The Sweet Water Foundation offers professional psychotherapies for clients seeking relief from issues around child sexual abuse. This also includes families of victims, and perpetrators. To have your questions confidentially addressed and for information on therapists, email Helpline.
Child Sexual Abuse includes a wide range of sexual behaviors that take place between a child and an older person. These sexual behaviors are intended to erotically arouse the older person, generally without consideration for the reactions or choices of the child and without consideration for the effects of the behavior upon the child. These behaviors are also meant to instill a sense of power and control over the child or victim, this often being the most insiduous aspect of the abuse.
Behaviors that are sexually abusive often involve bodily contact such as sexual kissing, touching, fondling of genitals and oral, anal or vaginal intercourse. However, behaviors may be sexually abusive even if they don’t involve contact, such as in the case of genital exposure, verbal pressure for sex, and sexual exploitation for the purposes of prostitution or pornography.
Because child sexual abuse often occurs in private, because it often does not result in physical evidence, and because perpetrators generally frighten their victims into keeping their abuse a secret, child sexual abuse can be difficult to detect. Nevertheless abused children may either “Act Out” with behavior problems, such as cruelty to others or running away, or they might “Act In” by becoming depressed, withdrawing from friends and family or trying to injure themselves.
Other possible symptoms of child sexual abuse may be:
Child sexual abuse can take place within the family, by a parent, step-parent, sibling or other relative. It can also take place outside the home, by a friend or relative, neighbor, child care person, teacher, or stranger.
“Many parents are unsure or squeamish about bringing up sexual matters, especially with their children. Yet, there are ways for laying the groundwork so that you can talk to your child without scarring her/him. Establish an open dialogue about sexual issues early on. If you introduce the subject of sex in a discussion of abuse, there is the danger that the idea of sex may become automatically linked in your child’s mind with danger and anxiety.
If you have fostered in your child a sense of ownership regarding her body, she will likely have an instinct about what is okay for her body and what is not. You build on her natural sense of ownership of her body by letting her pick out her own clothes or wash herself in her own way. Also, avoid pushing her to kiss or hug other adults when clearly she does not want to.
Finally, when parents treat their children’s bodies with respect, children tend to demand that others treat their bodies in a similar manner. Children who are consistently hit, grabbed, or physically punished at home may feel that adults are entitled to misuse their bodies simply because they are bigger.”
No child is psychologically prepared to cope with repeated sexual stimulation. Even a two or three year old, who cannot know the sexual activity is wrong, will develop problems resulting from the inability to cope with overstimulation.
The child of five or older who knows and cares for the abuser becomes trapped between affection or loyalty for the person, and the sense that the sexual activities are terribly wrong. If the child tries to break away from the sexual relationship, the abuser may threaten the child with violence or loss of love. When sexual abuse occurs within the family, the child may fear the anger, jealousy or shame of other family members, or be afraid the family will break up if the secret is told.
A child who is the victim of prolonged sexual abuse usually develops low self-esteem, a feeling of worthlessness and an abnormal or distorted view of sex. Effects are both short-term and of a long-term nature, including psychopathology later in life. Some of these effects may be:
Consequences of child sexual abuse begin affecting children and families immediately. They also affect society in innumerable and negative ways. These effects can continue throughout the life of the survivor so the impact on society for just one survivor continues over multiple decades. Try to imagine the impact of 39 million survivors”. Darkness to Light, Charleston, U.S.A.
There are too many girls who have had, as a pattern of survival, to accept that they have to give sex to people even for the sake of having protection from others…the situation is particularly troubling for the region since it already accounts for 42 per cent of the world’s homicides, not to mention that 80,000 people below age 18 die each year in Latin America and the Caribbean because of violence….I think it is time that the Caribbean starts looking at itself and realizing we have an emergency here….It is an emergency that is bigger than any hurricane that has ever passed through here and it starts in the homes and we need to start changing it.” Nils Kastberg, Regional Director, UNICEF, Latin America and Caribbean Region. November, 2008.
