NCJ Number
159852
Date Published
1994
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Increased awareness of child sexual abuse has led many adults to withdraw physical affection from children and has made some parents overprotective, but these reactions are harmful and fail to protect children.
Abstract
Sexual abuse education for both adults and children is key in preventing child sexual abuse, and such education should focus on giving children control of and responsibility for their own bodies. Ignorance on the part of children is frequently a chief ingredient in child sexual abuse. Although sexual advances of an adult are usually experienced as distasteful and even terrifying to the child, the adult victimizer can call upon his or her adult status to legitimize touch unless the child has been socially authorized to reject sexual advances. General descriptions of sexual abuse should be included in children's sex education. Children need to know more than the mechanics of lovemaking; they need to know the meaning of the act. When children are better educated, they can more readily understand when some adults misuse bodily touch out of greed for the physical feeling of pleasure. Sex education of children involves not only teaching children to take their own feelings seriously but also teaching adults to consider children's feelings. The main challenge in educating children about sexual abuse is that touch should be mutually pleasurable; if touch is not mutually pleasurable, it should be terminated until openly and expressly validated by other trusted adults. 1 figure