Sexual Abuse

Advanced Topics: Child Maltreatment Theory
Course Presentations
Southern Arkansas University
Kimberly Keith, MEd, LPC

1. SEXUAL ABUSE

2. Sexual Abuse Definition and Types

3. Definitions
 1978 – National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect
 Contacts or interactions between a child and an adult when the
child is being used for the sexual stimulation of the perpetrator or
another person. Sexual abuse may also be committed by a
person under the age of 18 when that person is either
significantly older than the victim or when the perpetrator is in a
position of power or control over another child.
4 Components of Sexual Abuse Definition
Includes extrafamilial abuse as well as intrafamilial abuse (incest).
Includes both physical contact and noncontact sexual activities.
Includes an adult’s exploitation of his or her authority, knowledge,
and power to achieve sexual ends.
Includes language that addresses the age or maturational
advantage of the perpetrator over the victim.

4. Arkansas Code 12-12-503
 Sexual abuse means:
Sexual intercourse, deviate sexual activity, or sexual contact
by forcible compulsion
Attempted sexual intercourse, deviate sexual activity, or
sexual contact
Indecent exposure
Forcing, permitting, or encouraging the watching of
pornography or live sexual activity
 Sexual exploitation means allowing, permitting, or
encouraging participation or depiction of the juvenile in
prostitution, obscene photographing, filming, or
obscenely depicting a juvenile for any use or purpose

5. Sexual Abuse is Priority One in Arkansas and does not
require that the offender be a caretaker of the child.
 SEXUAL CONTACT
Definition - Any non-penetrative act involving the touching, directly or
through clothing, of the sex organs, or buttocks, or anus of any child or
the breast of a female child. This includes encouraging, forcing, or
permitting the child to inappropriately touch parts of the alleged
offender’s body generally associated with sexual activity.
 SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
Definition - Allowing, permitting, or encouraging participation or
depiction of the juvenile in prostitution, obscene photographing, filming,
or obscenely depicting a juvenile for any use or purpose.
 SEXUAL PENETRATION
Definition - Any penetration, however slight, of any part of the body of
one person or any animal or object into the sex organ or anus of
another person when at least one of the persons involved is a child. This
includes acts commonly known as anal penetration, digital penetration,
coition, coitus and copulation.

6. Sexual contact resulted from
one of the following:
A direct action by a parent or caretaker ten years of age or older
(abuse);
A direct action by any person under any of the following circumstances:
(a) The alleged offender is ten (10) years of age or older and the alleged
victim is under the age of eighteen and forcible compulsion was used in the act
or attempt, or
Forcible Compulsion – physical force or a threat, express or implied, of death or
physical injury to or kidnapping of any person.
(b) One person is eighteen (18) or older and the other is under the age of
sixteen and not the spouse, or
(c) One person is a caretaker or sibling of the other who is less than eighteen
(18) years old
The failure of the parent or caretaker to make reasonable efforts to stop
an action by another person which resulted in sexual contact (failure to
protect).
When a child’s behavior would tend to indicate the child has been a victim
of sexual contact. This does not include developmentally appropriate
behavior.

7. Internet stalking of a child
The person being twenty-one (21) years of age or
older knowingly uses a computer online service,
internet service, or local internet bulletin board
service to:
Seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a child fifteen (15) years
of age or younger in an effort to arrange a meeting
with the child for the purpose of engaging in
(A)  Sexual intercourse
(B)  Sexually explicit conduct
(C)  Deviate sexual activity
..or, an individual that the person believes to be fifteen
(15) years of age or younger

8. Internet Stalking of a Child
Compile, transmit, publish, reproduce, buy, sell,
receive, exchange, or disseminate the name,
telephone number, electronic mail address,
residence address, picture, physical description,
characteristics, or any other identifying
information on a child fifteen (15) years of age or
younger in furtherance of an effort to arrange a
meeting with the child for the purpose of
engaging in sexual abuse:
…or, an individual that the person believes to be
fifteen (15) years of age or younger

9. Initiation and Maintenance of Sexual Abuse
Dynamics of Child Sexual Abuse

10. Initiation of Abuse
Desensitization - ‘grooming’ – involves a progression from
nonsexual to sexual touch in the context of a gradually
developing relationship. Typically begins with seemingly
accidental or affectionate touches and then proceeds to
sexual touches.
Other common initiation tactics
Misuse of adult authority or misrepresentation of moral standards
– claiming that the behavior is not sexual, or that it is acceptable.
(“It’s OK, you’re my daughter; or I’m teaching you about sex.”)
Separating the child from protective adults;
Conditioning the child through reward (money, attention, toys,
clothes, etc.) and punishment (threatening to hurt the child or loved
ones);
Forcing the child to observe violence against their mothers;
Using physical force or threatening gestures;

11. Maintenance of Abuse
 Convincing the child to keep it a secret
Bribes – attention, money, toys
Threats – to harm or kill the child, a loved one, or
pet, to send them away, to withdraw special
privileges, to show pictures of the child involved in
sexual acts
Physical aggression – physically overpowering the
child

12. Models of the Development and Occurrence of
Sexual Abuse and Pedophilia
Theories of Child Sexual Abuse

13. Pathways Model –Ward
The Pathways Model suggests that the extent to which persons
experience difficulties in four clusters of psychological problems
largely explains the primary reasons that they engage in sex
offending behavior
Cognitive distortions
Emotional management difficulties
Intimacy and social skills deficits
Deviant or unhealthy sexual scripts
So depending upon what their main deficits are, they fall into one of
the following five pathways:
Multiple dysfunctional mechanisms pathway
Deviant sexual scripts pathway
Intimacy deficits pathway
Emotional dysregulation pathway
Antisocial cognitions pathway

14. Integrated Theory - Marshall
According to this influential theory, sexual offending
behaviors are the result of a combination of:
 biological
developmental
environmental influences
cultural influences
individual vulnerabilities and situational factors

15. Confluence Model - Malamuth
A combination of three primary clusters of risk
factors increases the likelihood that an individual
will become sexually aggressive toward women.
Motivators
Disinhibitors
Opportunities
The interaction of these risk factors results in two
pathways to sex offending: the sexually
promiscuous pathway and the hostile masculinity
pathway.

16. Risk Factors in Child Sexual Abuse

17. Individual Child Factors
Middle childhood (7-12 yrs) though official
reporting statistics show little variability across ages
for children from birth to age 17.
Girls 3 x more likely to be sexually abused, but
males may be less likely to report

18. Individual Perpetrator Factors
Median age 32
43% of sexual abuse against children under age 7
perpetrated by juvenile offenders
75% of perps are male

19. Other Risk Factors
76% of perps were friends or neighbors
33% of perps were family members
90% of offenders under age 12 know their offender
Stepfather family or living without both natural parents
for extended period
Employed, disabled, or ill mother
Parental relationship in conflict
Parental drug/alcohol abuse
Child has few close friends

20. Sexual Offender Characteristics

21. Deviant sexual arousal, interests, or
preferences
Engaging in sexual contact with young children or
adolescents
Having sexual contact with others against their will
or without their consent
Inflicting pain or humiliation on others
Participating in or watching acts of physical
aggression or violence
Exposing oneself in a public setting
Secretly watching others who are undressing,
unclothed, or engaging in sexual activities

22. Cognitive Distortions or Pro–Offending
Attitudes
Sex offenders may tell themselves (and even tell
others) that the behavior is not harmful or that it is
less serious, or claim that the victim enjoyed the
behavior or initiated the sexual contact, or they
may come up with justifications for engaging in sex
offending behaviors, such as believing that women
deserve to be treated in these ways.
In so doing, these self–statements give the offenders
“permission” to do something that they know is
wrong, and therefore they may not feel as badly
about themselves for doing it.

23. Social, interpersonal, and intimacy
deficits
Fairly common among sex offenders are problems in
the social or interpersonal realm, with issues such as:
Ineffective communication skills
Social isolation
General social skills deficits
Sexual anxiety
Problems in intimate relationships
Blockage –
fixation at a developmental level that leaves him incapable
of progressing to mutually satisfying adult relationships;
problems relating to adult women, access to adult sexual
relationship is blocked

24. Victim empathy deficits
A specific interpersonal problem that is believed to
be common to many sex offenders is that of
empathy deficits, putting oneself in another person’s
shoes, so to speak, or the ability to feel what
another person may be feeling.
For some time it was believed that sex offenders
lacked the ability to be empathic in general,
although later it was suggested that their deficits
were more specific to their victims.

25. Poor coping or self–management skills
Some offenders have difficulties managing their
emotions appropriately.
Impulsiveness under stress;
difficulty with self-regulation;
using sexualized methods of coping with anxiety and
emotional distress
Disinhibition due to alcohol or drug use
These factors are not unique to sex offenders; nor do
they cause people to commit sex offenses.
These factors—specifically emotional and behavioral
self–regulation difficulties—may be part of what leads
someone down the path to sex offending, and they are
also associated with reoffending.

26. History of maltreatment
Research finds a relatively high prevalence of
childhood sexual or physical abuse among samples
of sex offenders.
There may be some sort of relationship between
having been maltreated and later engaging in sex
offending behaviors, especially when other kinds of
vulnerability or risk factors are present.
But in and of itself, there is no research that
supports the notion that it actually causes sex
offending.

27. How a History of Abuse May Affect
Child Sexual Abuser
Possible explanations:
Abuses in an effort to resolve, assimilate, or master the
anxiety resulting from their own abuse
Lack of development of empathy because of their lack
of nurturing parental relationship, experience of
betrayal as a child, and the subordination of their own
needs to those of an abuser
 Intergenerational transmission of sexual abuse is
much less prevalent than for child physical abuse.

28. A Model for Understanding the
Development of a Child Sexual Abuser
Stressful early development that includes the following
risk factors contributes to the development of sexually
abusive behavior:
Poor attachment between parent and child (associated with lack
of empathy, intimacy deficits, emotional disregulation)
Limited coping abilities (impulsiveness under stress, alcohol and
drug use, sexualized coping methods)
Low-quality relationships with others (intimacy deficits, social
isolation, use of pornography, lack of developing satisfying adult
relationships)
History of sexual abuse (development of deviant sexual scripts,
antisocial cognitions, sexualized coping methods)
Abuses in an effort to resolve, assimilate, or master the anxiety
resulting from their own abuse
Lack of development of empathy

29. The Potential Offender
 Two predisposing factors need to be present for
the potential offender to reach a ‘tipping point’ to
sexually abuse.
Access to a victim
Disinhibition (cognitive distortions; impulsiveness; alcohol
use)

30. Sources
Miller-Perrin, Cindy L. & Perrin, Robin. Child
Maltreatment: An introduction. 2007. Thousand
Oaks: Sage
Arkansas Code 12-12-503. Definitions
Arkansas Code 5-27-306. Internet Stalking of a
Child
Arkansas Child Maltreatment Assessment Protocol
Understanding Sex Offenders: An Introductory
Curriculum. Center for Sex Offender Management.
http://www.csom.org/train/etiology/index.html