Children's Language of Sexuality in Child Sexual Abuse Investigations: A Brief Report

Abstract

ABSTRACT The literature on child sexual abuse stresses the importance of assessing the congruence between the child's language and developmental level. However, only anecdotal examples have been cited in the literature to describe children's language of sexuality. In the present study, 90 investigative interviews were randomly selected and content analyzed to identify children's terminology of private body parts and sexual abuse activities. The analyses indicated that 37 different words and phrases were used to describe private body parts. More than one third of the children used the term “private” to represent a vagina, breasts, a penis, and/or an anus. “Touching” was the most frequently used term in describing sexual abuse. Female children were more expressive than male children in describing sexual parts and/or sexual abuse. Younger children used a wider range of words than older children to clarify sexual body parts and sexual activities. In general, children's choice of words can imply various meanings and the interviewer cannot assume the meaning of certain slang terms without clarifying them. Interviewers can use “what” and “how” questions to clarify the meaning directly from the children.