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C H A P T E R 1

Yesterday and Today The History of Sexual Exploitation and Intervention as a Backdrop for Today’s Understanding

It is a lovely warm summer day at the playground. You watch the children laughing and running; their joy seems infectious. Just watching these happy children, you feel relaxed, hopeful, and carefree. If you were told that one in three of those adorable little girls and one in five, or possibly more, of

the boys would be sexually abused or at least approached prior to her or his 18th birthday, you might suddenly find that your mood had changed dramatically. It is difficult to imagine as one watches children how anyone could want to do them harm, especially sexually. And yet, somewhere, possibly not far away, is someone who will at some time molest a child. A sobering thought. But why would an adult want to become sexually involved with a child?

To fully understand the dynamics of sexual abuse today, it is necessary to look at the phenomenon as our awareness of it first emerged and to trace our knowledge of abuse up until the present.

CHILDREN AND SEXUALITY IN EARLY HISTORY Our perception of children and childhood has changed significantly over the last few centuries. In fact, there was no such state as “childhood” prior to the 20th century. Instead, people who were young in age and small in stature were seen as inferior and treated as property (Colon, 2001; Hilarski, 2008b).

The Fate of Little Girls In ancient times, children were seen as the property of their fathers. Disrespect of one’s father could result in dismemberment or even death. In early Greece, it was considered to be medically necessary for female children to engage in sexual intercourse at the commencement of menarche. The rationale for this practice was that the medical community at that time believed that the blood could not leave the body unless the hymen had been broken. If the menstrual blood was denied an egress, it would then accumulate around the heart of the virgin and threaten her life. A young female who experi- enced symptoms like bloating (supposedly from the buildup of toxic fluid) or madness (the result of the toxicity) could be cured by intercourse and marriage. It therefore became the duty of males to

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4 PART I OVERVIEW OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

have sex with female children, the younger the better (Demand, 2004; Hilarski, 2008b).

In early Roman culture, marrying a close relative was not only legal but encouraged in order to preserve class structure. It was, in fact, illegal to marry outside of one’s class or ances- try. Early Greeks too saw the preservation of their Hellenistic ancestry more important than incest laws (Colon, 2001; Hilarski, 2008b). Colon (2001) quotes an ancient wedding invitation that reads “Herais invites you to the marriage of her children, at home, the 5th, starting at the ninth hour” (p. 95).

Throughout early history, in many cultures, female children were betrothed to the men of their father’s choosing. The legal age for marriage for young women was 12, whereas their male counterparts could not marry until 14 (Colon, 2001; Hilarski, 2008b; Rush, 1996). The fact that females were used as barter made them valuable, and it was not uncommon for girls to be mar- ried at a very early age. In some cases, betrothal was expected to be sealed by intercourse. The transaction was considered to be a business arrangement, and men were urged to examine their acquisition carefully as one would a horse or any other purchased beast (Hilarski, 2008b; Rush, 1996). In addition, it was often the custom to prepare young girls for marriage by breaking the hymen, an act that was no doubt for the child.

Dowries, the payment of money or goods by the girl’s father, were often an additional benefit of marriage. But when a girl’s father could not afford such a fee, she might be compelled to enter a convent. Such a future could be determined by her sixth birthday, and she would then live her days in the confinement of the convent. One assumes that this would also protect her from unwanted sexual duties. However, at the beginning of the 18th cen- tury, it became apparent that such girls were being used as “wives” by the monks. Their discretion on this matter was assured by the fact that the girls were threatened with excommunication if they were to resist or tell (Rush, 1996).

By the Victorian Era, attraction to female children had developed in adult men. The mod- ern reader might find the seductive tone of William Blakes’s poem “The Traveler” to be unsettling given today’s standards.

The honey of her infant lips The bread and wine of her sweet smile The wild Game of her roving eye Does him to Infancy beguile.

The result of the “cult of the little girl” was that, while adult women sought peace from their husbands’ sexual attentions through protesting about their modesty, little girls became targets for prostitution, molestation, rape, and pornog- raphy. The stories of several well-known men of the time who preferred the company of young girls exemplify society’s preoccupation with the image of the nubile nymphet. At 27, William Wordsworth became enamored of a 12-year-old girl whom he courted until she was 15, at which time, he proposed marriage. Her refusal did not appear to daunt him from his pursuit of under- age love objects. But when the age of consent in England was raised from 13 to 16, he apparently concluded that his choices would remain within the legal limits (Rush, 1996).

Edgar Allen Poe’s marriage to his 13-year- old cousin, Virginia, apparently did not blemish his career. And Charles Dickens left his wife and children to take up with an 18-year-old mistress. Although his choice was well within the confines of adulthood by the definition of the times, the 27 year age difference between the two lovers gave some pause (Rush, 1996). Interestingly enough, Dickens would later become known not only for his books lamenting the fate of children but also for his efforts to protect them from abuse.

Some biographers of Lewis Carroll feel that his interest in very young girls was far from inno- cent. This author reportedly sought out young girls to photograph and spend time with. Because his preference was to photograph his models

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nude, his practices were met with some questions. Florence Rush (1996), in her The Best Kept Secret, writes that Carroll argued that his propensity to choose young female friends did not categorize him as a child molester as some contended. Some might counter that, in today’s cautious social cli- mate, Carroll’s preference for play with his child friends at their own level would cause concern.

In seeming contradiction to the stiff climate of the Victorian Era, child prostitution was very much available for men who were looking for a way to act out their fantasies about nubile young girls. Even into the 19th century, slave owners in the Southern regions of the United States found pleasure with the female children of their slaves. These girls, who might be as young as 11, 12, or 13, often produced offspring that could be sold or serve to increase the property of free labor for their masters (Colon, 2001; Hilarski, 2008b; Olafson, Corwin, & Summit, 1993; Rush, 1996).

One cannot conclude that the sexual abuse of children is an old phenomenon because the afore- mentioned use of girls and the sexual attentions to their male counterparts were not considered to be abusive. How could one be abusive to someone who has no rights? Thus, not only is the concept of childhood new but the definition of sexual abuse is relatively recent as well (Bolen, 2007).

A Little Boy’s Lot Boys fared better in some ways but were nonethe- less used sexually in early times. Pederasty (the sexual use of boys by adult men) was especially common in early Greece. Boys were chosen for their vibrant beauty and their “bloom of youth,” two concepts that the Greeks found to be synony- mous. Young boys would be initiated into sexual- ity by mature males who hoped also to prepare them to be soldiers. Given our current ideas of masculinity, this connection seems incongruous, but the poetry of the day gives the image seen by men at that time:

In a young man all is beautiful when he possesses The shining flower of youth Alive he is adored by men and desired by women And the finest to look at when he falls In a forward clash

—Barnstone, 1972, p. 40, as cited in Rush, 1996, p. 49

Because the Greeks needed a strong army and a healthy supply of young men to fight, militarism and pederasty were suited for one another. The close relationship of the pederast and his boy provided an excellent mentorship to train soldiers according to strict governmental standards. Thus, young boys from noble families found themselves required to acquiesce to an adult lover for training in both sexuality and soldiering (Hilarski, 2008b; Rush, 1996; Verstraete, 2004).

Unlike the Greeks, the Romans felt that sex was a way of humiliating rather than elevating inferiors. Mutilation of the genitals and castra- tion were seen as particularly degrading forms of torture or retribution (Rush, 1996). Pederasty is documented again in Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries among such figures as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo (Colon, 2001). The Roman Catholic Church attempted to suppress this behavior, described as sodomy, and some sources indicate that the guilty and the youth who were seen as “coconspirators” (the legal age of consent varied from 6 to 10 years) may have been subjected to flogging, torture, or even being burned at the stake (Hilarski, 2008b). It was not until 1548 that boys were afforded any type of protection from being sexually used. In that year, England passed a law protecting boys from being forced into sodomy (Conte & Shore, 1982).

Incest and Its Prohibition The word incest refers to sexual relationships between family members. DeMause (1991) points out that, since ancient times, every cul- ture has had a prohibition against incest. These

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prohibitions have been, on a society-wide basis, largely effective, and therefore the breaking of this taboo becomes societally unacceptable. The origin of this taboo is much debated in anthro- pological literature. Meiselman (1992) examined this literature and cited several explanations for the original taboo. Morgan, a nineteenth century theorist (Meiselman, 1992) traced the incest taboo to the fear that inbreeding among imme- diate family members might create deformed or damaged offspring. Westermark (Meiselman, 1992) supported this view and compared these results of inbreeding to the animal kingdom. Other theorists argued against this theory of inferior offspring. Some suggested that there had been no attempt to look at the original gene donors who might themselves have had defects. Thus, the original defects might have been strengthened by inbreeding, although the con- verse, combing closely related genes with superior characteristics, could also be true. Geneticists also pointed out that recessive genes would be more likely to combine when the two parents had simi- lar gene pools, thus bringing out characteristics that might not be observable in either parent. Some of these recessive genes could produce beneficial characteristics.

Other researchers pointed out that primi- tive people would probably not have had the sophistication to recognize that inbreeding could combine unwanted genes and thus be deleterious to offspring. Further, animals may breed between mothers and sons and fathers and daughters as well as siblings, yet species do not die out due to defective offspring. Thus, these biological expla- nations ceased to be popular (deMause, 1991; Meiselman, 1992).

In 1922, Westermarck (as cited in Meiselman, 1992), although originally a proponent of the biological explanation for the incest taboo, also postulated that a natural aversion to sexual expression developed between people who lived together from childhood. He then suggested that, because it is families that raise these individuals

in close proximity, there evolves a taboo against incest or sexual expression within the immediate family. Later in 1962, Fox pointed out that societ- ies in which sexual expression between siblings is not prohibited still give rise to sexual aversion that is embodied in the incest taboo. Using the Israeli kibbutz, Fox also pointed out that brothers and sisters need not be related by blood to develop an aversion as children brought up in the kibbutz rarely sought out sex partners among those raised with them (Fox, 1980; Meiselman, 1992).

Critics of the aversion theories argued that there would be no need of a taboo if aversion naturally occurred. And yet most cultures have some manner of actively enforcing the incest taboo, from censor and shunning to prosecution (Meiselman, 1992).

Freud disagreed with both the biological and aversion theories and in his text Totem and Taboo (1946) came up with another explana- tion. He suggested that early humans existed in hordes that were controlled by a tyrannical father who kept all the females to himself and drove out all male children. When they revolted and, overtaking the father, cannibalized him, their resulting remorse and grief caused them to create a taboo against the women in the family. Critics decided that Freud had lost his senses, and the father of modern psychology eventually became dissatisfied with this largely allegori- cal explanation (Durkheim, 1963; Meiselman, 1992).

Malinowski (1927) proposed that incest would be disruptive to family relationships:

Incest would mean the upsetting of age distinc- tions, the mixing up of generations, the disorga- nization of sentiments and a violent exchange of roles at a time when the family is the most important educational medium. No society could exist under such conditions. (p. 251)

It was White (1948) who suggested that the origin of the incest taboo was economic.

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He explained that early humans, often existing in tribes or clans, had a need to seek out and cooperate with other such groups to expand their resources. This they did through barter, and their commodity to barter became their females whom they offered in marriage. Thus, to sexually use these females prior to offering them to another clan was to diminish their value. An incest taboo protected the integrity of the “com- modity.”

Although such an explanation may be diffi- cult for us to imagine today, the fact is that there is little father-daughter incest in India, because in that society a young woman’s marriage is often seen as a way of enhancing the social status of her birth family. Thus, the incest taboo is strong in an effort to preserve her innocence and virginity for her marriage partner. Such a modern representa- tion of ancient custom attests to the believability of White’s theory.

Murdock, a theorist writing in the late 1940s (Meiselman, 1992) drew from several earlier theories when he postulated that the origins of incest were several fold. Freud’s contention that each individual had a strong repressed desire for incest that created a repression and aversion to that desire and therefore the condemnation of acting upon it was one explanation. Along with that, Murdock accepted Malinowski’s fam- ily disruption explanation and also espoused White’s idea that the incest taboo allowed coop- erative ties and shared resources between groups. This multidisciplinary explanation became the most widely accepted view (deMause, 1991; Meiselman, 1992).

In the 1950s, social scientist Talcot Parsons further contributed to the understanding of the etiology of the incest taboo. Parsons (1954) believed that the incest taboo was vital to the development of the child. In fact, the prohibi- tion of incest is “linked with the functioning of every society” (as cited in Justice & Justice, 1979, p. 37). Borrowing from Freud, Parsons spoke of the belief that a

very young child . . . is capable of diffuse erotic excitement, and the mother is the main source of stimulation that produces such excitement in early life. The child’s yearning for this kind of stimulation provides the incentive to progress to higher, more difficult stages of development; such progress depends, however, on the mother’s ability to frustrate the child at appropriate times and use the sexually tinged attachment to her to push and pull the child through developmental stages. (Meiselman, 1992, p. 12)

Later in their development, children begin to look outside of the nuclear family, often to the peer group, for their stimulation toward development. At this time, too close an attach- ment to the family, especially the mother, would impede their developmental progress. Although Parson’s work did not speak to the original cause for the incest taboo, it did speak to its usefulness to the developing individual (deMause, 1991; Meiselman, 1992).

THE DISCOVERY OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE It is difficult to determine the exact time when sexual abuse of children was fully recognized. Certainly victims were aware of their misuse, but little credence was given to any reports that chil- dren might have made about being used sexually by adults. It was adult survivors who eventually brought their abuse to the attention of the world.

In 1862 in France, forensic medical expert Ambroise Tardieu studied 515 sexual offenses, 420 of which had been perpetrated on children who were under 15. His study was from a medi- cal perspective with only minor recognition of the trauma caused to victims. However, Tardieu was the first to identify the sexual misuse of chil- dren as a problem facing society (Bolen, 2007; Cunningham, 1988; Herman, 1997; Masson, 1984). Around the same time, Jean Martin Charcot, a noted neurologist, observed that

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sexual abuse was an issue that must be dealt with. Charcot was more interested in the des- ignation of offenders as mentally ill rather than predators. In his estimation, a great number of the reports of sexual abuse were actually false (Cunningham, 1988; Herman, 1997). Alfred Binet, another researcher, considered the child- hood of offenders, postulating that they had had some type of childhood trauma. In addition, he presented children as suggestible, feeling that they might well be talked into having had sexual abuse that never actually happened (Bolen, 2007; Cunningham, 1988).

Freud’s Cover-Up In 1885, while completing his medical stud- ies in Paris, Sigmund Freud studied under Charcot, a man whom he admired. While in Paris, Freud had exposure not only to the work of Charcot but also to that of Tardieu and other Frenchmen who had begun to study the problem of child sexual abuse. Returning to his home in Vienna, Freud established a practice using the new “talking cure” and specializing in nervous disorders. A large number of his patients were women who were diagnosed with hysteria. His work took him into the realm of his patients’ innermost thoughts (recognized and unrecog- nized), which eventually became referred to as the unconscious. By 1896, Freud had developed his own ideas about the etiology of hysteria and presented several papers outlining his theories. These papers suggested that his patients had been sexually abused as children by fathers, brothers, and other caretakers, both male and female. It was only to his friend William Fleiss, to whom he wrote numerous letters of significance, that he confided that he felt that most of the perpetrators were actually the women’s fathers (Bolen, 2007; Masson, 1984; Rush, 1996).

The medical community met Freud’s theo- ries with raised eyebrows. As a young doctor,

Freud was actually presenting an idea that went against both beliefs of the German medical com- munity and the moral sensibilities of the day. Charcot, who was known for his research on trauma, found it unbelievable that anyone would molest his own children (Bolen, 2007). Given this pressure, it may not be too surprising that Freud, in 1897, is said to have repudiated his own theory. In a now-famous letter to Fleiss, he wrote “I no longer believe in my neurotica” (as cited in Masson, 1984, p. 264). From this point, Freud developed his Oedipus complex, which some researchers (Bolen, 2007; Masson, 1984; Rush, 1992, 1996; Whetsell-Mitchell, 1995) contend was a significant setback to the development of effective interventions and treatment for child sexual abuse.

Freud’s new theory got its name from an ancient legend that told of an infant prince who was exposed to die because of a prophesy that he would someday murder his father. Rescued by strangers, the young prince, Oedipus, is brought up in another court. But as an adult he becomes a warrior; he meets the King of Thebes along the road and kills him in a quarrel. What Oedipus does not know is that this man was his biological father. After successfully solving the riddle of the Sphinx, which in turn saved the Thebans from attack, Oedipus is elevated to their throne and given the dead king’s wife as his own. It was not until much later that Oedipus Rex discovers that his wife, and now the mother of his children, is also his mother. The tragic end for both mother and son is her suicide and Oedipus’s self-inflicted blindness and aimless wandering (Green, 2011, Greenberg, 1992).

Using the Oedipus legend as a very loose basis, Freud postulated that during the third or fourth year of life, a child develops fantasies of love for the parent of the opposite sex. Children of this age might actually express their love in desire to marry the idealized parent. Eventually, the boy realizes that his mother is “taken” by the father and strives to be more like his male parent

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in order to someday find a woman who will be like the “girl that married Dad.” In the same man- ner, the girl gives up her fantasies about her father and seeks to identify with her mother (sometimes referred to as the “Electra complex” after another mythological character). Having developed such a theory, Freud went on to assume that the girl’s descriptions of sexual interactions with her father are actually metaphorical and therefore part of her fantasies. Thus, reports of sexual abuse were rationalized away as part of psychosexual development.

What appeared to be Freud’s turnaround is especially disturbing if one looks at some of his publicized cases with the lenses tinted by today’s research. For example, in 1905, he included a very vivid description of 14-year-old Dora’s seduction by her father. Freud went on to describe how she was “used as a pawn in [his] elaborate sex intrigues” (Herman, 1997, p. 14). The descrip- tion is so ripe with the characteristics of known sexual abuse cases, that it is difficult to believe that Dora’s memories could be dismissed as metaphorical fantasies.

Why did Freud, who seemed so convinced by his original hypothesis about hysteria and sexual abuse, change his opinion so dramatically? Bolen (2007) suggests a threefold explanation. First, Freud’s initial seduction theory was developed early in his career. He was young, inexperienced, and perhaps impressionable. And undoubtedly this young doctor was anxious for acceptance by his older, more experienced peers. The unpopu- larity of his theory must have been difficult for him to take. He feared for his reputation as a serious professional when he was ridiculed for his ideas. Thus, young Freud may have taken the path of least resistance and rescinded his theory in favor of the Oedipal complex (Bolen, 2007; Masson, 1984).

Second, some biographers find that the hysteria that Freud made a career of studying may not have resided too far from home. Masson (1984) reports that in a small excerpt from a

letter to his friend Fleiss, Freud stated that it was the father who was the perpetrator of incest; in fact, he implied that he suspected that his own father was also guilty of this. Westerlund (1986) interprets this to mean that Freud’s own father had been sexually abusive. In addition, Freud confessed to Fleiss that he had had a dream of a sexual nature about his own daughter. Westerlund concludes that the creation of the Oedipus complex and the denial of the seduc- tion theory might have been based on Freud’s own need to deny his personal experiences with incestuous material.

Bolen (2007) also discusses the fact that Freud found the abundance of the sexual stories reported to him to be unbelievable. How could so many fathers be abusive to their daughters? Perhaps it was more credible to believe that the abuse took place only within the confines of the woman’s mind rather than behind the closed doors of her childhood home. We have also learned from Freud’s writings and his biog- raphers that his patients often did not return after their disclosures, making it difficult to cor- roborate their accusations (Bolen, 2007; Masson, 1984). However, the fact that Freud’s patients left therapy after disclosing their abuse is also inter- esting in light of the fact that many survivors of trauma experience a great deal of anxiety when they have disclosed their secret. It is not uncom- mon for them to seek to avoid further opportuni- ties to discuss the issue.

The fact remains that Freud’s renunciation of the seduction theory in favor of the Oedipal complex changed the future of psychoanalytical thought. Along with these changes came the sup- pression of sexual abuse recognition and inter- vention. Victims who admitted their abuse were accused of seducing their abusers in order to ful- fill their own fantasies (Bolen, 2007; Rush, 1996). It is not surprising that victims felt silenced and tended not to report their abuse. Summit (1989) comments that “with Freud’s retraction of the seduction theory, he left behind at once the

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simple explanation of trauma, his endorsement of the intrinsic strengths of the post-traumatic patient, and his intrepid strategies for undoing the traumatic effects” (p. 423).

DeMause (1991), however, feels that the story of Freud’s cover-up has been grossly distorted. This researcher explains that 18 of Frued’s patients exhibited symptoms of hysteria and had conscious memories of sexual seduc- tions by family members. Believing that only repressed memories could result in clinical hys- teria, Freud determined that these remembered memories were not at the root of his patients’ problems and that only an earlier repressed memory could be the underlying cause. He was puzzled, however, that these patients had “no feeling of remembering the scenes of their abuse” (as cited in deMause, 1991, p. 126). He then concluded that these nonfeeling-based memories were actual fantasies of seductions that were imagined but never occurred. It was this reasoning that provided the basis for his seduction theory.

Freud did report having patients who had clear memories of having been sexually abused with the resulting ability to explain the tactile elements of what they had experienced. This evidence suggests, says deMause, in contradiction of Masson (1984) and others, that Freud never denied there was such a problem as child sexual abuse. Rather, he took great pains to distinguish actual cases from those that were part of the patient’s developmental striving toward under- standing her or his identity. DeMause goes on to report that, for the remainder of his life, Freud “reiterated his belief that these clear memories of incestuous attacks were real” (p. 127). Freud would later write, “the sexual abuse of children is found with uncanny frequency among school teachers and child attendants . . . and phantasies [sic] of being seduced are of particular interest, because so often they are not phantasies but real memories” (from “Freud’s Introductory

Lectures on Psychoanalysis,” vol. XVI, 1916–1917, p. 370 as cited in deMause, 1991, p. 127).

Later Phases of Sexual Abuse Exploration Freud’s debate about sexual abuse influ- enced his followers well into the 20th century. One of his colleagues felt strongly that the reports of abuse were real rather than imagined. In a 1932 paper, Sandor Ferenczi voiced his contention that children might be victims of sexual abuse and that the adult world may be denying that fact (Olafson et al., 1993). Interestingly enough, Freud joined the professional community that sought to censure Ferenczi and squelch the furthering of this theory (Masson, 1984; Summit, 1989). This brief upsurge of the idea of the prevalence of sexual abuse served to silence the psychiatric commu- nity for the next few decades.

Freud had opened the question of children and sexuality, and others would also have their say. In 1907, Karl Abraham, a student of Freud, published a paper titled “The Experiencing of Sexual Trauma as a Form of Sexual Activity” that suggested that children did not report their sexual interactions with adults because they had unconsciously desired such contact. He also pos- tulated that children “allowed themselves to be seduced” because of these secret desires (Olafson, 2002, p. 87).

In 1937, two researchers, Loretta Bender and Abram Blau, studied 16 cases of children from ages 5 to 10 who had been sexually involved with adult men (and one woman). From this study, they concluded that not only were the children not traumatized by these contacts but they derived some pleasure from the experience (Finkelhor, 1986; Olafson, 2002; Salter, 1988). In fact, these researchers contested that children did not deserve the “cloak of innocence” in which

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they had been wrapped by the moralists of the time (Bender & Blau, 1937; Olafson, 2002).

Over the next few years, child sexual abuse was not without its researchers, but initially these researchers tended to pursue their studies inde- pendently and in various parts of the country. During the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, there were several studies that focused on the sexual abuse of children. Terman, in 1938, studied 752 married women, 32% of whom reported being abused prior to the age of 15. In 1940, Landis published his findings in two related studies, the first of 153 “normal” women and the second of 142 psychiat- ric patients, reporting that 24% of these subjects reported being sexually abused as children. Later in 1956, Landis expanded the study to 1,800 col- lege students, discovering that 35% of the females and 30% of the males had been sexually abused at an early age (Finkelhor, 1986; Salter, 1988).

Alfred Kinsey and his research team would also contribute to information gleaned about child sexual abuse. In the 1950s, Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, and Gebhard (1953) exam- ined the sexual behavior of the adult female discovering that 24% of their sample of 4,441 Caucasian women reported that they had been sexually abused by the adult men in their lives. These women who were between 16 and 50 years of age when interviewed were from upper to middle socioeconomic classes (Whetsell- Mitchell, 1995). The results of this study also pointed to extended family, intergenerational incest when the researchers pinpointed the fact that women had been abused slightly more often by their uncles than by their fathers (Courtois, 2010). Kinsey and his associates made little of these findings, however, in fact relegating them to an insignificant part of their report. Kinsey’s comment “It is difficult to understand why a child, except for its cultural conditioning, should be disturbed at having its genitalia touched, or disturbed at seeing the genitalia of other persons, or disturbed at even more specific sexual contacts”

(as cited in Olafson, Corwin, & Summit, 1993) would certainly create a stir among many adults today. Instead, Kinsey et al. (1953) blamed the adults in the victims’ lives for reacting to disclo- sures of sexual contacts in such a manner as to create trauma for the children (Bolen, 2007).

In a less-known study, Kinsey and his col- leagues also interviewed a group of men to explore the nature of man-boy sexual relation- ships. These known pedophiles described, in graphic detail, their abuse of 604 underage boys, one of whom was as young as 5 months old. As his biographer James H. Jones (1997) explains, “Kinsey’s deep-seated animosity to traditional morality led him to take a benign view of child molestation and incest” (p. 620). In fact, Kinsey seems to have believed that sexual outlets for children were both natural and advisable. Kinsey once received a letter from a man who reported that his wife was rubbing the penis of their 9-year-old nephew to orgasm on a nightly basis. He asked the renowned researcher if this was advisable. Kinsey’s response, reports Jones, was:

Apparently the small boy is erotically responsive and it looks as if he is already so conditioned to the sort of contact that he has had that the chances of getting along without a regular sexual outlet are now reduced. If he were forced to go without any outlet of any sort, it is probable that he would be nervously disturbed and might be difficult to handle socially. (p. 620)

Kinsey eventually concluded that sexual initiation of children by adults could cause some emotional upset, but only because of the taboos imposed upon them by Western society. Children themselves were inherently sexual, but the culture burdened them with repressive norms to limit their sexuality (Olafson, 2002).

Between the first of the Kinsey group sur- veys and the late 1970s, despite some scattered research, the public was relatively sheltered from

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concerns over child sexual abuse. Therapists were told that the instances of such abuse were rare or imagined (Olafson, 2002). Later reports of survi- vors alert us to the fact that such abuse was very much a part of the fabric of people’s lives, but its existence was covered in secrecy.

The “Rediscovery” of Child Sexual Abuse as a Type of Child Maltreatment Although sexuality and its effect on children were being debated by a variety of professionals, other types of child maltreatment were certainly being addressed. In the 1940s, John Caffey, a radiolo- gist, had contributed to the knowledge of physical child abuse by making public his own research. Caffey had seen the x-rays of six infants whose injuries he suspected were inflicted by caretakers. Several physicians became interested in his find- ings including C. Henry Kempe who later coined the term battered child syndrome and encouraged the further study of physical abuse (Myers, 2011). During the 1960s, Polansky and his colleagues were undertaking the study of neglectful mothers in both rural and urban areas. The findings of these researchers contributed significantly to the understanding of child neglect.

As a result of the increased research on child physical abuse and neglect, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (93–247) was passed on January 31, 1974, creating the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. But it was not until 1978 that the definition of child sexual abuse was included in this act. In that same year, researcher Diana Russell (1983) brought child sexual abuse to the attention of the public when she published the results of her rigorously con- ducted study of 930 San Francisco women. Of these, Russell found that 38% had been sexually abused as children (Myers, 2011). Such a startling percentage may have contributed to the publica- tion of several writings within the next year.

In the late 1970s, three books uncovered the issue of child sexual abuse and brought it to the public’s attention. The first two were based on first person accounts. Sandra Butler’s aptly titled book Conspiracy of Silence (1978) chronicled the experiences of numerous women who had been forced to hide their childhood abuse throughout their lives, along with a similar book, Louise Armstrong’s Kiss Daddy Goodnight: A Speak- Out on Incest (1978). The third book, Karen Meiselman’s Incest (1992), was the first published research study on the subject. Susan Forward and Craig Buck’s Betrayal of Innocence (1978) presented some more factual suggestions as to the effects and etiology of this newly uncovered form of abuse. Over the next decade child sexual abuse would become a well-discussed phenomenon both in print and in the press.

Some might ask why the study of this type of child maltreatment suddenly became so popular. Finkelhor (1984) suggested that the child protection movement, empowered by the knowledge provided by the research on physical abuse and neglect, had the resources to recognize a new challenge. In addition, the feminist move- ment had given strength to women to speak out especially about the injustices done to them due to the unequal power of men. Out of this movement would later came the publication of Herman’s classic incest study in Father-Daughter Incest (1981 revised in 2000) and Rush’s study of the history of the sexual violation of children in The Best Kept Secret (Rush, 1992, 1996). While agreeing with the influence of the feminist move- ment, Bolen (2007) speculates that the political and social environment, perhaps stimulated by the controversy over the Vietnam War, was now focused on moral dilemmas and raised con- sciousness about the impact of these issues.

No longer was the status quo taken for granted, but it was often the impetus for controversy and rebellion. Social consciousness-raising and revolution in thought were rampant. Within this sociocultural context it was probably far more

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difficult to suppress the “discovery” of child sexual abuse. (pp. 21–22)

One cannot explore the history of the redis- covery of child sexual abuse without becoming aware of the name Roland Summit. As a prac- ticing psychiatrist, Summit was exposed to a variety of patients for whom sexual abuse was a grim reality. When he was approached by Jolly K., a young woman seeking to begin an organization that is now well known as Parents Anonymous, Summit became even more inter- ested in the treatment of child sexual abuse. But when Jolly K. asked him to write a train- ing manual, he recognized his need to learn more about the subject. After participating in several conferences and collaborations with other child abuse therapists and researchers, and testifying in numerous court cases, Summit wrote his now classic article “Child Abuse Accommodation Syndrome” (Corwin, 2002; Myers, 2011).

The sexual abuse accommodation syn- drome describes in five points the effects of child sexual abuse on girls who have been abused by their fathers or other close relatives. Summit’s theory contends that these victims feel helpless because their abuser has sworn them to secrecy, by threat or coercion. After the abuse, the girl feels trapped in the relationship to which she feels that she must accommodate (entrapment and accommodation), finding it difficult to tell anyone. If she does disclose, it often comes as a delayed, unconvincing disclosure and may not be believed. Disturbed that she is not believed, the girl may retract her disclosure (retraction) and continue to feel the effects of the abuse without benefit of support (Goodyear-Brown, Fath, & Myers, 2012; Kinnear, 2007; Summit, 1983). This simple theory (discussed in more detail in Chapter 3) created the basis for the early treat- ment of child sexual abuse.

Summit felt that the accommodation syn- drome had its most significant usefulness in court testimony. He comments that

the legitimate argument for the accommodation syndrome. . . is simply to introduce as a rebuttal that if children have not immediately complained about sexual abuse, or if they give an inconsistent development of reporting, or even if they retract on prior statements, that’s not inconsistent with the reality of sexual abuse. . . . The purpose of the article was to allow children their own normalcy in dealing with sexual assault. (Corwin, 2002, pp. 8, 16)

The writings and research of the 1980s brought child sexual abuse to the attention of the social service system that, although very much aware of the fact that sexual abuse had been happening to children, had not as yet devel- oped the resources to deal specifically with this type of abuse. With recognition came funds for further study and the development of treatment programs. These programs sprung up in pockets across the country with very little connection to one another.

It is interesting to note that most of the early study of sexual abuse victims centered on female children. One can speculate that this was the result of several factors. First, it was the feminist movement that gave much of the momentum to the disclosures of adult survivors, and due to this fact, these survivors tended to be women. Second, men are enculturated (taught by the culture) to be strong and not to become victims. In fact, society taught men over the years to hide any abuse lest they bring upon themselves ridicule or doubts about their masculinity. And third, there are definite cultural messages about what constitutes the abuse of boys (see later discussion of the “Summer of ‘42” Syndrome), meaning that boys who are sexually abused by adult women may be made to feel that theirs is an enviable initiation into mature sexuality (Finkelhor, 1984).

During the 1980s, with the publication of several books on the victimization of males, the sexual abuse of boys began to come to the atten- tion of the public as well. In addition, attention

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was drawn to the abuse of males by clergy. Jason Berry (2000) explains that

between 1983 and 1987, more than two hundred priests or religious brothers were reported to the Vatican Embassy for sexually abusing youngsters, in the most case teenage boys—an average of nearly one accusation a week in those four years alone. In the decade of 1982 to 1992, approximately four hundred priests were reported to church or civil authorities for molesting youths. (p. ix)

Sipe (1995) suggests that the abuse of boys by priests dates back even further. While the Council of Trent (1545–1563) sought to reform the church of abuses, Pope Julius III, who pre- sided over part of this council, was involved in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy whom he later made a cardinal. There is speculation that the notorious Marquis de Sade was “introduced to whippings and sodomy by his Jesuit teachers when he studied with them between the ages of ten and thirteen” (p. 11). And it was between 1960 and 1972 that Father James Porter victimized 200 children while he was serving as an active priest and receiving accolades for his leadership. It was not until one of his victims, 42-year-old insur- ance investigator, Frank Fitzpatrick, remembered his abuse and searched out his perpetrator that these abuses were fully uncovered.

The Catholic Church was not alone in the scandal of clergy abuse of children, especially boys. In the book Brother Tony’s Boys, author Mike Echols (1996) chronicles the case of Tony Leyva, a respected Pentecostal evangelist who sexually abused adolescent boys in 23 states. Examples of abuse by clergy fill the newspapers from almost every denomination (Park, 1996), stimulating the development of abuse-reporting protocol by every major denomination (see Chapter 10 for further discussion of clergy abuse).

“It has become quite obvious,” remarked one clergyman, “that child sexual abuse has become the concern of our churches today.” Reports of

survivors of such abuse suggest that there have always been a small number of clergy who were abusive, but now the climate is right for these cases to come to light (see Chapter 10 for further discussion of sexual abuse by clergy).

New Areas for the Sexual Exploitation of Children The new surge of interest in child sexual abuse in the 1980s greatly increased the number of treatment programs and prevention programs to deal with this problem. At the same time, another innovation made children more acces- sible to sexual predators and changed the com- plexion of their engagement process of their victims. Finkelhor, Mitchell, and Wolak (2000) in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children report, Online Victimization, estimated that 24 million of U.S. children between ages 10 and 17 are on the Internet on a regular basis. As more and more households accessed the Internet and hundreds of children began to sprint beyond their parents in their knowledge of the use of this new technology, child abusers found them- selves faced with a smorgasbord of new ways to engage children. No longer need the pedophile be watchful of police and security as he looked for children in local malls, video arcades, and playgrounds. Now he could engage any number of children from across the country or across the world, merely by sitting down at his computer. With the advent of the Internet, the incidence of child molestation took on different parameters, and law enforcement was faced with the need for larger nets to catch perpetrators.

Ironically, efforts to protect children from sexual abuse were in place long before the com- puter became the popular method of engaging victims. In 1977, the Sexual Exploitation of Children Act was enacted prohibiting the use of children in producing pornography as well as sexually explicit advertising or the transport

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of children across state lines. In 1986, the Child Abuse and Pornography Act made it illegal to pro- duce or use advertisements for child pornography. The Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act in 1988 made it unlawful to transmit adver- tisements for child pornography via computer, produce visual pornographic depictions of chil- dren online, or obtain custody of children for the production of pornography. More recent laws like the Children’s Privacy Protection and Parental Empowerment Act in 1993 and the Child Pornography Prevention Act in 1996 sought to further tighten regulations to protect children (see Chapter 8 for more details). Currently, both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Postal Service are actively engaged in preventing and investigating the seduction of children through both the mail and the Internet (Baker, 2002).

And Then Came the Backlash . . . After a decade of publicity, intensified research, and the uncovering of new pockets of deviance, it is not surprising that there would be some who would be critical of the effects of the heightened interest in sexual abuse. Bolen (2007) suggests that the best word to describe the 1990s was backlash. Even before the 1990s dawned, Hechler (1988) warned that a backlash was brewing:

One thing is clear: there is a war. There are those who feel that the country is suffering from an epidemic of child sexual abuse and those who feel that there is an epidemic alright, but not of sex abuse—of “sex excuse,” as some disparagingly called it. The pendulum has swung too far, they say, and what we see now is a blizzard of false accusations. In response, they are trying to winch the pendulum back. (p. 3)

Hechler (1988) traced the roots of this back- lash to outrage over highly publicized cases that brought as many critics as accusers. One such case

in point was set against the backdrop of Jordan, Minnesota, a small town that was the center of incredible controversy. During the much publi- cized trials that rocked this unsuspecting hamlet, 24 adults and 1 juvenile were charged with the sexual abuse of children in two sex rings. After much controversy and investigation, the charges were dropped, and only James Rud, a previously twice-convicted child molester, was charged. But the events of that case brought to light a myriad of prejudices and mistakes that could result in the accusation of child molestation.

Cases like the one in Jordan, Minnesota, as well as the McMartin day care case at Manhattan Beach, California, stimulated criticism about the way that sexual abuse cases were investigated. Accusations of biased investigation, in turn, led to several eventual inconclusive trial outcomes (Conte, 2002; Eberle & Eberle, 2003). Out of these scandals was born a skepticism that would give rise to such groups as VOCAL (Victims of Child Abuse Laws). VOCAL contends that the problems of child sexual abuse are

not as extensive as the “child savers” would have us believe. In a climate of “hysteria,” social work- ers and police investigators are only too ready to believe the guilt of anyone accused, regardless of the facts. For this reason, VOCAL leaders say, it is impossible to get a fair investigation, much less a fair trial. (Hechler, 1988, p. 11)

Another vocal group about the injustices perpetrated by those who “see sexual abuse where it does not exist” is the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, established in 1992 in Philadelphia (see Chapter 15 for further discussion). This group found its roots when psychologist Jennifer Freyd, herself a researcher in the area of human memory, recovered memories of sexual abuse by her father. Her mother, Pamela Freyd, blamed these on her daughter’s therapist. After going public with the allegations made against her husband, the elder Freyd, with her husband Peter,

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started the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, dedicating herself and her group to the debunk- ing of the concept that long ago abuse could be “forgotten” or repressed and the memories could emerge at a later date. To support her beliefs, Freyd sought out a variety of experts on memory who supported her contentions. Still gaining momentum, the Philadelphia-based society con- tinues to stimulate controversy (Courtois, 2010; Jenkins, 1998; Stanton, 1997).

Giving support to what she called the “myth of false memory” was Elizabeth Loftus, a noted researcher on human memory. Loftus stated that she did not believe that repressed memories exist explaining that there is “no scientific evidence [that] currently exists to support the idea that memories from trauma are routinely repressed and reliably recovered years later” (as cited in Kinnear, 2007, p. 67). She did, however, admit that memory is “not a black and white entity” and expressed concern about both survivors of childhood trauma and those accused on the basis of such memories.

Spurred on by organizations and critics like Loftus, VOCAL, and the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, the mass media quickly picked up the skepticism about the efficacy of child abuse recovered memories. In the early 1990s, programs such as 20/20, 60 Minutes, and Prime Time became arenas in which the public could witness the debate. Programs featured a similar scenario of a female survivor, who sought therapy for some nonsexual problem like an eating disorder. During the course of therapy, the woman would uncover memories that would convince her and her therapist that her real problems could be traced back to sexual abuse—often ritual abuse—when she was a child. The patient would then sever her ties with family members and often point a finger at those she felt had abused her. The question was raised, often quite convincingly, whether the therapist had planted these ideas in the mind of the unsuspecting victim. After such an airing,

the New York Times reported that the United States was now at the mercy of “an incest survi- vor machine” (Jenkins, 1998).

Although it is unclear to what extent the fervor over sexual abuse had generated false reports, the backlash certainly had the potential to force some victims, who had finally gained the courage to talk about their abuse, to feel further betrayed, isolated, and without hope of help. In addition, although some of the eyes of the aver- age citizen were opened to the magnitude of the sexual misuse of children, others, once skeptical but beginning to believe, were provided with confirmation that child sexual abuse, at least to the degree that it was reported, was one more mass media hoax.

Bolen (2007) postulates that the back- lash of the 1990s began as a result of several controversies over the knowledge base cur- rently available. Two areas received particular attention. First was over the issue of women as perpetrators. A perusal of the research and practice literature in the 1980s makes it clear that emphasis was on men as perpetrators of child sexual abuse. Indeed, the public found it difficult to imagine that the gender responsible for giving birth to and protecting infants and children could possibly use them sexually. Yet research and an abundance of uncovered cases in the 1990s brought with them the assertion that women were underidentified as abusers. A second controversy centered on the fact that more and more mothers involved in divorce disputes were accusing their ex-spouses of sexu- ally abusing their children. But as the backlash gained momentum, it was clinicians who were most severely attacked.

Clinicians, spurred on by their recognition that child sexual abuse did exist in the child- hoods of many who might seek treatment, were accused of looking for these abuses sometimes where they did not exist. Perhaps, suggests Bolen (2007), these professionals were making “clinical judgments beyond the limits of the empirical

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research base available” (p. 23). When these judg- ments were questioned, there was not enough knowledge to support them.

Bolen (2007) cites several reasons why “the climate was ripe for a backlash” (p. 23). Although there had been a wide array of research done during the earlier decade, it had been descriptive and exploratory and had not provided a sufficient empirical base. Therefore, there was not, as yet, a knowledge base with enough depth to answer the myriad of questions that cases of sexual abuse were posing. Without this factual knowledge, clinicians were not suf- ficiently trained to deal with the types of cases that they were encountering. Also, the reality of sexual abuse was still so far out of the frame of reference of most individuals that the fact that it existed to the degree suggested by statistical reports was unsettling, causing even clinicians to minimize its impact.

Simon was 15, a quiet, introspective boy. He was no trouble in class. In fact, I was surprised when I caught him passing a note to Justin, a troubled boy who seemed to have few friends. Had the note-passing not taken place during an exam, I might not have ever read the contents of the hast- ily scribbled missive. “Tell her that I’ll sneak out during last period. You have to work after school, right?” Assuming only that I was interrupting a possible truancy, I questioned Simon after class. What I learned surprised me. Apparently, Simon was having a sexual relationship with Justin’s Mom. I remembered the lovely blonde who had attended teacher’s conferences and thought that I would have envied Simon during my own uninter- esting youth. To learn about sex from such a gor- geous woman! A teenage boy’s dream. But at the same time, the episode bothered me. I mentioned it to my wife that night, careful not to use names, and she was horrified. “That’s abuse!” she insisted. And then I wondered too. What do you think?

CONCEPTUALIZING SEXUAL ABUSE TODAY ____________ This situation came to me from a student in my graduate class on child sexual abuse. To me, the case was so clearly one of sexual abuse. As an experiment of sorts, I created a similar scenario where 15-year-old “Sonya” passed a note to her girlfriend intended for the girlfriend’s father with whom Sonya was sexually involved. In the next class on abuse, I broke the class into small groups, distributing the two cases to different groups. No one knew that the genders differed. The lively discussion that followed confirmed my worst fears. Those who had the scenario of Simon either did not feel that it was abuse or were unsure. Those groups with Sonya concluded beyond a doubt that she was being sexually abused. This was but one of the many inconsistencies that we, as a culture, have in our attempts to define child sexual abuse.

Society’s Permeable Boundaries What is sexually appropriate in today’s world? In the last decade, we have seen an overwhelm- ing increase in couples who have become sexual partners, living together under the same roof, and yet there are many who question if this is entirely acceptable. Despite the frequency of such living arrangements, U.S. laws are just now beginning to give rights to the live-in partner in cases of death or relationship dissolution, sug- gesting that there still may be some hesitancy about recognizing such arrangements as the ideal or the norm. Usually, one’s sexual behav- ior or the quality of relationships is thought to be an individual choice influenced perhaps by the cultural, contextual, or religious group of which one considers himself or herself to be a part. But we are adults and certainly sexual- ity is something about which adults can make

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their own decisions. It is different for children, we argue.

Do children have a right to be sexually active? At what age? How old should a child’s partner be? These questions also differ from person to per- son and group to group. And yet as some circles suggest that young people learn to abide by the rule of abstinence until they are able to either marry or choose sexual partners with wisdom, we bombard them with a multitude of sexual messages. Advertising uses a variety of sexually provocative images to sell a variety of products. The self-help bookshelves of a multitude of book- stores feature manuals on how to develop sexual prowess. It is difficult to find a popular movie that is not ripe with sexual themes or explicit scenes. Television shows depend upon sexual innuen- dos and sexually driven plots for their ratings (see also Freeman-Longo & Blanchard, 1998). A friend of mine told me that she gave up daytime soap operas quite a few years ago when the most devoted and romanticized couple in popular series had begun their relationship when the hero raped the heroine.

It is clear to many of us that people in the United States are confused about how we feel about the human body and sexuality. And each culture represented has its own customs. Several years ago, a foreign exchange student whom we were sponsoring attempted to change into his bathing suit on a public beach. This is a custom- ary practice in Europe, and he thought nothing of it. Fortunately, his American friends quickly dissuaded him. He was perplexed explain- ing that he had seen a variety of nearly naked images on television and in advertising. What was the difference? No one seemed able to answer him.

So, here we are in an atmosphere where nudity is both paraded and hidden and sexual acts are both controversial and underlie our entertainment. What messages are we giving to vulnerable children? And how are we contribut- ing to the justification used by men and women

who argue that their sexual misuse of children is acceptable? This is not meant to be a statement of any of my own personal moral beliefs, but rather an attempt to point out how difficult it is given society’s confusion about sexuality, to adequately define what is acceptable and what is abusive.

The Issue of Consent For years, those who would support the practice of sexual contact between adults and children would say, “What’s wrong with it anyway?” Some argue in a benign way, suggesting that chil- dren are not really harmed by being exposed to sexuality early. Others, often part of groups like the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), the Rene Guyon Society, or the Childhood Sexuality Circle (see Chapter 8), con- tend with conviction that children, often early in their development, actually benefit from being introduced to sexual practices by adults. VOCAL (mentioned earlier), begun by those who con- tended that they were falsely accused of child sexual abuse, argues that the state has no right to interfere in families and that the family is autono- mous (Freeman-Longo & Blanchard, 1998). Such beliefs, although they may appear lofty to some, may also shield offenders.

Perhaps the only value that most of us hold when it comes to the parameters of sexual rela- tionships is that they should be between consent- ing individuals.

What is consent? Finkelhor (1979) was the first to suggest that consent was an issue in child sexual abuse cases. He theorized that to consent, an individual needs the knowledge and author- ity to do so. Children have neither the knowl- edge of the implication of sexual interactions nor the authority by virtue of age and status to exercise the right to consent (Faller, 2003; Kinnear, 2007).

Faller (2003) suggests that consent is not a simple matter and has wide-reaching variables.

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First, gender influences consent even in children. She goes on to explain that

sexual socialization of boys differs from that of girls. In simplified vernacular terms, boys are taught that they should like sex and should seek it—that is they should be the initiators. In contrast, girls are taught that they shouldn’t like it too much and that they should wait to be asked. When girls are asked, they should say no. (p. 25)

In addition, boys may perceive the “invita- tions” they get differently than girls, and there- fore be apt to respond differently. For example, in the case of Sonya and Simon discussed earlier, Simon saw his liaison with his friend’s mother as an experience in which he was willingly par- ticipating, that is to which he had consented. Sonya, on the other hand, although now deeply involved in the relationship, had initially seen herself as forced into compliance. Despite the differing views of these children, the child protection community would argue that the children did not have the power to consent by virtue of their ages. They were, therefore, both being sexually abused.

Understanding and Intervention Our understanding of child sexual abuse has come a long way over the years. And yet we still have a long way to go. Karson (2001) cautions that we must approach intervention in child maltreatment fully cognizant of the complex patterns that we will encounter. In his examination of child abuse and the child welfare system, this author explains that we must learn about the intricate patterns inherent in abuse in order to effectively intervene. Then we must operate from within the pattern, not from without.

Without fully understanding the complex- ity of victims, perpetrators, and other family members as they interact within systems, often influenced by their cultural origins, we cannot hope to successfully intervene. As we continue in our discussion of the sexual abuse of children, it will be necessary to look at not only individual characteristics of those involved but how families and even society are woven into a web of pathol- ogy. Only when we are able to look at this web of patterns can we fully understand the issue of child sexual abuse.

Summary

The perception of children has changed significantly over the years. Although at one time children were seen as property, now they are recognized as individuals with rights, even though these rights often need protection. In ancient cultures, little girls were used for barter and often married at an early age. Little boys, in some early cultures (e.g., Greece), were indoctrinated into sexuality as part of their training to be soldiers. Incest, or the sexual interaction between blood relations, has been taboo in most cultures since ancient times. There are numerous reasons for this taboo, such as the belief that offspring from an incestuous union would be defective. Eventually, the accepted explanation came down to the needs for cultures or tribes to intermingle for protection and the exchange of resources, and brides became one resource to be bartered.

It is unclear when the sexual abuse of children was “discovered” as a problem, but in the 1800s, several individuals in medical communities began to study the effects of early sexual indoctrination on children. Freud’s involvement in the discovery that some of his patients had been sexually abused is

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20 PART I OVERVIEW OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

well known, although he is criticized by discounting these experiences. Instead he called them fantasies in the development of his Oedipal theory. Kinsey too, in his studies of the sexual behavior of women and men, would uncover incidents of sexual abuse in his subjects’ childhoods.

The study of sexual abuse as a form of child maltreatment came during the late 1970s through the efforts of both the child protection movement and the feminist movement. Initially, incest or intrafa- milial abuses took the attention of researchers and clinicians. Later, reported abuse by such respected figures as teachers and clergy would enhance the efforts to understand and intervene in child abuse situations. More recently there has been concern about how the Internet gives abusers better access to children. The backlash arose in the 1990s when former victims’ reports of sexual abuse to therapists gave rise to the false memory movement that suggested that people had gone overboard in their belief in the frequency of child sexual abuse. Yet there is no question that child sexual abuse is a problem today. Our sexualized society is not always clear about its boundaries, and the result is that children sometimes suffer.

1. How were children viewed in ancient times?

2. What risk was there to little girls in early history? To little boys?

3. What were the earliest explanations for the taboo against incest? What appears to have been the most logical one?

4. Explain the early research on trauma. What influence did Freud have on the study of trauma?

5. What is meant by the Freudian cover-up?

6. What impact did Kinsey have on the study of sexual trauma?

7. How and when did sexual abuse become a public issue?

8. What has been the most recent focus of research on sexual abuse?

9. What is the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, and how did it originate? What was the underlying debate that sparked it?

10. What factors contribute to the sexual abuse of children today?

Review Questions

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