Sexual Abuse

It is difficult to tag sexual abuse with a single definition, but at the focal point of many types of abuse lies a dominant adult that utilizes their power to exploit the weaker child. This includes persuading them into participating in sexual activity. Child sexual abuse involves such acts as the fondling of genitals, masturbation, oral-genital contact, finger penetration, and vaginal and anal intercourse. Child abuse is not only based on physical contact. In fact, it also includes noncontact abuse like exposure, voyeurism, and child pornography. Peer abuse, or abuse by someone of similar age, is another example.

It is difficult to gather precise data on the prevalence of child and teenage sexual abuse due to troubles with underreporting and the lack of agreement on one universal definition of sexual abuse. But, mental health and child protection professionals have determined that child sexual abuse is a severe problem in the US.

Depending on the type of sexual abuse, the victim may hardly show the effect that it had on them, or it will be very evident. Generally, children who suffer the most serious kind of abuse (carried out by a family member using brute force) display behavioral problems that range from separation anxiety to posttraumatic stress disorder. Children who fall victim to sexual abuse usually endure a multitude of other traumatic situations in their households (e.g., parental drug abuse). Therefore, a sexually abused child's actions may not be wholly attributable to the sexual abuse and could partly be a result of other negative activities going on around them. For this reason, an accurate diagnosis of abuse may be difficult to come by, and obvious physical evidence of sexual abuse is quite rare in these kinds of cases. As a result, when sexual abuse appears to be present, someone should contact a health professional who has received the type of training required to properly assess the situation.