Effects of Child Sexual Abuse - Essay Example

151512 OF THE YEAR: DEPARTMENT: SUPERVISOR: OUTLINE: I have taken 'Effects of Child Sexual Abuse' as a topic of my Dissertation. I feel that this is a very important issue as it can leave lifelong effects if the child is not provided with proper and continuous physical and psychological treatment. I have detailed the after effects from various angles and have outlined the difficulties in following particular research methodologies. I am sure that this is a significant area, where adequate research has not been done yet and filling this gap in research is important not only to the child victim, but also to the larger society. INTRODUCTION One of the worst and saddest occurrences in childhood is the sexual abuse and the resultant trauma. It still remains perhaps the most inhuman and innately harmful happening that has the potential of ruining the rest of child's life. While Child sexual abuse remains illegal in all countries, it has also been almost impossible to eradicate it completely. This is mainly because the child is usually abused by either family members, or friends and it is always by somebody in the immediate circle and this makes it difficult for the crime to get reported or the abuser punished. Child sexual abuse is not something momentary that could be forgotten immediately. Sometimes it could go on for years unnoticed by others and the threatened child might not reveal the sexual abuse. It has always produced short and long term negative effects on victims. They could be suffering from multi-dimensional long and short range behavioural and mental, social and psychological problems with unfortunate results that would not allow them to live a proper life with a balanced outlook. "Research has shown that child sexual abuse victims are more likely to be the victims of rape or to be involved in physically abusive relationships as adults" http://www.apa.org/releases/sexabuse/effects.html Research also has shown that child abuse is not a momentary happening without further complications. On the contrary, it has been repeatedly proved that child sexual assault victims will carry the trauma and scars of the event for the rest of their lives and constantly suffer from the physical and psychological resultant difficulties. Earlier, it was presumed that children could recover from child abuse in latter life. Psychological studies, especially the writings of Dr. Sigmund Freud, have shown clearly that it could not so easy and in majority of cases, it is impossible. Reactions, depending on the severity, number of length of abuse could range between mild and intense. "These problems typically include depression, anxiety, guilt, fear, sexual dysfunction, withdrawal, and acting out. Depending on the severity of the incident, victims of sexual abuse may also develop fear and anxiety regarding the opposite sex or sexual issues and may display inappropriate sexual behaviour" (Ibid). In several advanced countries, child abuse is considered to be root cause of most of the mental health problems later in life. Of course, this need not be the only cause of mental ill-health, but it could be a substantial cause, leading to an imbalanced and depressed, brooding mind. It is placed on the public health agenda in UK. Earlier, self-disclosure was rare in a society, where such a disclosure was considered to be shameful for the child even in latter years, and more so, for the family. Usually, adult members of family would have been involved in such an abuse, or sometimes a bigger child. So, to save reputation and future, other family members successfully used to cover up such crimes by separating the child from such an adult. Once the danger was shaken off, parents were inclined to think that child would be all right. After further research in the field, it was proved that the child would never be able to shake off all the ill effects of its abuse even after growing up. This is the main disturbing factor about child abuse. Not only a child gets subjected to such a heinous crime, usually by a trusted member or friend of the family, but also it will carry those mental, sometimes even physical scars for the rest of its life. According to majority number of psychologists, symptoms should surface within two years of termination of abuse. This is not a rule and this does not mean that it would never come later. Symptoms could visit at any point of life and could be diverse, starting from thumb-sucking and bed-wetting to poor performance at school, eating disorder, nightmares, lack of initiative and absence of social bonding. This effect can continue to plague the victim, effecting social and family relationships, ruining educational and financial opportunities, wiping out all opportunities of competition. It could continue into adulthood and even later although it is a bit uncommon. Very high levels of anxiety combined with depression could drive these victims to self-harming even in latter life, even though the abuse they have gone through a very distant memory. This could lead to alcoholism and drug abuse and insomnia or difficult dreams. Revictimization is noticed many times where they again become victims of rape or sexual abuse. This also includes abusive marital relationship and tolerating physical and mental abuse from partner for a long time without complaining. In many cases, the true picture of the relationship is never clear to an outsider, because the mental make-up of the victim who accepts the ill-treatment of the dominant partner for a very long time. Under similar circumstances, there is always another fear of starting yet another saga of mentally disturbed children, as an outcome of constantly watching one parent being abused by the other. Wide ranging symptoms could be confusing to a parent or psychologist, especially so, if the child had not reported its abuse and the history had not been recorded. Children with 'sleeper effects' might not show any known symptoms for years and later in life could develop rather difficult to cure symptoms, that become frequent challenges to psychologists. Very often children who become victims come from broken or disturbed families. Immersed in own problems, sometimes it is difficult for parents to safeguard the children from molesters and sometimes, they are too self-indulgent to realise that the children are in danger. "Disrupted family function could, in theory, be related to child sexual abuse because of the disruptive influence of a perpetrator in the family. However, given the majority of abusers are not immediate family members, it is more likely that the linkage reflects a lack of adequate care, supervision and protection that leaves the child exposed to the approaches of molesters, and vulnerable to offers of apparent interest and affection" http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/issues9.html#ear An already neglected child, when it becomes an easy target of a molester, usually do not report such abuses, because with experience, it might have realised that the parents tend to ignore or disbelieve whatever it narrates and hence, the abuse goes on, because the molester becomes further fearless. Now his mentality becomes more of a serial killer who believes that he is too clever to law enforcement authorities, because they had no clue of his earlier committed murders. Unfortunately, here the other party is a mere child and easy to be manipulated and threatened. Physical, emotional and sexual abuses can overlap in a child victim's life with unbelievable frequency because they are more likely to become victims of all forms of abuse. They lose their assertive nature in the first sexual abuse itself and remain resigned to abuse with a self-persecution mania that makes them targets of further such situations. Good looks, passive nature, vulnerability due to lack of protectors and friends of the same age group can make a child victim of sexual abuse. The same characteristics could make the individual even after growing up, repeated target of various forms of abuses. Hence, child abuse is the first point of a vicious circle that could go on for the rest of life. In latter life, child victims find it difficult to accept their sexuality and make sexual adjustments and mostly find their adult sexual relationships highly unsatisfactory. There is a branch of research that maintains that the child victims look for similar abusive sexual satisfaction from their partners in adult life, which they had experienced while being abused in childhood. This claim has never been fully established. No doubt a secure family and socio-economic status of the child and careful handling after the abuse will be factors that would cast beneficial light on the child's future. But this does not mean that child would forget all the humiliation and discomfort, horror and disbelief it had gone through, even though a child coming from a disadvantageous and deprived background would suffer much more than a secure child. Uncertainty in life due to single parenting, divorce, separation, not meeting the other parent with whom child might have had a better relationship, court battles, disturbing talk about one loved parent by another, insecurity and anxiety all could undermine the already diminished mental stability of the child. This could become a stumbling block in the mental and physical healthy growth of the child, resulting in mutilated psychological existence. Victims, especially women, as they grow older, develop fear and uncontrollable anxiety about sexual relationship and go on avoiding men and their advances. Sometimes, this might result in lesbian relationships for the simple reason that the woman finds men dangerous, merciless, and cruel and comparatively women are gentler and could be trusted. This also could result in paradoxical promiscuity, in which the woman loses self-value and think of herself and her sexuality as either non-existent or maimed. "What constitutes promiscuity tends to be a highly subjective evaluation, and women with a history of child sexual abuse are more ready to respond judgmentally about their prior sexual behaviour by labelling it promiscuous than would non-abused woman with a similar range of sexual experiences. This reflects not changed sexual behaviour, but changed attitudes to one's own sexuality" http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/issues9.html#ear Consequences of child abuse are proved to be farther reaching than suspected earlier. Today, while dealing with sexual and mental problems, psychologists look for child molestation signs. It is proved that these victims have very little self confidence and almost non-existent respect for their own body. A large number of women, even though other opportunities could be explored, get into prostitution and live a life of further, everyday abuse and tend to accept it. SOCIAL EFFECTS They tend to have very little confidence and trust in others, which is quite logical, if connected with the rude loss of trust and confidence they suffered in the hands of a molester, who could have been a close family member or a valued friend. At times, molesters are so closely related and so highly thought of, and this prevents the child, in spite of being asked and cajoled many times, from revealing the name of its molester, only because it does not want the molester to face any adverse effects of disclosure, or due to fear that its narration would not be believed. Mostly this is the case. Victim's every relationship throughout life will be plagued by suspicion, lack of trust and ambiguity and eventually, these feelings will affect every relationship. There will not be any emotional intensity, and if it is present, it would be unhealthily intense, managed by a very high amount of almost insane anxiety. Individual will believe that such a relationship would be too perfect to last and the other person would be lost either through death or desertion. Hence, complete trust with friends of family becomes illusive. Such a person will be retiring, neither aggressive nor assertive. They have difficulty in social interaction, holding a conversation because they never consider themselves equal to the other person. They will be nervous in company and look for corners to hide. SEXUAL PROBLEMS. They might not like to get involved in sexual relationships. A touch or an expression could bring back the old memories and could switch off intensity of love. Women sometimes accuse their partners of being aggressive, rude and demanding. They rarely reach orgasm because they do not indulge in sex for pleasure. Mostly they think of sex as a compulsive punishment that they are forced to go through. "Patients sometimes don't want to make love at all anymore or make love less. Sexual relation problems may occur, together whit pain while making love, not wanting to make love and problems in getting aroused" http://web4health.info/en/answers/sex-abuse-effects.htm In addition, many kinds of physical complains were noticed like pain in the abdomen, palpitation, pain during intercourse, menstrual cramps, migraine, backache, painful shoulders and breasts, and mostly doctors find it difficult to diagnose the reason behind these pains. They come and go, but sometimes manage to linger and cause distress to the victim for longer times. Usually, they never manage to live a free life without hurt and pain either psychologically, emotionally or physically. It is an extremely sad suffering for life for no fault of their own. A harmful event that occurred in childhood can ruin the life emotionally. These victims usually live in a heightened state of tension and anxiety, because they find it difficult to trust any person in life, which is not surprising after the agonies they have gone through. It starts with their schooling, where they find it difficult to attend schools, mainly because they do not want to participate in a group and face others, especially of the same age, where they feel mental and emotional disadvantage. This will isolate them further and they continue to be lonely in a group, unless, in rare occasions, a teacher or another student makes an extra effort to understand them and pull them out of this apathy. An event like this can have a great uplifting effect in the child's life. Otherwise, they simply continue to live a pathetic existence, do not participate in school life freely and that makes them lag behind in their studies and later in securing a profitable and fulfilling employment. The negative reactions that child abuse can induce in the victim could be traced to post-traumatic stress syndrome that has three characteristics of its own: Denial and repression, Alternating with re-experiencing and the feeling of being perpetually on the edge (getting annoyed without particular reason, being very touchy about even smallest matters). In the first characteristic, they deny of any such event ever happened, because it is too painful and too difficult to bring it back to memory again. A child always has the capacity of blocking out an event completely out of its memory and here the ability of child in doing so is far superior to that of an adult. Even though such a memory could be recalled through psychotherapy later, the suppression of it is so effective that child would have forgotten all about it, even though the negative symptoms continue to linger. The recovered memory could be slightly dangerous because it is difficult to separate dream and imagination from reality and this could be an additional problem. "It is, however, difficult to determine if such recovered memories are memories of real experiences of memories of dreams or imagined events. This difficulty can be a problem if you want to prosecute the abuser, but it is not a problem for treatment using modern psychotherapeutic methods". http://web4health.info/en/answers/sex-abuse-effects.htm Sometimes even nightmares and unexplainable physical difficulties could resurrect such memories though they are not fully dependable and cannot stand the cross-examination in a Court of Law. Also people with suppressed background develop a particularly difficult irritation and intolerance for others throughout their life. If the victim is a teenage female, there could be additional traumas like pregnancy, connected shame, difficult and unwanted child birth, for which the body is still unprepared. It could bring psychological difficulties in facing the society, friends of the same age, getting ridiculed which could be imaginary or real (in traditional societies this could lead to imprisonment on charges of prostitution and immoral behaviour, while the perpetrator would go free!) and additional responsibility of looking after the child that would remind of the unsavoury event for the rest of life, leading to difficult relationship between mother and child. If child is given in adoption, mother could suffer from its separation unendingly with guilt, deprived affection of child and anxiety for its welfare. Victims sometimes become a prey of great self-pity thinking that enough attention has not been rendered. Some researchers agree with them and argue that instead of giving attention to child victims, more attention is focussed on the abusers, because once children are given a more protected atmosphere, the abuse they had gone through is more or less forgotten. "Because the psychopathological view of adult-child sexual practices has tended to focus on the adult's social deviance, rehabilitation and treatment efforts have been directed towards the adult while little attention has been paid to the children who have been involved unless they have had substantial physical injuries or psychiatric symptoms," Mrazek and Kempe (1987, p.8). Historically speaking, child abuse and aftermath has been, unfortunately, given very little attention. Children were never believed, even when they were believed, they were ignored. Meeting opposition at every quarter, children go numb with pain and helplessness. Before 20th century hardly any importance was given to child abuse and the aftermath. It was Dr. Sigmund Freud, who pointed out the necessity to save children from adult sexual aggression. "His writing had a major impact on the development of thinking about sexuality in general and sexual abuse of children in particular.. He was of the opinion that the sexual drive had to ber harnessed and held back to meet the demands of civilization, culture and society and that humans needed to control their libido and channel it into other areas," Corby (1998, p.18). Even though child abuse had been illegal since time immemorial in all the societies, it took the form of legal issue only recently, because most such cases were hushed up. People researching in this field have come across astonishing apathy and helplessness in the families of the victims. Society was totally unprepared to accept that such a horrendous crime could be happening within its fold. "Indeed, it took markedly more courage to prosecute child sexual abuse in 1938 - when scepticism was rampant - than it does in 2001 - when scepticism is relatively low and when society understands the seriousness of sexual abuse," Conte (2002, p.64). The after effects might also include a kind of mental obsession and compulsion not conducive with healthy living. It could herald series of flashbacks and lead to eventual emotional numbing where the person would feel incapable of reactions. Social and sexual dysfunction is the common result perhaps amongst all victims. They invariably show poor education and employment records. Loss of appetite is another common symptom that would plague them throughout. Negative family environment contributes a lot to this predicament. It is also important to contrast between family philosophies and social outlooks and how class and regions affect this issue because family patterns and its interaction with society and vice versa are very important matters in child psychology, abused or non-abused. "Parental attitudes towards sexuality, religious beliefs, social class and other factors will influence both the patterns or behaviour observed in the family and the parent's report of the occurrence of sexual behaviour," Batty (1991, p.54). There are indications, although not fully established, that sexual abuse of children can lead to undeveloped limbic system and over-excitation, which will further lead to mood swings and borderline personality disorder. There are experts who believe that temporal lope epilepsy could develop. This could damage the cerebellar vermis and reduce the size of corpus callosum. This claim is not yet completely proved and is still in the stage of research infancy. Sexual abuse is never the child's fault. But breaking free from those incidents has been difficult for these victims. The initial and long term consequences could affect not only the child, but also the family. Society could be at the receiving end when the child sexual abuse victim becomes a mentally imbalanced sex predator, inflicting the same wounds that he had suffered on other children and this could have an awful result on society. Treatment both psychological and physical, is very important to avoid such an eventuality. Sexually transmitted diseases could be another major problem. If child abuse could result in an HIV positive, what could be more unfortunate for that victim Guilt, helpless anger, fear towards all humans, hostility against people, unexplained shame and unconquerable low self esteem resulting in self-pity combined with aggression, withdrawal, phobia and delinquency have all been part of after-effects. Marital problems and suicidal tendencies have been very common amongst them. Today, child abuse is receiving an unprecedented attention from society, law and political circles. It is considered while granting visiting rights to parents in cases of separation and divorce. Some researchers and psychologists maintain that further contact with the abuser could precipitate mental imbalance, fear and trauma in the victim even in adulthood. They recommend that even though the perpetrator is one of the parents of the victim, contact should be avoided completely till the child becomes an adult and even later, it would never bring out the best in the victim. "Where contact is contentious and subject to legal proceedings the reality is that children do not do the deciding, and it would be inappropriate therefore to suggest that the issue of contact is the right of the child; but more honestly, a right for the child" says Calder (2000, p.307), arguing that Courts, society and families should protect this right for the child. METHODOLOGY Research on child sexual abuse victims has many drawbacks and difficulties. Most of the victims are absolutely against talking of their experiences, mostly because the scars are yet to heal. They also feel that it is a shameful time where they were subjected into humiliation. Sometimes talking about it could bring back the trauma and result in deep depressions. Some of them have gone into denial mode and would have completely blocked out those dreadful times, mainly as a process of self-defence. All these problems make a research almost impossible. Families will not be co-operative either. Establishing definite behavioural pattern had been difficult, although a total picture is visible now. So, to conduct any form of research, individual approach is necessary. This could be achieved sometimes through social care and other connected institutions. Mass statistics are no doubt necessary; but to establish behavioural patterns, it is necessary to conduct individual interviews and collect information. Alternatively, research could be conducted by giving attention to already researched works and topics for a beginning. It is imperative that a new researcher has to depend upon the internet, books, statistics, research papers and court cases. Today child sexual abuse has reached internet and has created a very dangerous and profitable trade for paedophiles. Systematic child abuse can take place, not for only self-gratification, but also as a source of tremendous amount of money and so, child abuse has taken different colours today by becoming more rampant and more widespread. It has come out of the family circles and has gone international. Many kinds of abuses come under its umbrella now. "Extreme forms of maltreatment including child soldiering, child prostitution, child physical abuse, child sexual abuse and -child labour - are generally abhorred, and attempts are made to prevent such extreme abuse in most countries," Arnaldo (2001, p.5). CONCLUSION Early identification and effective intervention could be of great help in stopping the long term effects and consequences and would definitely promote recovery to a very large extent, although completely erasing all the memories and ill-effects could still remain impossible. This area will definitely be benefited by further, intense research from all angles, from the child's angle, families', foster parents, child care agencies and even from the angle of the police. Very few studies have explored this question from diverse angles. As it is a very important and pertinent field of research, it is necessary to conduct studies of wide variation. Child sexual abuse is one of the greatest evils of every society today. The results and long term effects should be established beyond doubt so that the families where such a horrendous crime has occurred could be aware of the danger they are courting by hiding the information, or protecting the abuser. Unless complete information is provided, it is not possible to convince the families, who hide behind the screen of family pride, or due to affection for the abuser. It is important that the child receives right and long treatment from able psychologists who could deal with such a situation. It is the most important turning point for the victim. As child is not in a position to decide its fate, family members should make the right decision and they cannot do so without all research data which tells them that the after-effects could be terrifying and unending. Hence, research has to provide this data to them. This is a matter of great significance. "Sexual abuse of women and children had been brought to the political agenda in the 1970s and 1980s by the modern women's movement. However, in 1987 sexual abuse became associated not with a movement but with 'experts', paediatricians who had expanded their concern with non-accidental injury to the sexual abuse of children," Campbell (1988, bp.20). Further research is needed to establish beyond an iota of doubt that children do carry the trauma of sexual abuse into their adulthood. "The first critical factor in determining that an emotional or behavioural disorder may be considered as a post traumatic disorder is that it arises from injury and not from illness. Since it is accepted that paedophile abuse causes traumatic stress in children, that the abuse is a traumatic event which injures the child, it is reasonable to expect that some people who are victims of such abuse will develop post traumatic stress disorder," Cairns (1999, pp. 27-28). Research on child prostitution also shows that most of these children initially had been targets of sexual abuse. Legally child prostitution comes under Child Sexual abuse, because the consent of a child has no bearing considering the vulnerability and tender age of the child. "Having suggested that child prostitution should not be considered as a distinct phenomenon unaffected by concepts and constructions such as gender and class, and that this activity should be defined as a form of exploitation coming under the umbrella term 'child sexual abuse', explanation of the persistent use of the term 'child prostitution' is required" says Brown (2002, p.7). The disbelief of the family, society, community and others have always been very difficult for child victims. Many a times, even though they try to report the matter to elder members of the family, disbelief they encounter is so strong that child would go numb with the opposition. Narrating a victim's story, Barrett (1997, p.18) ends it with the victim's words: "You just survive, or you'd just die, and I wanted to survive as I felt that I had to keep going because I wasn't a liar, and I wanted them to believe me about what I had said," and this shows the numbing hopelessness induced by society's reaction. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Arnaldo, Carlos A. (2001), Child Abuse on the Internet, Berghalm Books, Oxford. 2. Barrett, David (1997), Child Prostitution in Britain, University of Luton. 3. Batty, Daphne (1991), Sexually Abused Children, British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering. 4. Brown, Alyson and Barrett, David (2002), Knowledge of Evil, William Publishing, Devon. 5. Conte, Jon R. (2002), Critical Issues in Child Sexual Abuse, Sage Publications, London. 6. Cairns, Kate (1999), Surviving Paedophilia, Trentham Books, Staffordshire. 7. Campbell, Beatrix (1998), Unofficial Secrets, Virgo Press Limited, London. 8. Calder, Martin C. (2005), Children and young people who sexually abuse, Russel House Publishing, Dorset. 9. Calder, Martin C. (2000), The Complete Guide to Sexual Abuse Assessments, Russel House Publishing, Dorset. 10. Corby, Brian (1998), Managing Child Sexual Abuse Cases, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London. 11. Mrazek, Patricia Beezley and Kempe, C. Henry (1987), Sexually abused children and Their Families, Pergamon Press, Oxford. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://www.apa.org/releases/sexabuse/effects.html 2. http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/issues9.html#ear 3. http://web4health.info/en/answers/sex-abuse-effects.htm 4. http://www.secasa.com.au/index.php/family/12/100 Read More