The Impact of Child Sexual Abuse
Post 3: Incidence
While the incidence of reporting has increased substantially over the years, it is believed that CSA still goes largely unreported (see Kuyken, 1995 and Webster, 2001). While incidence rates (in America) currently estimate that 25% of all girls and 18% of all boys experience some form of sexual abuse (Edwards, Holden, Felitti, & Anda, 2003), these figures are believed to represent the bare minimum. For example, professionals may decide not to report some incidences due to factors such as a perceived lack of solid “evidence,” unclear definitions, and lack of trust in “the system” (see Barnett et al., 1997). Parents may also choose not to report for a variety of reasons; for example feelings of shame, guilt, embarrassment, fear of ridicule and disbelief.
Further, studies have found that parents rarely report CSA if they know the perpetrator; in fact it seems that the closer the perpetrator is to the family, the less likely they are to report (Finkelhor, 1984; Rathus, Nevid, & Fichner-Rathus, 2005). Rathus et al. cites an alarming Boston community survey finding (Finkelhor, 1984) which revealed that: 0% of parents reported abuse perpetrated by family members, 23% reported abuse by acquaintances and 73% reported abuse by strangers. This finding serves to highlight the striking occurrence of underreporting by parents who discover the abuse of their child. Many children may also never report the abuse, or may only do so at a later date.
This may be due to factors such as feelings of guilt and/or shame, fear (of the perpetrator and/or the “system”), fear of not being believed and/or being labelled or stigmatised, and memory loss (see Kuyken, 1995 and Rathus et al., 2005). The lack of reporting of CSA not only reflects a false (lower) incidence of CSA, but denies researchers access to an important sample (sub-population) of CSA victims when accessing, understanding and interpreting the phenomenon of CSA. This not only taints present understanding of the “effects” of CSA, but impedes accuracy and effectiveness of correctly identifying, treating and preventing the problem of CSA (for victims/survivors, families and society alike).
Note: Vikki Rowe is a graduate of AIPC’s Diploma of Professional Counselling and currently studying a Masters of Clinical Psychology course at the Australian Catholic University.