NCJ Number
144770
Date Published
1992
Length
787 pages
Annotation
This volume describes the factors causing child sexual abuse; details evaluative techniques for assessing the accuser, the accused, and the alleged child victim; and explains interview techniques for differentiating between true and false accusations of child sexual abuse.
Abstract
The text also discusses medical findings, validators, and various levels of leading questions, leading gestures, and leading stimuli. Another section describes sex-abuse accusations in nursery schools and child care centers, with particular focus on the manifestations of hysteria that often confuse evaluations conducted in that atmosphere. Additional chapters focus on the treatment of the nonabused child who has been traumatized by being embroiled in a false sex-abuse accusation and the treatment of the child who has been genuinely abused. The final chapter focuses on adults who belatedly accuse elderly parents and relatives of having sexually abused them in childhood. The text notes that although the prevalence of sex abuse is probably quite high in some situations, it is probably quite low in others. The author, clinical professor of child psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, notes that the hysterical reactions surrounding an accusation are formidable, sometimes resulting in the validation of sex abuse when good reason exists to believe that the alleged perpetrator is innocent. Subject and author indexes, appended guidelines used by the author when asked to evaluate an accusation of child sexual abuse, November 1992 addendum recommending changes in the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, and over 200 references