Journal of Child Sexual Abuse最新文献

This study analyzed caregiver feedback regarding referrals, service use, and wanting additional services using a standardized survey completed by 1,585 caregivers at 260 Children's Advocacy Centers. Most caregivers were referred to counseling or support services for their child (84%). Caregivers who completed the survey in Spanish were significantly more likely to receive referral information for themselves, have children use the services, use the services themselves, report being on waiting lists, want additional services for their child, and believe staff could have done something additional compared to caregivers who completed it in English. African American children were significantly less likely to receive referrals, use services and have caregivers want additional services. Spanish-speaking caregivers and African American children warrant more attention to ensure all families' needs are being addressed.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a significant threat to the health and well-being of children in the United States (US). Public policies are a key public health strategy for the primary prevention of violence, including CSA. In 2021, the Enough Abuse Campaign and Prevent Child Abuse America published a comprehensive report entitled A Call to Action for Policymakers and Advocates: Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Legislation in the States to encourage state leaders to create a comprehensive strategy to prevent CSA in the US. Findings from the report show that the nation has made some effort to address CSA, but more focus needs to be given to primary prevention strategies that stop it from occurring in the first place. The report also illustrates the variability of CSA prevention policies across the US and highlights critical gaps in current approaches that must be addressed. In the spirit of the special issue, the authors reflect on key policy issues in the field, including the lack of a federal policy framework for CSA prevention, dedicated funding for the prevention of CSA, and research on the effectiveness of policies intended to prevent CSA. Suggestions for future directions in relation to policy development provided in this commentary will be useful to a variety of stakeholders interested in the topic of CSA prevention policy.

A substantial proportion of all reported child sexual abuse is perpetrated by other young people, though it is challenging to accurately depict its prevalence. Even less is known about the help-seeking behaviors of young people. Understanding how they seek help for their own problematic sexualized behavior is crucial to better inform therapeutic interventions and early intervention opportunities. This study used an administrative dataset of contacts (N = 901) received by Kids Helpline over nine years. Given the paucity of research on this topic, our approach to draw upon the contacts made to Kids Helpline by young people concerned about their own sexualized interests or behaviors is innovative and exploratory. Descriptive analyses were conducted to examine the characteristics of each contact as well as the demographics of the young people making contact. The present study examined the characteristics of 695 males and 206 females (aged 10 to 25) seeking help for their own problematic sexualized behaviors. Young people who contacted Kids Helpline for problematic sexualized behavior reported the following specific concerns: sexual behaviors (40.50%) and pornography use (38.20%). A quarter of contacts (25.86%) raised multiple concerns. Results suggest that intervention should be provided early and in an age-graded way. Several implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Interventions implemented in the digital space play an important role in the response to global concerns about the prevalence of online child sexual abuse. Digital detection software (e.g. Sweetie) utilized to combat this behavior is a well-known example. Far fewer examples of digital interventions focused on its prevention exist. This review sought to identify digital interventions currently being implemented that aim to prevent online child sexual abuse, or intervene early, through deterrence and redirection. Guided by the PRISMA scoping review framework, a search was conducted across four databases, with snowballing from reference lists of selected sources. After exclusion criteria were applied, six sources were selected for review. Findings suggest that digital interventions (e.g. warning messages and chatbots) can be used to deter and redirect individuals at-risk of, or in the early stages of engaging in online child sexual abuse, with greater deterrent effects observed when messaging aligns with situational crime prevention principles. However, limited application and evaluation of these interventions to date constrains inferences regarding the impact of these prevention efforts. To supplement findings, several other emerging examples of digital interventions and conceptual/theoretical works (that did not meet the original inclusion criteria) are cited. Findings of this review should be considered alongside these other examples to inform the ongoing design and scaling up of digital interventions aimed at preventing online child sexual abuse.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are frequent in child victims of sexual abuse. Authors argued that early trauma could lead to alterations in development that go far beyond the primary symptoms of PTSD and have proposed that Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) involving alterations in attachment, biology, affect regulation, consciousness, behavioral regulation, cognition, and self-concept, may better describe children experiencing chronic trauma at an early developmental stage. The aim of the study was to disentangle the diversity of profiles in child victims of sexual abuse based on the C-PTSD framework. Latent profile analysis was used to identify distinct subgroups in a sample of 861 sexually abused children aged 6 to 12. Children and their non-offending parents completed questionnaires evaluating PTSD symptoms and measures documenting alterations in development characteristics of C-PTSD. Latent profile analysis identified a best-fitting model consisting of three profiles: PTSD (40.7% of children), Resilient (32.8% of children), and C-PTSD (26.5% of children). Compared to others, children in the C-PTSD profile were more likely to have experienced more forms of interpersonal trauma and showed impairments in several domains. Findings underscore the importance of tailoring interventions to efficiently address the needs of young victims of sexual trauma.

Sexual minority (SM) men's sexual revictimization (SR; i.e. experiences of adult victimization among childhood sexual abuse survivors) is an understudied topic despite evidence that SM men are disproportionately impacted by sexual violence (SV) over the life course. This study addresses this gap utilizing a diverse sample (n = 2859) of SM men (age 18-30) from the U.S. Results demonstrated that over 10% of SM men had experienced SR. Further, strength-based (e.g. sense of LGBTQIA2S+ community) and minority-stress (e.g. internalized homonegativity) related factors were examined as moderators of the relationship between child sexual abuse (CSA) and adult sexual assault victimization (ASAV) in the past six months. One factor emerged as a significant moderator of the CSA-ASAV relationship: perceived discrimination. Practice-based implications are provided.