Child Abuse

Abstract

Child sexual abuse is a worldwide concern. It is an insidious, persistent, and serious problem that, depending on the population studied and definition used, affects 2-62% of women and 3-16% of men as victims. Pain and tissue injury from child sexual abuse can completely heal in time, but psychological and medical consequences can persist through adulthood. Associated sexually transmitted diseases (such as HIV) and suicide attempts can be fatal. All physicians who treat children should be aware of the manifestations and consequences of child sexual abuse, and should be familiar with normal and abnormal genital and anal anatomy of children. This aim is best accomplished through training and routine examination of the anus and genitalia of children. Because as many as 96% of children assessed for suspected sexual abuse will have normal genital and anal examinations, a forensic interview by a trained professional must be relied on to document suspicion of abuse.

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Review of Literature1

Summary of Findings9

Recommendations or Implications13

References18

Child Abuse

Introduction

Child sexual abuse is a worldwide concern. It is an insidious, persistent, and serious problem that, depending on the population studied and definition used, affects 2-62% of women and 3-16% of men as victims. Pain and tissue injury from child sexual abuse can completely heal in time, but psychological and medical consequences can persist through adulthood. Associated sexually transmitted diseases (such as HIV) and suicide attempts can be fatal. All physicians who treat children should be aware of the manifestations and consequences of child sexual abuse, and should be familiar with normal and abnormal genital and anal anatomy of children. This aim is best accomplished through training and routine examination of the anus and genitalia of children. Because as many as 96% of children assessed for suspected sexual abuse will have normal genital and anal examinations, a forensic interview by a trained professional must be relied on to document suspicion of abuse.

Child sexual abuse rarely results in death, but its consequences to the child victim can be serious and persist through adulthood. Although physicians and other individuals responsible for the welfare of children are morally and, in most countries, legally responsible for reporting their suspicion of child sexual abuse, all physicians and behavioral therapists need to recognize the adult consequences of child sexual abuse. This article reviews definitions, incidence, prevalence, emotional and physical consequences, and the physician's role in recognition, reporting, and prevention of child sexual abuse. Issues of disagreement are presented.

Review of Literature

Definition

Unlike physical abuse, where personal experience and economic issues1 and varying opinions about the usefulness and danger of corporal punishment may cloud the definition, the definition of what acts constitute child sexual abuse is rarely debated (Bidrose, 2010). Such abuse can be defined as any activity with a child before the age of legal consent that is for the sexual gratification of an adult or a substantially older child. These activities include oral-genital, genital-genital, genital-rectal, hand-genital, hand-rectal, or hand-breast contact; exposure of sexual anatomy; forced viewing of sexual anatomy; and showing pornography to a child or using a child in the production of ...