Sexual abuse (also referred to as molestation) is defined
by the forcing of undesired sexual acts by one person to another, or
sexual activity with someone defined as improper, such as a child.
Different types of sexual abuse involve non-consensual, forced physical
sexual behavior, such as rape, sexual assault, or sexual harassment,
psychological forms of abuse, such as verbal sexual behavior, or
stalking, or the use of a position of trust for sexual purposes. When
involving a child, and the perpetrator is a member of their own family,
this constitutes incest.
Sexual behavior is related to the very purpose of human existence: Love,
the production of new life, and the continuation of lineage. With such
significant social ramifications, most societies set limits, through
social norms and taboos, moral and religious guidelines, and legal
constraints, to protect those who are not ready to participate in a
sexual relationship. Sexual abuse violates the sanctity of the
individual—physically, emotionally, and spiritually—threatening the core
of the victim's being.
Types
Spousal sexual abuse
Spousal abuse is the term applied to the specific form of domestic
violence, where physical or sexual abuse is perpetrated by one spouse
upon another. Frequently, this involves forced sex (spousal rape) upon a
spouse without their consent.
Sexual abuse of minors
Child sexual abuse is an umbrella term describing criminal and civil
offenses in which an adult engages in sexual activity with a minor or
exploits a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification. This term
includes a variety of sexual offenses, including rape, sexual
molestation, or sexual exploitation. Rape occurs when an adult touches a
minor for the purpose of sexual gratification; for example, rape,
sodomy, and sexual penetration with an object. Sexual molestation
includes offenses in which an adult engages in non-penetrative activity
with a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification; for example,
exposing a minor to pornography or to the sexual acts of others. Sexual
exploitation involves an adult victimizing a minor for advancement,
sexual gratification, or profit; for example, prostituting a child, and
creating or trafficking in child pornography.
Legal aspects
In the majority of cultures and countries, sexual activity is legal and
acceptable only if both parties give consent. The age of consent, that
is, the age at which the law presumes a person has the physical,
emotional, and sexual maturity to make an informed adult decision to
enter into sexual activity, differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction,
from the low teen years in Italy and Spain to the mid to high teen years
elsewhere, for example 16 in the United Kingdom, 17 in Ireland, 18 in
India. (Some states also provide different ages of consent for
homosexual boys as compared to heterosexual boys and girls.)
Yet, separately the law may specify a different age where a teenager
ceases to be a child and becomes an adult. As a result, where a
difference exists, it may be perfectly legal to have sex with a child
where the individual, though still deemed a child in law, is above the
age of consent specified in local legislation. In most cases, the age of
consent and statutory rape laws aim at protecting children and
teenagers from exploitation, particularly physical or psychological
exploitation involving sexual behavior.
International law
One hundred forty nations are signatories to the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child. This international treaty defines
a set of protections which signatories agree to provide for the
children of their respective countries.[6]
Articles 34 and 35 require that signatories protect their nations’
children from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. This
includes outlawing the coercion of a child to perform sexual activity,
the prostitution of children, and the exploitation of children in
creating pornography. Signatories also agree to prevent abduction, sale,
or trafficking of children.
Penalties for child sexual abuse
Penalties for child sexual abuse vary with the specific offenses for
which the perpetrator has been convicted. Criminal penalties may include
imprisonment, fines, registration as a sex offender, and restrictions
on probation and parole. Civil penalties may include liability for
damages, injunctions, involuntary commitment, and, for perpetrators
related to their victims, loss of custody or parental rights.
In the late twentieth century, many state legislatures increased prison
terms and other penalties for child sex offenders. This trend toward
more stringent sentences generally targets those perpetrators who are
repeat offenders, who victimize multiple children, or who stood in a
position of trust with respect to their victims, such as a guardian,
parent, pastor, or teacher.
Offenders
Offenders are more likely to be relatives or acquaintances of their
victim than strangers. The percentage of incidents of sexual abuse by
female perpetrators that come to the attention of the legal system is
usually reported as between 1 percent and 4 percent. Studies of sexual
misconduct in U.S. schools female sex offenders have showed mixed
results with rates between 4 percent to 43 percent of female offenders.
In U.S. schools, educators who offend range in age from "21 to 75 years
old, with an average age of 28" with teachers, coaches, substitute
teachers, bus drivers, and teacher's aids (in that order) totaling 69
percent of the offenders.
Typology
Typologies for child sex offenders have been used since the 1970s. Male
offenders are typically classified by their motivation, which is usually
assessed by reviewing their offense's characteristics. Phallometric
tests may also be used to determine the abuser's level of pedophilic
interest. Groth et al. proposed a simple, dichotomous system in 1982,
which classed offenders as either "regressed" or "fixated." There are
generally two types of offenders: Regressed and fixated.
Regressed offenders are primarily attracted to their own age group but are passively aroused by minors.
- The sexual attraction in minors is not manifested until adulthood.
- Their sexual conduct until adulthood is aligned with that of their own age group.
- Their interest in minors is either not cognitively realized until well into adulthood or it was recognized early on and simply suppressed due to social taboo.
- Not associating their attractions as pedosexual in nature due to cultural differences.
- Age of consent laws were raised in their jurisdiction but mainstream views toward sex with that age group remained the same, were acted upon, then they were charged with a crime.
- The person's passive interest in children is manifested temporarily upon the consumption of alcohol and acted upon while inhibitions were low.
Effects of sexual abuse
Developmental
Research has shown that traumatic stress, including stress caused by sexual abuse, causes notable changes in brain functioning and development.
Various studies have suggested that severe child sexual abuse may have a deleterious effect on brain development. Ito et al. (1998) found "reversed hemispheric asymmetry and greater left hemisphere coherence in abused subjects;" Anderson et al. (2002) recorded abnormal transverse relaxation time in the cerebellar vermis of adults sexually abused in childhood; Teicher et al. (1993) found that child sexual abuse was associated with a reduced corpus callosum area; various studies have found an association of reduced volume of the left hippocampus with child sexual abuse; and Ito et al. (1993) found increased electrophysiological abnormalities in sexually abused children.
Navalta et al. (2006) found that the self-reported math Scholastic Aptitude Test scores of their sample of women with a history of repeated child sexual abuse were significantly lower than the self-reported math SAT scores of their non-abused sample. Because the abused subjects verbal SAT scores were high, they hypothesized that the low math SAT scores could "stem from a defect in hemispheric integration," which, they say, "could be a consequence of reduced corpus callosal area." They also found a strong association between short term memory impairments for all categories tested (verbal, visual, and global) and the duration of the abuse. The authors hypothesized that the development of brain regions which myelinate over decades (such as the corpus callosum and hippocampus) may be disturbed by stress, because stress hormones such as cortisol suppress the final mitosis of granule cells and thereby the production of the oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells that form the myelin sheath.
Psychological
Sufferers of sexual abuse can experience a wide range of psychological trauma. Problems include depression, anxiety, guilt, fear, sexual dysfunction, withdrawal, and acting out. These effects can occur over a very short or long period of time following abuse. Most effects are made manifest within the first two years following abuse. Victims may display regressive behavior, such as thumb sucking or bed wetting. Abuse can also lead to self-destructive behavior such as alcoholism, drug abuse, anxiety attacks or insomnia. Many victims suffer from chronically low self-esteem and blame themselves for the attacks.
Social
Victims of sexual abuse often do not interact well with others following abuse. Some victims may develop a fear or anxiety about the opposite sex, resulting in strained social interactions. Other victims can exhibit deviant sexual behavior or become hyper-sexualized. This hyper-sexualization may result in promiscuity in some and prostitution in others. Victims of abuse often have intimacy issues and cannot trust other people. Past victims may have difficulty parenting and may abuse their own children.
Reporting sexual abuse
Understanding the pervasiveness of sexual abuse in society is difficult for two reasons: Victims often do not feel comfortable reporting their abuse and abuse often occurs at such an early age that victims cannot accurately remember it. False reports of abuse can be disruptive to all involved from the supposed victim to the alleged attacker whose reputation is then sullied.
The nature of sexual abuse leads many to become overly afraid and suspicious about the possibility, resulting in scares such as the "Daycare Sexual Abuse" hysteria in the 1980s and 1990s, in which daycare workers were accused of ritual sexual abuse of children in America, Canada, and New Zealand. During the scare, concerned police officers used questionable interrogation tactics on children to elicit tales of abuse by their parents and caregivers, many of which were later found to be untrue.
Victims fear reporting their abuse for a number of reasons. First, they are often abused by a close contact and may have mixed feelings about the person. The victims may feel loyalty and even love for their attacker. Often the abuser is seen as an authority figure who tells their victim not to discuss their "secret" with other adults. When the abuser is a member of the victims family, or a trusted adult such as a caregiver, teacher, or priest, it is especially difficult for a child to go against their abuser's direction. These intimate relationships also lead to tensions within families or social circles as the victims often have to see their attackers on a regular or daily basis. Victims fear their social lives may be torn apart by leveling allegations against another person. Second, victims may fear retribution either from their attacker or society in general. This would especially be a problem in situations where the attacker is a family member or close associate with whom the victim has regular contact. Retribution may take the form of physical violence, ostracism, or other forms of psychological attack.