NCJ Number
212717
Journal
Crime, Law and Social Change Volume: 43 Issue: 4-5 Dated: 2005 Pages: 263-287
Date Published
2005
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the patterns and dynamics in perceptions of and responses to child sexual abuse (CSA) in the major English-speaking societies in the post-1970s period.
Abstract
Over the last 25 years, CSA has been increasingly regarded as a serious and significant problem in major English-speaking societies. Previously, it had been viewed as a problem in a small number of dysfunctional, incestuous families on the one hand and as perpetrated by deviant "strangers" on the other hand. However, increases in the reporting and estimation of CSA have given it the dimensions of a normative feature in the lives of many. Also, the consequences of CSA for victims have been determined to be long-term and pervasive. Further, an increasing number of disciplines have become involved in shaping and defining concepts of CSA. The extent, intensity, and diversity of some of the settings and formulations of CSA differ significantly across societies, such that there is no consistency in its form and dimensions. In addition, the strategies for responding to suspected cases of CSA have sometimes devastated the lives of innocent people, which has in turn caused a reassessment of how suspected cases of CSA should be managed. Underlying these trends has been the features of "an age of anxiety" (Holloway and Jefferson, 1997), which is characterized by a decline in trust and sociability evident in the breakdown of family structure, class, religious affiliation, and neighborhoods. Another strong influence is the way in which societies view "purity" and "danger." During the period in which CSA has come to the fore as a serious and prevalent problem, children have become associated with "purity," and their abusers with "danger." Children are viewed as vulnerable, innocent targets under threat from the "dangers" envisioned in the "age of anxiety." 4 notes and 104 references