Mental health articles

Prerequisites for targeting child sexual abuse To effectively target an epidemic often requires changes on the part of all members of society, who must buy in to the need for addressing the epidemic. Yet, today’s social milieu is not one in which most Americans will willingly commit to some of the changes in socialization patterns […]

effective future response to child sexual abuse All recommendations in the previous section related to changes that could be made within the child protection system. On the other hand, it is generally acknowledged that an effective response to child sexual abuse will require major structural change. As noted earlier, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child […]

Cultural sensitivity in child sexual abuse This decision was made because child sexual abuse is primarily a gendered problem that crosses all races and ethnicities, as well as all socioeconomic strata. On the other hand, once victims become known to the system, they are subject to institutionalized biases that exist. That professionals react to hypothetical […]

Education and training for professionals in child sexual abuse Another area for consideration is the education and training for professionals working in the area of child sexual abuse, including child protective services workers. While licensing and continuing education have already been implemented in many areas, some consideration needs to be given to the minimum requirements […]

Decision-making process within child protective services: A corollary concern is how child protective services makes decisions. While certain studies suggest that child protective services workers maintain beliefs that are not empirically supported (Downing et al., 1990; Ryan et al., 1991), we have no information concerning why child protective services workers maintain these beliefs and how […]

Nonoffending guardians in child sexual abuse Studies have traditionally defined expectations for nonoffending guardians as those placed on them by the system, regardless of whether they were realistic, and then determined whether nonoffending guardians could meet those expectations. As such, quantitative studies on normative responses to abuse disclosure for nonoffending guardians are sorely needed. Funding […]

Scope of the problem of child sexual abuse In 1997, the General Accounting Office (GAO) concluded that “focuses on such topics as the causes and effects of child sexual abuse” are mostly irrelevant to “most local agencies’ attempts to reform their services” (“GAO Calls For,” p. 132). Instead, this book has demonstrated conclusively that this […]

Identification and control of the offender in child sexual abuse If children are allowed to remain in their homes with their nonoffending guardians, then the manner in which offenders are handled by the system must also change. The most important change is that offenders need to be removed from the child’s environment or, if allowed […]

Changes for victims of child sexual abuse While state and federal statutes are sufficient for identifying victims (assuming proper implementation), they are insufficient for providing ongoing protection. Instead, the rights of the accused have precedence over the rights of the victims. As a result, far too many children are needlessly removed from their homes, thus […]