NCJ Number
137072
Date Published
1992
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This review of current efforts to prevent the sexual abuse of children discusses the nature of sexual abuse and what this implies for prevention programs, summarizes the effects of sexual abuse prevention programs, and outlines some of the major policy implications of this material.
Abstract
Research on the nature of child sexual abuse indicates that it is a complex phenomenon that inherently involves actions (e.g., threats), psychological processes (e.g., a child's fear or guilt), and social influences (e.g., an offender's separation of a child from adults who can protect the child) that reduce the likelihood that a child will disclose abuse. These findings have led to the development of core assumptions that underlie sexual abuse prevention programs for children. The assumptions are that many children do not know what sexual abuse is, that sexual touch need not be tolerated by children, that adults want to know about the sexual touching of children by older persons, and that it is possible to stop sexual abuse by telling others that it happened. Prevention programs thus involve teaching children the difference between a safe and an unsafe touch, how to resist unwanted touch, and the importance of telling a significant adult about attempted or actual sexual abuse. Overall, the evaluation of sexual abuse prevention education programs indicates that they have achieved the goals of teaching prevention knowledge and skill acquisition. It remains to be seen whether these gains will be retained over time and will be useful to a child in potential assault situations. 53 references