Mental health articles

Child sexual abuse from the mother’s perspective The literature to this point has been quantitative and from the perspective of the professional attempting to define the experience of nonoffending guardians. This section now shifts the focus to nonoffending mothers as they relate their experiences of finding out about the abuse and reacting to it. A […]

Offender of child sexual abuse and victim age disparity The models and typologies presented in the previous section apply mostly to abuse in which offenders seek out much younger victims. These offenders probably experience sociocultural taboos about adult sex with children as inhibitors. This interpretation was forwarded by Finkelhor (1984), who argued that pedophiles had […]

Models and typologies of identified offenders of child sexual abuse Even though there are important differences between identified and unidentified offenders, studies on identified offenders remain useful. One of the most important sets of literature on identified offenders is that which allows us to understand why they abuse, and especially to understand why certain individuals […]

Unidentified offenders of child sexual abuse The previous analysis suggested that the vast majority of offenders do not come to the attention of authorities. Thus, it is critical to understand how identified offenders compare to the much larger population of unidentified offenders. The purpose of this section is to present the minimal information available on […]

How many offenders of child sexual abuse are Identified? Identified and unidentified populations of offenders may be very different. Perhaps the most important reasons for these differences are that social policies prioritize certain types of abuse, especially intrafamilial abuse, and most offenders are not caught. Because the first issue has been discussed throughout the early […]

Unsecure attachment relationship is risk factor for child physical abuse and neglect Attachment to parents may be an important risk factor and may explain better than family systems theory the relationship between family dysfunction and child sexual abuse. Attachment theory was developed by Bowlby (1969, 1973, 1980) to explain relationship patterns between parents and their […]