Whilst the presence of child sexual abuse has been accepted in North America, particularly for the last three decades, countries in other parts of the world have doubted that similar levels exist in their own countries. This has been shown not to be the case. Finkelhor (1994), examining studies from around the world, has registered high rates of child sexual abuse comparable to rates found in research in North America from nineteen different countries. Rates of abuse from these non-clinical samples ranged from 7% to 36% for women and 3% to 29% for men. These rates illustrate the universality of the problem and undermine the assumption of North American exceptionalism. Finkelhor aptly concludes:
Studies from a variety of countries suggest that sexual abuse [of children] is indeed an international problem. In every locale where it has been sought, researchers have demonstrated its existence at levels high enough to be detected through surveys of a few hundred adults in the general population… As such epidemiological findings are available for more and more countries, the responsibility of proof shifts to anyone who would argue that sexual abuse is rare or non-existent in their locale (1994, p. 412).
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A follow-up to Finkelhor (1994) by Pereda et al (2009b), found a similar pattern and demonstrated again the lack of evidence emerging from developing countries. The authors note that CSA is clearly an international problem. The evidence of child sexual abuse continues to appear around the world, and as noted earlier, prevalence figures have been recorded in such diverse places as El Salvador, India and Palestine. Other countries have followed to investigate the problem in a systematic way. For example, a study in Switzerland by Halperin, Bouvier, Jaffe, Mounoud, Pawlak, Laederach, Wicky, and Astie (1996) of 1193 adolescents aged 13-17 years, demonstrated that 33.8% of girls and 10.9% boys reported having experienced at least one sexually abusive event.
In Hong Kong, Tang (2002) described the presence of child sexual abuse in a convenience sample of 2147 Chinese college students. She reported an average rate of sexual abuse of 6%. A telephone survey study from the Republic of Ireland by McGee, Garavan, de Barra, Byrne & Conroy (2003) found that out of a sample of 3,118 one in five women and one in six men reported experiencing contact sexual abuse in childhood with a further one in ten and one in fourteen reporting non-contact sexual abuse respectively. Cases of contact abuse which involved penetrative sex - either vaginal, anal or oral sex was experienced 5.6 per cent of all girls and 2.7 per cent of all boys. In Korea, Kim and Kim (2005) sampling 1,672 adolescents (1,053 student adolescents and 619 delinquent adolescents) reported a 3.7% prevalence rate of incest. Families in which incest occurred were characterized by higher levels of problems, such as psychotic disorders, depression, criminal acts, and alcoholism among family members. Adolescent incest victims were significantly more dysfunctional and unhealthy in terms of family dynamics and showed significantly higher maladaptive and problematic psychological patterns than non-victimized adolescents.
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The available evidence suggests that child sexual abuse is universal and that it has been shown to exist in every locale where it has been investigated. Low rates of reported child sexual abuse have been noted in Asian populations (Pereda et al., 2009). They may be due the tendency in collectivist cultures to put the needs of a group ahead of those of an individual (Hofstede, 2001), leading to lower levels of reporting to avoid adversely affecting the health of the group.
The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) has also being involved in documenting the abuses and the responses to them, faced by children and professionals globally. Their biennial publication “World Perspectives on Child Abuse” surveys child specialists throughout the world to gauge knowledge and responses to child maltreatment. The survey asks questions in relation to many aspects of child maltreatment such as incidence, intervention, policy trends, health status and public awareness. The 2014 edition obtained data from 73 countries (covering 76% of the world’s children). This voluntary survey offers a global perspective on the issue of child abuse and neglect. In order to facilitate participation in this survey effort, the questionnaires were translated and made available to potential respondents in French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic.
The authors point out that low-income countries face the greatest challenge ensuring children’s wellbeing and protection but high-income countries have work to do too. They call for continued efforts to ensure the protection of children given what we now know: “Enough is known about the potential harm of child maltreatment to support a compelling argument for building societies that strengthen families, support
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parents/caregivers, and promote children’s health, development and safety as so doing should also help prevent child maltreatment” (ISPCAN, 2014, p. 6).
2.10 Conclusion
This chapter has argued that we have only recently started to protect children from many forms of abuse (de Mause, 1998). This change has been in part due to recognition that children are not miniature adults. They are more vulnerable and thus should be afforded special protection (Ariès, 1962). The work of Freud, Piaget, Erikson and Bowlby, in particular, has highlighted the developmentally significant position of childhood. Any disruption caused by maltreatment could lead to significant long-term developmental problems.
Sexuality is a social construction. Each society decides, for itself, the sexual behaviours they view to be acceptable. In nearly every society today sexual contact between children and adults is considered taboo but this has not always been the case. For example, in ancient Rome and Greece, sexual contact between young boys and men was acceptable. The strength of this taboo is perhaps positively related to the care we have given our children. There is growing recognition that CSA is universal, pervasive and dangerous. The evidence for its presence is indisputable and there is clear recognition that it should be prevented (World Health Organization, 2004/2006). The work of Kempe and Finkelhor has been instrumental in bringing to light the presence and dangers of child sexual abuse. The reasons why adults choose to have sexual contact with children instead of adults are manifold. Theories include personal, cognitive, behavioural and environmental factors.
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CHAPTER 3