Attitudes Toward Perpetrators and Victims of Child Sexual Abuse Bailey Rector University of North Florida

University of North Florida UNF Digital Commons All Volumes (2001-2008) The sprO ey Journal of Ideas and Inquiry 2007 Sexual Tutor or Sexual Predator, Instigating Provocateur or Innocent Victim? Attitudes Toward Perpetrators and Victims of Child Sexual Abuse Bailey Rector University of North Florida Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/ojii_volumes Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Suggested Citation Rector, Bailey, "Sexual Tutor or Sexual Predator, Instigating Provocateur or Innocent Victim? Attitudes Toward Perpetrators and Victims of Child Sexual Abuse" (2007). All Volumes (2001-2008). 41. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/ojii_volumes/41 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The sprO ey Journal of Ideas and Inquiry at UNF Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Volumes (2001-2008) by an authorized administrator of UNF Digital Commons. For more information, please contact Digital Projects. © 2007 All Rights Reserved Sexual Tutor or Sexual Predator, Child Sexual Abuse Child sexual abuse is a heinous act Instigating Provocateur or endured by 100,000 to 500,000 children in Innocent Victim? the United States every year (Maes & Attitudes Toward Perpetrators Baum, 2001). Child sexual abuse is defined as any act on an individual 18 years or and Victims of Child Sexual younger by an adult that includes, but is not Abuse limited to, attempted and or completed intercourse, inappropriate touching or kissing, photographing a child sexually, or Bailey Rector by exhibiting sexual body parts to a child (Fieldman & Crespi, 2002). The prevalence of cases of child sexual abuse varies to Faculty Sponsors: some degree because individuals define sexual abuse differently. Consequently, Dr. Christopher Leone, some instances of child sexual abuse may Professor of Psychology not be identified because the victims did not consider the behaviors perpetrated upon LouAnne B. Hawkins, RN, MA, them to be abusive and interviewers’ Coordinator, Undergraduate Research questions were not specific enough (e.g., about a behavior) to eliminate interpretation (Finkelhor, Hotaling, Lewis & Smith, Jessica Lunsford’s father awoke on 1990). February 24, 2005 to discover his nine-year-old Child sexual abuse has many daughter was missing. John Couey, Jessica’s consequences for those children involved. neighbor, had entered their home at 1:00 AM One of the most common consequences is the previous night and abducted the little girl. posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) After sexually assaulting her, he dug a hole and including symptoms such as hypervigilance, buried her alive. A forty-nine-year-old sleep disturbances, flashbacks, and homeless man, Brian Mitchell, abducted restricted affect (Kendall-Tackett, Williams, fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart at knifepoint & Finkelhor, 1993). In addition to from her bedroom in an affluent district of Salt symptoms of PTSD, children show Lake City. She was found after nine months of withdrawn behavior, self-injurious sexual abuse, deprivation, and threats to her behavior, and age inappropriate sexual life. The scruffy drifter was arrested and awaits knowledge and behavior (Kendall-Tackett trial. et al., 1993). These consequences are more In recent months, newscasters have prevalent in some age groups than in other brought the images of these unshaven, dirty age groups. PTSD is the most common predators and their fair, sweet victims into our consequence for pre-school age children. households. Now imagine that these predators Fear, nightmares, and school issues are the are attractive young women in business suits most common consequences for school age and heels and their victims are rowdy little boys children. Depression and suicidal or self- in baggy clothes. Impossible? Perhaps most injurious behavior are the most common people think so. Why is it that we envision the consequences for adolescents (Kendall- prototypical child molester as one of the men Tackett et al., 1993). More severe forms of represented above? Why is that we envision the sexual abuse, such as incidents that include prototypical sexual abuse victim as a fragile penetration, tend to be extremely damaging little girl? to a child and extremely likely to be associated with psychopathology (Kendall- Tackett et al., 1993). Severity of child sexual victimization is a female perpetrates (Maynard & defined by three primary characteristics Wiederman, 1997). Another general belief (Kendall-Tackett et al., 1993). First, instances is that victims are nearly always girls. A in which a child is penetrated vaginally or belief that girls will most often be victims anally are considered more severe than are may result in a lack of response from instances in which there is no penetration. outsiders when a boy is victimized Second, instances in which the perpetrator is (Maynard & Wiederman, 1997). College psychologically and socially close to a child are students, for example, tend to believe that more severe than are instances in which the when a male child and female adult interact perpetrator is not psychologically and socially sexually, the interaction is not child abuse close to a child. Third, instances in which force (Denov, 2003; Maynard & Wiederman, or threat of force is used are more severe than 1997). College students reported that they are instances in which force or threat of force is believed that a male child is not scarred by a absent. Consequently, the severity of child sexual encounter with a female adult sexual victimization may range from least (Maynard & Wiederman, 1997). In general, severe (e.g., a child is coerced into letting an college students rated same sex sexual adult neighbor see her naked) to most severe interactions to be sexual abuse more than (e.g., a child is forcibly sodomized by his step- they rated opposite-sex sexual interactions father who threatens to kill him if he tells to be sexual abuse (Maynard & Wiederman, anyone). Victims of longer durations of sexual 1997). abuse also tend to have more consequences Individuals also tend to believe that (Kendall-Tackett et al., 1993). females do not possess the potential to be In addition to the previously mentioned sexually aggressive (Denov, 2003). psychopathology, victims of child sexual abuse Clinicians perpetuate this belief when they are more likely to become perpetrators of child report female sexual aggression as rare sexual abuse than are individuals with no (Denov, 2003). In fact, it is written in history of child sexual victimization. Wilcox, several state laws that a female cannot Richards and O’Keeffe (2004), for example, commit an act of rape (Denov, 2003). noted that 72% of sexually aggressive pre- Idaho’s statute on rape, for example, reads teenage children had themselves been sexually “rape is defined as the penetration, however abused. Researchers have found that 75% of slight, of the oral, anal or vaginal opening females who are sexually abusive were sexually with the perpetrator’s penis …” (Denov, abused as children (Wilcox et al., 2004). 2003, p. 309). Given that a woman does not Researchers have also found that 40% of males have a penis, it is virtually impossible for a who are sexually abusive were sexually abused woman to be charged with rape even if she as children (Wilcox et al., 2004). Perpetrators has sex forcibly or if she penetrates her who sexually victimize children are more likely victim’s orifices with an object. As a result to have been abused themselves than are of these beliefs and laws, victims are fearful perpetrators who sexually victimize adults of reporting sexual abuse perpetrated by a (Wilcox et al., 2004). Transmission of sexually female because victims feel that they are abusive behavior from one generation to the less likely to be believed or protected next is not, however, an inevitable consequence (Denov, 2003). of being sexually abused (Cicchetti & Rizley, Although perpetrators may be male 1981). or female, perpetrators do tend to differ in There are many misconceptions about terms of their relationship to a victim. who perpetrates child sexual abuse. One general Individuals known to a victim (e.g., belief is that males are nearly always biological relatives, family friends, and perpetrators (Maynard & Wiederman, 1997). A adults living in the female victim’s home) belief that males will most often perpetrate may are most often perpetrators in cases where result in a lack of response from outsiders when penetration takes place with a female victim (Carlstedt, Forsman & Soderstrom, 2001; experiences with child sexual abuse. Of the Finkelor et. al., 1990). Individuals unknown to 1,145 men and 1,481 women that were a victim (e.g., a neighbor, a bus driver, and a called, 16% of the men reported total stranger) are most often perpetrators in experiencing child sexual abuse and 27% of cases where penetration takes place with a male the women reported experiencing child victim (Caelstedt et al., 2001; Finkelor et al., sexual abuse. The average age that males 1990). The older a child is, the more likely it is reported being victims of child sexual abuse for a perpetrator to be a stranger (Caelstedt et was 9.9 years old. The average age that al., 2001). females reported being victims of child Females play an important role as sexual abuse was 9.6 years old. Twenty-two perpetrators. The general public often likes to percent of the males and 23% of the females deny that females are also perpetrators of child who had been abused reported having been sexual abuse (Denov, 2003). In a study of 348 abused before the age of 8 (Finkelor et al., convicted male rapists, 106 of these men had 1990). been victims of child sexual trauma (Denov, However, the actual incidence of 2003). Of these 106 inmates, 42% of them sexual victimization of males may in fact be reported that their perpetrator had been female even higher than that reflected in court and (Denov, 2003). In a study of male college medical records.

Load more