Child Sexual Abuse: A Review of the Literature

1 Child Sexual abuse : A Review of the Literature THE JOHN JAY COLLEGE RESEARCH TEAM. KAREN J. TERRY, PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR. JENNIFER TALLON. PRIMARY RESEARCHER. PART I Literature Review . This Literature Review provides the reader with to summarize every point of view no matter how an overview of major academic works controversial. Any of the ideas expressed in this concerning Child Sexual abuse in the general Review should not be considered indicative of population. This is a comprehensive Review of the point of view of either the researchers at the available Literature , though it is not a meta- John Jay College of Criminal Justice, or the analysis (a synthesis of research results using Catholic Church.)

2 Various statistical methods to retrieve, select, One aim of this Literature Review is to and combine results from previous studies). put into perspective the problem of Child Sexual During the course of the past thirty years, the abuse in the Catholic Church as compared to its field of sex offender research has expanded and occurrence in other institutions and become increasingly inter-disciplinary. It would organizations. However, there is little or no be nearly impossible to Review every piece of empirical data pertaining to the true prevalence information relating to the topic of Child Sexual of Sexual abuse within most other organizations. abuse . Instead, this is a compilation of For this reason, the Sexual abuse of children in information pertaining to theories, typologies the Catholic Church is difficult to contextualize and treatments that have attained general because there is no basis for comparison in any acceptance within the scientific community.

3 Group, including the general population. Some In reviewing the Literature concerning journalists have conducted research on Sexual Sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, the abuse in particular organizations, such as the amount of empirical research was limited, and Boy Scouts. Though this work is an important many of the studies suffered from step in studying the problem, it is not methodological flaws. Additionally, much of the comprehensive in nature and more empirical Literature consisted of either anecdotal work should be conducted on institutions that information or impassioned arguments cater to children. Though not empirical in employed by various researchers when nature, this Literature Review does contain an characterizing the responses of the church to overview of published newspaper articles on this incendiary issue.

4 In providing the reader Child Sexual abuse in specific organizations. with a comprehensive Review , it was necessary TABLE OF CONTENTS. Estimates of Child Sexual Criminal Justice and Social Service Research Estimates ..5. Reporting Child Sexual Victim's Relationship to the Severity of Sexual abuse ..8. Developmental and Cognitive Fear of Negative Gender Differences ..8. Child Sexual abuse within Specific Organizations ..8. Boy Scouts ..8. Big Brother ..9. Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) ..10. Athletic Child Caregivers ..10. The Catholic Church ..11. Theories and Etiology of Child Sexual abuse ..13. Biological Theory ..13. Psychodynamic Theory ..14. Behavioral Theory ..14. Attachment Theory.

5 15. Cognitive-Behavioral Theory ..15. Integrated Theories of Offending by Catholic Priests ..19. The Offense Grooming ..22. Typologies of Child Sexual Abusers ..24. The Fixated/Regressed The FBI Typology ..26. The MTC:CM3 Other Typologies ..29. Characteristics of Child Sexual Abusers in the Catholic Church ..30. Evaluation of Sex Models of Treatment for Sexual Offenders who abuse Children ..35. 1. Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment and Relapse Prevention ..35. Deviant Sexual Behavior and Interests ..35. Social Skills Deficits ..36. Cognitive Distortions ..36. The Relapse Prevention Process ..37. Treatment Efficacy Studies ..38. Pharmacological Treatments ..38. Sex Offender Treatment for Victims of Child Sexual abuse by Priests.

6 40. Bibliography ..41. CHARTS, FIGURES AND TABLES. Figure1: Child Sexual abuse rates 1992-2001 ..3. Figure 2: Percent of Child abuse victims 1992-2001 ..3. Figure 3: The fixated/regressed typology Table 1: Summary of theories on Child Sexual Table 2: Characteristics of fixated and regressed Child Sexual Table 3: FBI typologies of Child Sexual Table 4: The MTC: CM3 classification of Child Sexual 2. Estimates of Child Sexual abuse OVERVIEW who have been victims of Child Sexual abuse . Figure 1. The estimation of any form of deviance in the National Child Sexual abuse Rate, 1992-2001. general population is a very difficult task. It is impossible to assess the extent of Sexual 250. offending, either in general or with children as 232.

7 Targets. Most estimates of the distribution of 214. Sexual offenders in the general population are 208. Sexual abuse Rate per 100,000 Child Population 200. derived from forensic sources, that is, samples 191. 180. of those who are arrested or convicted for sex 170. offenses. All researchers acknowledge that those 150. 145. 150. who are arrested represent only a fraction of all 114. Sexual offenders. Sexual crimes have the lowest 124. rates of reporting for all crimes. Not all potential 100. participants in such studies can be known or contacted, not all would use the same language to describe their experiences, and not all are 50. willing to share information. The Sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and deacons is part of the larger problem of Sexual abuse of children 0.

8 In the United States. This chapter is a summary 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001. of the estimates of Child Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church as well as the general population. CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL SERVICE. Figure 2. ESTIMATES OF Child Sexual abuse . Child Victims of Sexual abuse as a % of Child Population, 1992-2001. Child Sexual abuse data has been collected annually since 1992 through the National Child abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) of the Federal Department of Health and Human Child Victims in Hundredths of a Percent Services. These data are based on incident- level reports gathered from state Child protective services and agencies and are published in an annual report.

9 The publication Child Maltreatment, which is released annually, reports incident-based allegations per state along with census-based estimates of the population of children younger than 18. Child Sexual abuse is defined as maltreatment that involves the Child in Sexual activity to provide Sexual gratification or financial benefit to the perpetrator ( Child Maltreatment, 2001). Child 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001. maltreatment reports show a decline in reported incidents from 1992 to 2001 for all reporting It is important to note that social service states. Figure 1 shows the incident data agencies and criminal justice institutions each expressed as a rate per 100,000 children. Figure only capture part of the picture.

10 Incidents or 2 shows the percent of the total Child population events involving the Sexual abuse of children 3. may be reported directly to the police and/or may come to the attention of the staff of social ALABAMA There were 632 Child rapes service agencies. It is important to reported to the Alabama state criminal acknowledge that many such incidents may not justice agency in 2001, for a reported rate generate any official report at all. of 56 per 100,000 children. The NCANDS. As a part of the work on the Study, rate for all incidents of abuse is 174 per state-level criminal justice data on the 100,000 children. prevalence of Child Sexual abuse were sought DELAWARE Delaware's criminal justice from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.