CSA Cases Research Articles

Profiles of child sexual abuse cases in Ireland: an archival study

Objective: This study aimed to profile subgroups of CSA cases referred for assessment at two national CSA assessment centers in Ireland. Method: Historical and clinical data for 150 CSA cases were drawn from records of two Dublin-based national specialist sexual abuse assessment and therapeutic centers. Three main comparisons were made involving: (1) 113 confirmed CSA cases and 37 unconfirmed CSA cases, (2) 55 confirmed CSA cases that displayed clinically significant behavior problems, and the 56 confirmed CSA cases without significant adjustment difficulties, and (3) 19 confirmed CSA cases in which violence was a central feature, and 79 confirmed cases in which violence was not a central feature. Results: There were three main findings. (1) More unconfirmed cases were male; had single or separated parents; and a father with a criminal history. As a group, the confirmed cases were largely youngsters who had been abused by male adults or adolescents outside their nuclear family and who subsequently were well supported by one or two parents. (2) Poorly adjusted CSA victims had a history of coercive violent abuse while better adjusted children were victims of nonviolent abuse. (3) Victims of violent CSA were more likely to have experienced penetrative abuse and to display more externalizing behavior problems. Conclusions: Confirmed and unconfirmed CSA cases, well and poorly adjusted CSA cases, and victims of violent and nonviolent CSA referred for assessment at two national CSA assessment centers in Ireland had distinctive clinical profiles.

Child sexual abuse in Hong Kong

The reporting of suspected CSA cases to authorities in a timely manner is important in preventing continued abuse and protecting abused children at early ages. The current study seeks to explore parents’ intentions of reporting their own children’s CSA experiences to authorities as well as their reporting willingness when they become aware of possible CSA cases happening to children in other families. Two rounds of semi-structured interviews were conducted among a sample of 26 parents in Beijing; these parents were purposefully selected so as to be diverse in terms of gender, age, and socioeconomic status. The data were analyzed thematically. The findings showed that the reporting of suspected CSA to authorities was a choice made by only a few Chinese parents; it was often even a last resort. By using a holistic-interactionistic approach, the interaction between Chinese parents’ intentions of reporting CSA and the Chinese socio-cultural context was analyzed as a dynamic and continuously ongoing process. The impacts of the definition and perceptions of CSA on reporting, the balance of children’s rights and parents’ power, and the double effect of informal social control are discussed. The implications, both locally and globally, are also discussed.