Sexual Abuse of Children

Abstract

Childhood sexual abuse has been defined as any sexual experience between a child (usually defined as under age 16) and an adult or person at least 5 years older than the child (Finkelhor, 1979). The definition includes a wide range of acts, including exhibitionism, fondling, intercourse, and pornography. “Recent epidemiological findings from adults” retrospective reports indicate that as many as 19% to 28% of women and 8.6% to 16% of men report at least one sexual victimization experience during childhood (Finkelhor, 1979; Russell, 1983; Timnick, 1985). The majority of sexually abusive experiences involve “serious” to “very serious” forms of abuse that have the potential for psychological trauma and short- and long-term sequelae. Finkelhor’s (1979) survey of college students revealed that 20% of his sexually abused sample had experienced exhibitionism, 40% reported genital fondling, and 40% reported either oral-genital contact or vaginal or anal intercourse. Similar statistics were reported by Russell (1983) for a sample of women who were sexually abused as children. Twenty-three percent reported “very serious” sexual contact (penile penetration of the vagina or anus, fellatio, cunnilingus, analingus) and41% reported “serious” sexual contact (digital vaginal penetration, unclothed fondling of breasts or genitals, and simulated or attempted intercourse).