abuse perpetrated against pre-pubertal children. Child sexual abuse varies by feature of event, the experience of the child, the duration of the abuse, the age of the child, the circumstances under which the abuse takes place, and the effects of the abuse on the child and the family. This more precisely specify knowledge about child sexual abuse resides in police files, in the notes of service organisations, in whispered disclosures between friends and family, and in the memories of children and perpetrators. Little of this knowledge has made its way into formal scholarly discourse, and little of this knowledge currently informal theory or recommended practice in South Africa.-
Related Research Outputs:
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- Child sexual abuse in Atlantis: a research report
- Child sexual abuse in Atlantis: the scale of the problem
- Sexual abuse of young children in southern Africa
- Confronting the problem
- Individual and contextual factors associated with the sexual abuse of children under 12: a review of recent literature
- The socio-cultural context of child abuse:a betrayal of trust
- Commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of children
- Access to specialist services and the criminal justice system: data from the Teddy Bear Clinic
- Doing something: the initiation of sexual abuse services in Soweto
- Are we any closer to solutions?
- Measurement and monitoring
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- Community perceptions and understanding of the risk factors that affect children who are sexually abused
- Standards for the reporting of sex/sexual activity of minors in a research context
- Time for the next steps
- Impacts and interventions: the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the children of South Africa
- Impacts and interventions: the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the children of South Africa
- Sickness, death and poverty - our bequest to orphans
- Report of the meeting on the sexual abuse of children younger than 12 years of age: understanding and preventing the sexual abuse of young children - next steps on the South African operational research agenda