PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice Volume 5(2), 2013, pp. 499–510, ISSN 1948-9137
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
MIHAELA RUS
psiholog_m@yahoo.com Ovidius University, Constanţa
ALINA BUZARNA-TIHENEA GĂLBEAZĂ alina_buzarna84@yahoo.com Ovidius University, Constanţa
ABSTRACT. According to statistics, about 90% of people were emotionally abused in childhood, but many do not realize, deny or, worse, abuse their own children or others, considering that their treatment of childhood was “natural and normal.” Emotional abuse is a form of aggression, but the law can not penalize it. Most parents believe that child abuse means physical or sexual violence and / or child neglect. But they do not know that they can hurt the child simply by their excessive attitude. The emotional abuse is any behavior that is intended to control, subjugate, submit other beings through fear, intimidation, humiliation, blaming, and “growing” guilt, coercion, manipulation, invalidation etc. The consequences of emotional abuse are multiple, varied, extremely serious; they leave marks for life, affecting child development at various levels – emotionally, intellectually and even physically. Moreover, it will affect the future adult’s social and professional life, relationships and physical and mental health, to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the type of the emotional abuse, and on its frequency and intensity. Keywords: behavior, emotional abuse, violence, control, sexual abuse
1. Introduction Abuse means the use of force in order to try to dominate a child, to compel him/her to do dangerous things that he/she does not want to do, expose him/her to hazardous situations or to situations perceived by him/her as dangerous. Any action that causes injury or psycho-emotional disorders is an abuse.
The abuse can be of several types:
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Physical abuse – involves the use of physical force against children and subjecting them to hard work that exceed their capabilities, actions that result in damage of their body integrity.
Emotional abuse – is the inappropriate behavior of adults towards children, behavior that adversely affects a child’s personality in development. Child rejection, forced isolation, terrorization, ignoration, humiliation and corruption are manifestations of child abuse.
Sexual abuse – consists in exposing the child to watching pornography, seduction (advances, caresses and promises) or involvement in sexual acts of any kind.
Economic abuse – implies attracting, persuading or forcing the child to do income generating activities, the adults close to the child at least partially or indirectly benefiting from this revenue. The economic abuse leads to removing the child from school, thus depriving him of the chance to access superior social and cultural levels.
Neglection – is the adult’s inability or refusal to appropriately communicate with the child, and the limited access to education.
The term “sexual abuse” refers to the sexual exploitation of a child whose age does not allow him/her to understand the nature of the contact and to adequately resist it. This sexual exploitation may be done by a child’s friend whom he/she is psychologically dependent on.
The sexual abuse can have different aspects: – sexual evocation (phones, exhibitionism, pornography, the sexual
content of the adult’s language etc.) – sexual stimulation (erotic contact, masturbation, incomplete genital
contact, forced participation in the sexuality of a couple etc.) – making sex (rape or attempted rape).
1.2 Issues of Abuse
a) Children may be abused since very young. Children may be abused from a very early age. They are often seduced
by games in a sexual- abusive situation. The abuser often establishes positive relationships with both parents and the child.
The child is encouraged or forced to engage in the abusive relationship. This is achieved through rewards and / or threats. The sexual activity is presented as something special, and the child should be considered lucky because he/she has “a chance” to participate in it. The child is unable to understand what is happening. Just when he/she is told that “the game is secret” he/she begins to understand that something is wrong.
The child’s role in this game varies. He/she may be required to actively participate in the game or be passive, as if “he/she would sleep”.
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b) The agressors are rarely violent Sexual abuse within the family or within the family network is rarely
violent. Pattersen (1990) emphasizes that pedophile people are seldom violent; on the contrary, they appear to be sensual and protective. However, the abuse is emotionally traumatic, because the child’s silence is often ensured by corruption, and, at the same time, the child is made to feel guilty and responsible for what happens. The abuse may also be violent or become violent if the game evolves in intromission. The abuser often develops a behavioral model of restraint. The abuse may continue until the child is able to escape from that relationship or until someone realizes what is happening and puts an end to the situation. A confused and fearful aspect of sexual abuse is represented by the secret that the child must keep and by the feeling of complicity that dominates him/her. c) The abuse associated with other types of maltreatment
The sexual abuse is often associated with other types of abuse described above. A child who has been sexually abused within his/her own family might also have been exposed to other types of maltreatment. All these have, of course, a number of common features. However, the action for sexual abuse is different from the activity of other types of maltreatment, because, in this case, we do not deal only with serious criminal behavior, but also with a taboo behavior. This case will be treated both from the point of view of the child’s welfare and as a court case. d) Child sex tourism
At the seminar “Abuse and violence against children”, held in Brasov, in March 2000, which was attended by prosecutors, policemen, representatives of the civil society and of specialized institutions in Romania and Italy, it has been shown that the violence against minors is a global phenomenon.
The Italian experts and the representatives of the civil society have acknowledged that Italy is the leading country which exports sex tourists to Romania. Sex tourism refers to those individuals, especially pedophiles, who came from Italy to Romania just to have sex. There are some travel agencies that, for a certain price, can provide these individuals pictures of the children available. They do not necessarily want to come to Romania; they can also go to Latin America, Thailand and Taiwan.
Because social and legal penalties for sexual abuse are severe and because there are no signs of sexual abuse that can be easily noticed by others, just as with physical abuse, many abused people refuse reporting such cases. The uncovered abuses are more numerous than those reported. This is also true for child sex tourism.
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e) The incest – a special form of abuse Most authors agree regarding the existence of traits that can be
frequently and regularly seen in the “incestuous” family: – The same drama is repeated over several generations. – There is a significant family dysfunction. – The child is not recognized as a subject. The incest often begins within an atmosphere of seduction quickly
accompanied by constraints and threats. The father: if the father’s personality often reveals some psycho-
pathological traits (perversity, psychopathy, mental deficiency, alcoholism), most often these traits are not evident. Numerous surveys have shown the existence of emotional immaturity, of a past marked by emotional deficiencies and separation. Prohibitions are wrongly internalized. The emotional relationships are experienced as an extreme dependence. The guilt related to the incestuous act is rarely felt, the father even asserting his right of possession or initiation duty.
Some authors have described two types of incestuous fathers: – One who is experiencing his perversion in a depressed manner: child
among children, he pities himself, he cries in jail, he transforms his daughter into the mother he wanted to have (passive-dependent).
– One who justifies his sexual possession attitude towards children by theoretical arguments. He often has a dictatorial behavior (active- dependent).
The mother: her past is often “haunted” by sexual abuse or violence. Depressive traits are common. Paradoxical attitudes are not rare: she delegates childcare to the father; she lets children sleep with their father and, under various pretexts, she sleeps in another room. Usually, the mother’s unconscious complicity is present: she “does not want to know anything” and she passively (or a perversely?) accommodates herself to the situation.
The couple and the family: many families are characterized by social isolation, by the scarcity of social relations. The mother’s absence due to work during the night, illness or divorce can promote the transition to an incestuous act which, until then, remained in a latent state. There are frequent misunderstandings and difficulties in the couple’s sexuality. Some authors have noted that, sometimes, sexual abuse seems to have the function to avoid the sexual conflict in the parental couple and, some other times, it limits the conjugal conflict and prevents family breakup. For other authors, the couple’s relationship is based on the “violent husband – female subject” dependency. Witin this couple, the main links seem to be dominated by complicity and by the pleasure of absolute control. The couple’s sexuality is low or even nonexistent.
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Incestuous relationships – in 30-40% of cases, we are speaking of father-daughter incestuous relationships (and, in as many cases, according to other case studies, of grandfather – granddaughter…
