What is Child Sexual Abuse?

What is child sexual abuse? Any sexual activity that is imposed on a child by an adult or an adolescent is a sexual assault and abuse of the power of one person over another. This also includes experiences of child to child, teen to child, teen to teen, if there is an age difference of four or more years.

The key word in this definition is imposed on a child. Children are trained to trust adults, as well they should. When an adult asks, manipulates or forces a child to do something that is against the child's best interest and welfare, they are imposing an experience that will have life long repercussions: perhaps physically, but especially emotionally. Many behavior problems can be traced to being inappropriately touched or manipulated by someone who had power or authority over a child, and used that power in a sexual way.

Sexual abuse doesn't have to involve intercourse. It can range from exhibited genitals, to fondling breasts, genitals or thighs. Some abusers are sexually stimulated by seeing children undressed or engaging in set up sexual games with adults or other children. Some offenders manipulate the child into oral sex or the actual act of intercourse. Others find it amusing to show pornography or to talk "dirty" to those who are younger than they are. Traumatic damage can be done to a sensitive child just by making suggestive references or talking in a sexual way.

Sexual abuse can also take the form of child exploitation by photographing the child in a compromising situation, with the intent to either use the photos for their own sexual stimulation or to sell them as pornography. The range of abuse is so wide and varied that it is hard to pin down a specific definition.

The fact is sexual abuse of children takes many forms, involves varying degrees of violence and emotional trauma, and is defined in a variety of ways, depending on the culture, context and purpose of the definition. However, the one consistent factor that is always present is the child does not know how to protect himself and someone bigger and stronger has power over them.

What many parents, police and others don't understand is that the fear, intimidation and loss of trust are frequently much more harmful than the actual act. It causes confusion about roles, boundaries and sexual awareness.

A child or teen that has been abused sexually will need patience, understanding, support and tools to deal with the trauma.

This article was written by Judy Wright, parent educator and author. Feel free to use it in your newsletter or publication, but please give full credit to the author and mention the contact information of JudyWright@ArtichokePress.com, 406-549-9813.

You will find a full listing of books, tapes, newsletters and workshops available on finding the heart of the story in the journey of life by going to www.ArtichokePress.com

MORE RESOURCES:

RELATED ARTICLES

How Being a Mom Makes You a Better Professional
"Becoming a parent can make you a better worker," New York Times writer Lisa Belkins said in a recent column.I'd always heard that becoming a parent made MEN better workers.

Speaking on Behalf of Our Children: Stop Blaming the Victims
How many times have you flipped through the pages of a magazine or newspaper and seen images of children with captions like "Brats," "Bullies," or "Mean and Selfish"? Unfortunately, these are common occurrences in today's media. For some child advocates, these images serve as a call to action: We need to do something to help America's so-called "out-of-control" children.

Difference
There are times when my ideas of raising a child is different from the elderly and others. To begin with, my baby is not an easy one.

Child Safety at Home
Maintaining a safe home environment for your childrenAs adults and parents we are responsible for all the aspects of child safety at home and the importance of following child safety tips to improve the area cannot be emphasised enough! Accidents occurring where child safety at home is weak can have lasting effects and include burns, scarring, irrational fears, blindness and even death! Child safety at home is relatively easy to enforce, once we as parents and caregivers understand and apply some basic child safety tips.Children are unique and precious individuals and when it relates to child safety at home, everything should be done to create a safe space where they can grow up.

Planning the Ultimate Kid Birthday Party
Child Party Planning Guideline #1)Pick the ThemeYour child is going to look forward to their birthday months before it arrives. Starting from their last birthday and after every friend's birthday they attend through the year, they will continuously ask the same question, "Is it my birthday tomorrow?" Let them know how important their birthday is and make sure they are apart of the planning process.

More than Mom and Dad
Love, love, love. It makes the world go round.

Sometimes Our Childrens Questions Answer Our Own
I was changing Ford's diaper the other day when he asked, "Mom, will we always have Tanner?"Tanner is the family dog, and at twelve-years old, her health is quickly deteriorating."No, Ford," I said gently, "we won't always have Tanner.

The Courage to Be a Loving Parent
Most of us really don't like it when someone is angry at us. We don't like it when people go into resistance to helping us when we need help, instead of caring about us.

Theres a Lollipop on Your Bottom (and Other Terms of Endearment)
"I took care of Callie," my three-year-old announced.Callie had been starting with that little whine that babies adopt to alert mothers and sisters that their new crawling tricks have them wedged behind the furniture.

Parents Dealing with Worry and Fear
Dear Vijay,I worry about not being a good parent. My daughter Tracy is six and my son Michael is four.

Valuable Parenting Tip
Very often, new parents rely on a parenting tip or two which is passed to them by their own folks, who are now grandparents and usually have plenty of reliable advice to share. If this sort of parenting tip and advice is not available however, new parents could run into all sorts of problems while trying to raise a healthy baby.

Teaching Your Children with Coupons
Coupons can be a great tool in educating your child about saving money, being frugal, and shopping smart. Who doesn't want their children to grow up knowing how to save easily on every purchase? With coupon clipping you'll show them money saving skills they can use throughout their life!Teaching your child with coupons can start at an early age.

Screaming Kids Driving You Nuts? Four Rules to Help You Keep Your Sanity!
Often I will hear parents say, "I just ignore Jr. when he has a fit or screams.

Parenting Your Teenager: 6 Tips for Dealing with Bad Report Cards
One of the basic issues we need to understand is that parents and teens view school very differently. This is important because often we believe that our kids look at school the same way we do.

Help Your Kids Learn More About Managing Their Personal Economy
Remember when cash was a tangible commodity in all of our personal economies? As kids, we went to the bank, shopped with our parents and frequently watched them pay with cash. Now with cash on the endangered species list, today's kids see their personal economic situation much differently.

ADHD: Some Survival Strategies for Parents
In our last issue we posted some of our suggested Survival Strategies for parents, and then asked readers to contribute some of their thoughts or tips. Since this newsletter is already running pretty long, I'll only list a few of them below.

Helping Your Child Make and Keep Friends
What Children Look for in a Friend?Is this child fun to be with? Is this child trustworthy? Does this child help me achieve my goals? Does this child make me feel good about myself? Is this child similar to me?Social Tasks Involved in Peer RelationshipsJoining a group or activity Coping with success Dealing with conflict Defending self Coping with failure Staying involved Making a friend Sharing/cooperating Sticking up for a friend Coping with rejection Responding to requests Making requests Helping others Maintaining a conversation Coping with teasing Being supportive of othersAlthough rejected children differ in many ways, there does seem to be something they have in common:A large proportion of rejected children are lacking in positive interaction skills, such as being cooperative, helpful, refining non-verbal communication, timing, spatial awareness, verbal language appropriateness and inappropriate dress or poor personal hygiene. This suggests that it should be possible to help these children by teaching them positive ways to interact with others.

What Might Surprise You About Childhood Obesity
The formula is pretty straightforward: energy in/energy out. This is the term nutritionists use to describe the intended balance between calories consumed and calories burned.

Parenting Your Teenager: What Parents Say About Teens
What is hard for parentsLetting them learn from their mistakes.Trying not to fix their problems.

Parenting: 6 Observations on Fatherhood
Just the other day my oldest son asked:"Daddy, am I old enough to call you Dad?"Won't be long now before he is asking for the car keys..