NCJ Number
110733
Date Published
1988
Length
48 pages
Annotation
Chapters present a model for understanding the meaning of the traumatic event to the sexually abused child, provide guidelines for assessing the child's physical and mental health, outline legal approaches, and suggest an intervention for the assessment and treatment of both the child and the family.
Abstract
An overview of child sexual abuse focuses on the results of recent studies of child sexual abuse and also the prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse. A discussion of the dynamics and structures of various types of sex rings that victimize children considers 'solo' sex rings (a number of child victims recruited by one adult), 'transition' sex rings (a number of adults who exploit a number of children), and 'syndicated' sex rings (a well-structured organization heavily involved in all sorts of sexual activities with children for an extensive network of clients). Guidelines for the health assessment of the child victim encompass history-taking, interviewing the child, physical examination, and psychological evaluation. A review of the response patterns of traumatized children considers the various phases of the trauma experience. A separate chapter describes how to interview a child victim with the event-drawing series. The book concludes with a discussion of treatment issues in child sexual trauma and the criminal and civil legal aspects of countering sex ring crimes against children. 31 references.