Child Sexual Abuse

Question 1

What are the statistics of disclosure

Answer 1

• Fewer than half of the victims tell anyone at the time of the abuse, and a large percentage never reveal the abuse until asked for research purposes
• Not all children who are sexually abused disclose and as many as 60–70% delay disclosure into adulthood

Question 2

What are the barriers young people face

Answer 2

limited support, perceived negative consequences and feelings of self-blame, shame and guilt, when choosing to disclose

Question 3

When are children more likely to disclose

Answer 3

• children disclosed in situations where the theme of child sexual abuse was addressed or activated;
• children revealed that they were sensitive to others’ reactions and whether their disclosures would be misinterpreted
• A study of sixth and ninth graders in Finland revealed that most children had disclosed to someone, usually a friend (48%).
• However, only 26% had disclosed to adults, and even fewer had reported their experiences to authorities (12%).
• Boys were less willing to disclose CSA than girls

Question 4

Boys as victims

Answer 4

• Hohendorff et al., (2017) showed that victims faced significant levels of disbelief and discrimination.
• Practitioners were unprepared to handle cases involving sexually abused boys.
• Underscores the social invisibility of sexual violence against boys.

Question 5

Outline the demographics of boys as victims

Answer 5

• from 1993 to 2012, the rate of reporting of boys increased 2.6-fold whereas there was a 1.5-fold increase for girls.
• ## In 1993, the sex ratio of girls to boys was 2:1, while by 2012 this ratio changed to 1.14:1

Question 6

ROSH reports where sexual abuse was recorded as a reported issue have increased every year since 2011-12 : by ______% in 2019-20 compared with 2018-19.

Answer 6

6.1

Question 7

CSA in the Australian Context

Answer 7

Unlike the US, Australian CSA has been increasing year on year

Question 8

Outline the issues associated with Online CSA

Answer 8

• Increasing access to the internet has seen an upward trend in cases of online child sexual exploitation.
• Most commonly this includes grooming, live streaming, consuming child sexual abuse material, and coercing and blackmailing children for sexual purposes.
• 29.3 million reports were received in 2021 compared to 21.7 in 2020 and 16.9 million in 2019.

Question 9

Outline child trafficking demographics

Answer 9

• estimated that between 300 and 1000 persons are victims of trafficking a year.
• The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that 28% of trafficking victims worldwide detected in 2016, were children.
• 72 per cent of all girls and 23 per cent of all boys who were trafficked, were done so for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

Question 10

What are the symptoms of child sexual abuse victims

Answer 10

• psychosocial symptoms (emotions, behaviours, toilet training, development)
• signs of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• A clear symptom pattern was lacking and about half of the confirmed severe victims of CSA did not display any psychosocial problems.
• it is difficult for experts to identify confirmed CSA victims on the basis of symptoms.

Question 11

what causes CSA effects to be worse

Answer 11

when penetration is involved, violence, a closer relationship to the perpetrator, multiple offenders, longer duration and more frequent contact

Question 12

do all CSA victims experience abuse-related problems

Answer 12

no, 40% of children did not develop any issues

Question 13

relation between CSA and mental health

Answer 13

25 year-olds who experienced attempted or completed sexual penetration as children had rates of mental health disorder (including suicide ideation and attempts, depression and anxiety, substance dependence) that were 2.4 times higher than those not exposed to child sexual abuse

Question 14

Outline the effect size of CSA and psychological outcomes

Answer 14

SA is associated with negative psychological outcomes, but that the effects are small

Question 15

outline the coeffects of CSA

Answer 15

• Problem of establishing effects of CSA - coexists with other difficult life circumstances e.g., negative home environment or other forms of abuse which may account for the poor long-term adjustment.
• Often associated with low levels of parental support and high levels of parental conflict.

Question 16

What are the three generations of CSA research

Answer 16

• First generation: a catalogue of the short-term and long-term effects of CSA
• Second generation: identifies variables that moderate the relationship between CSA and negative outcomes
• Third generation: mediating processes through which CSA produces long-term outcomes

Question 17

why do some victims develop symptoms and others not

Answer 17

• characteristics of the abuse experience
• context during and following the abuse
• child’s construal of the abusive experience

Question 18

Saigh et al., (1995) showed that trauma and PTSD symptomatology affected self-efficacy most strongly in ____

Answer 18

social situations, enlistment of family support, and use of emotional regulation (particularly the expression of the emotion to others) strategies.

Question 19

Cicchetti et al.,(1990) reported that in midchildhood maltreated children report _____

Answer 19

diminished self-efficacy particularly in interpersonal relationships.

Question 20

Outline the relationship between CSA and self-efficacy

Answer 20

• CSA hinders development of self-efficacy as the focus is on negative self-evaluation.
• Self-blame and self-denigration are associated with low self-efficacy.
• Abused children may become externally focused as they direct their attention to external threats rather than to developing self-awareness skills.
• Social support and high self-efficacy buffer the effects of trauma on health outcomes.

Question 21

What four factors are considered in determining the competence of children to testify in court

Answer 21

• understanding the difference between truth and lie
• the mental capacity to receive accurate impressions of the occurrence
• memory sufficient to retain an independent recollection
• the capacity to communicate the memory of the observations

Question 22

what are the three main factors considered in the evaluation of the psychological evidence relevant to testimonial competence

Answer 22

• memorial skills
• language and communication skills
• lying and truth-telling skills

Question 23

Outline the advantage of props and anatomical correct dolls

Answer 23

• The AD doll and associated props helped older children recount more information about the VCUG than these children recounted in free recall, with little risk of increasing incorrect reporting.
• The use of props and AD doll was associated with additional correct information, younger children made significantly more errors than older children when props and AD dolls were employed
• When interviewing young children about a painful medical procedure, employment of AD dolls and props can increase the amount of incorrect information give

Question 24

Issue with Historical CSA

Answer 24

• Although most memories fade with time and suggestibility about them can increase, empirical studies in this chapter show that accurate memories for traumatic, personally significant, and/or taboo acts can be maintained for decades.
• Although false allegations of childhood maltreatment, possibly reflecting false memories, can occur, it is contended that the available scientific evidence argues for case-specific analysis and against strict application of the statute of limitations.

Question 25

What is the developmental reversal effect

Answer 25

Depending on the nature of the event, children can be more accurate than older children and adults. Younger children who have not developed gist memory provide verbatim accounts of events, whereas older children and adults sometimes fill in missing parts with inaccurate information

Question 26

Why is the limited reporting by younger children an issue

Answer 26

The more limited reporting of information by younger children can jeopardize the prosecution case because of insufficient information. Practitioners often resort to asking suggestive and leading questions to enable sufficient information to be obtained for the prosecution to proceed.

Question 27

What is the solution to the issue of reliability of more questions for younger people

Answer 27

• Narrative Elaboration
• Props and drawings
• Physical Context Reinstatement
• Cognitive Context Reinstatement

Question 28

What are the type of interviews

Answer 28

• cognitive interview
• step-wise interview
• NICHD interview protocol

Question 29

What is the emphasis of the different interview protocols

Answer 29

• Retrieval aids are not an integral part of the Step-Wise or the NICHD Interview protocols. In these interviews more emphasis is placed on the question format and the use of a funnel approach.
• In contrast, the Cognitive Interview places more emphasis on the use of retrieval aids and devotes less attention to the questions asked.

Question 30

What is the development of the SCI interview protocol

Answer 30

• The development of this new protocol was guided by the research on questioning procedures and retrieval aids as well as professional interview guidelines.
• Furthermore, unlike most other interview protocols, the Sociocognitive Interview (SCI) was developed within the theoretical framework of social cognitive theory

Question 31

What are the phases of the sociocognitive interview protocol

Answer 31

• Rapport development
• Pre-interview instructions and training – ground rules
• Cognitive Context Reinstatement
• Narrative Free Recall: Open-ended narration
• Questioning and clarification phase
• Information about specific people
• Evaluative questions
• Final memory search
• Closure: Interview ending

Question 32

What are the advantages of narrative free recall

Answer 32

• Unconstrained narratives provide more accurate information than information elicited by specific questions.
• Children are asked to report about what happened from the “picture in their head”.
• They are encouraged to report all the events in sequential order – start at the beginning, then the middle and then the end.

Question 33

Evaluate the sociocognitive interview protocol

Answer 33

• Although the sociocognitive interview served to increase the amount of information reported, it was not effective in eliciting information that children were reluctant to report.
• Disclosure was not influenced by age, sex, or interview type

Question 34

What are the impediments to disclosure

Answer 34

• Content of the information to be reported.
• Relationship of the perpetrator to the child.
• Promise to keep the abuse secret.
• Threats by perpetrators about revealing the abuse.
• Fear or disbelief.

Question 35

truth and lie competence assessments

Answer 35

• Counter to Piaget, even 4-year-olds can differentiate sinister lies from white lies and lies told in jest for fun (trick lies).
• As children age, they are more capable of differentiating the different lie types

Question 36

children’s understanding of truth- and lie-telling has been found to be:

Answer 36

• unrelated to the accuracy and honesty of their reports
• more related to dishonest reports than to truthful ones
• related to the accuracy of their reports
• related to truth-telling under specific conditions

Question 37

relationship between punishment and truth telling

Answer 37

the more children anticipate punishment for truth-telling the less likely they are to tell the truth and less positively truth telling is evaluated.

Question 38

Outline false allegations and what can cause them

Answer 38

• Spontaneous generation. Young children tell trick lies for fun and they are readily detected.
• Coaching by others. In the court context, these types of lies are much more likely than spontaneously generated false allegations and can result from a malicious person or poor interviewing practices.

Question 39

Outline Stephan et al’s research into false allegations

Answer 39

• Over time, children increasingly assented to the fictional events.
• The younger children assented to significantly more fictional events than older children.
• The neutral nonparticipant events resulted in the most false assents, whereas the negative events resulted in the fewest assents.
• But for those children who consistently assented over many sessions, we suspect that many of them believed their claims.

Question 40

factors which contribute to unreliable evidence

Answer 40

• Poor interviewing practices.
• Coaching by a malicious parent.
• A trusted perpetrator who swears the child to secrecy.
• Anticipated negative outcome for truth telling

Question 41

the issue with cross-examination

Answer 41

The questions asked during cross-examination are similar to suggestive questions and are usually leading, ambiguous, complex, and irrelevant