PSYU3339 - Child Sexual Abuse

Why are children vulnerable to sexual abuse?

- Children are powerless
- Uninformed children trust all adults
- Young children are incapable of assessing adults' motives
- Children are taught to obey adults
- Children are curious about their own bodies
- Children are often deprived of information about sexuality

Australian Prevalence Study - Matthews et al (2023)

Conducted a national cross-sectional survey through mobile telephone interviews
Targeted individuals aged 16 years or older with a sample size of 8500 respondents Found that child maltreatment is common in Australia with physical, sexual, emotional abuse, and neglect being reported.

Australian Prevalence Study - Scott et al (2023)

Maltreated participants had higher odds of mental disorders, anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, severe alcohol use disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Associations between experiences of child maltreatment and mental disorders were strongest for sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and multi-type maltreatment.

Prevalence Estimates of CSA in Australia

Reports of sexual abuse have increased every year since 2011-12
The pandemic is suspected to have increased CSA numbers for 2021 significantly.

CSA Trends in the United States (2016)

The stats concern substantiated cases of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect reported to child protection agencies. Cases primarily involve abuse by caregivers.

CSA Trends in Australia

- Unlike the US, CSA has been increasing year on year
The Royal Commission into Institutional CSA (2012-2017) led to more people coming forward

Online CSA in Australia

Increasing internet access has led to a rise in cases of online child sexual exploitation

The ACCCE Child Protection Triage Unit received over 21

000 reports of online child sexual exploitation in 2020.

Identifying CSA - Bosschaart et al. 2017

Identified four themes among psychosocial symptoms of the children - problems concerning emotions, behaviour, toilet training, development Found it difficult to identify confirmed CSA victims based on symptoms.

Effects of CSA

- Victims often face emotional and psychological challenges Worse effects are when penetration is involved, violence, a closer relationship to the perpetrator, multiple offenders, longer duration, and more frequent contact.

CSA and Suicidality

There is a significantly higher rate of suicide or accidental fatal overdose among child sexual abuse victims

Strong association between sexual abuse and suicidal ideation and behaviour

especially for boys.

Considerations in CSA effects

Uniform effects across all CSA victims?
Contribution of family - support versus dysfunction
Severity of abuse - abuse duration, use of force, relationship to the perpetrator, age when the abuse first occurred
Context in which the abuse occurs Interpretation of the abuse Coping with the abuse

Co-effects of CSA

CSA often coexists with other difficult life circumstances like negative home environment or other forms of abuse which may account for the poor long-term adjustment. CSA is often associated with low levels of parental support and high levels of parental conflict.

Describing CSA Victims

- Majority of CSA involved intercourse (64%; 1,067) and threats and force (58%; 1,037)
- Measures of abuse severity were highly intercorrelated

Moderators

- Strongest predictor of maladjustment among CSA victims was the use of self-destructive coping strategies, followed by avoidant strategies

Conclusions from the Study

- CSA was a significant predictor of long-term psychological difficulties
- The direct effect of abuse severity on symptoms was not significant suggesting that the relationship between severity of CSA and adult impairment was largely mediated by the coping strategies used to deal with the abuse

CSA Effects - Humphreys et al. 2020

- Meta-analysis found that higher child maltreatment scores were associated with a diagnosis of depression and with higher depression symptom scores
- Emotional abuse and emotional neglect demonstrated the strongest associations with depression

Risk Factors for CSA Victimization - Assink et al. 2019

- The strongest effects were found for prior victimization of the child and/or its family members, including prior CSA victimization of the child and/or siblings, prior victimization of the child other than child abuse, prior or concurrent forms of child abuse in the child's home environment, and a parental history of child abuse victimization

Multiple Risk Domains for CSA Victimization

- Risks included intimate partner violence between the child's parents, other parental relationship problems, parental substance abuse, psychiatric/mental/physical problems of parents, and a low level of parental education
- These risks are explained by routine activities theory and ecological, transactional, and developmental model of CSA

Mechanisms Linking Risk Domains to CSA Victimization

- Parents with mental health or substance abuse issues may be too preoccupied with their own problems to adequately supervise and protect their children
- Overprotective parents may lead children to develop a "victim schema"

Sexual Self-Efficacy - Vaillancourt-Morel et. al (2019)

- Study showed that child sexual abuse severity was associated with more self-silencing and more divided self in adolescents, leading to lower sexual self-efficacy
- Suggests the need for early interventions to reduce victims' difficulties with sexual self-efficacy and high risk of revictimization

Variability in Outcomes

Reasons for variability in symptoms among victims include characteristics of the abuse experience, context during and following the abuse, and the child's construal of the abusive experience

Child Sexual Abuse Victims as Witnesses

- Child victims serve as witnesses to their own alleged abuse
- The child's testimony is crucial in these cases as CSA cases are often hampered by a lack of corroborative evidence

Questions about Children's Testimonial Competence

- Two strands of research: Memory-related research leading to a focus on questioning styles and children's competence to distinguish between lies and truths and to understand the importance of telling the truth

Props - Anatomically Correct Dolls

- Study found that anatomically detailed dolls helped older children recount more about a medical procedure than in free recall, with little risk of increasing incorrect reporting
- For younger children, the use of these dolls can increase the amount of incorrect information given

What issues can arise in forensic settings involving younger children?

The limited reporting of information by younger children can jeopardize the prosecution case because of insufficient information. This often leads practitioners to resort to asking suggestive and leading questions to obtain sufficient information for the prosecution to proceed.

What is the "Double Jeopardy" for young children in forensic settings?

Young children report less information about an event during open-ended recall than older children and adults. This can lead to additional questions, often suggestive, to increase their reporting of information. The reliability of this additional information is questionable due to their vulnerability to suggestive questioning.

What are potential retrieval aids for young children in forensic settings?

Narrative Elaboration, Props and drawings, Physical Context Reinstatement, Cognitive Context Reinstatement. However, the greater reliance on external cues the greater the potential for inaccurate reporting.

What are some popular Interview Protocols used in forensic settings?

Cognitive Interview, Step-Wise Interview, and the NICHD Interview Protocol.

What is the Sociocognitive Interview (SCI) protocol?

The SCI was developed within the theoretical framework of social cognitive theory. It emphasizes the use of questioning procedures and retrieval aids and involves phases like rapport development, cognitive context reinstatement, open-ended narration, questioning and clarification, information about specific people, evaluative questions, and a final memory search.

What is Narrative Free Recall in the context of the SCI Interview Protocol?

It is a method where children are asked to report about what happened from the "picture in their head". They are encouraged to report all the events in sequential order - start at the beginning, then the middle, and then the end.

What are the different types of questions used in the Sociocognitive Interview?

Encouragers, Elaborative Prompts (temporal and specific), Directive Prompts (temporal and specific), and Summary Statements.

What are the key findings about the efficacy of the Sociocognitive Standard Interview Type?

It served to increase the amount of information reported, but was not effective in eliciting information that children were reluctant to report. Disclosure was not influenced by age, sex, or interview type.

What are key findings of the first experimental evaluation of the NICHD interview?

Invitation prompts elicited more detailed information than directive prompts. Children provided more information when they received practice describing events in response to invitation prompts.

What are the common barriers faced by young people when disclosing child sexual abuse?

Young people face barriers such as limited support, perceived negative consequences, and feelings of self-blame, shame, and guilt.

What are the main inhibitors to child sexual abuse (CSA) disclosure?

The content of the information to be reported, the relationship of the perpetrator to the child, promise to keep the abuse secret, threats by perpetrators about revealing the abuse, and fear of disbelief.

Hohendorff et al. (2017)

findings on boys as victims of sexual abuse, Victims faced significant levels of disbelief and discrimination. Practitioners were unprepared to handle cases involving sexually abused boys. The study underscores the social invisibility of sexual violence against boys.

Matthews et al. (2017)

findings on rate of reporting of boys vs. girls, From 1993 to 2012, the rate of reporting for boys increased 2.6-fold whereas there was a 1.5-fold increase for girls. The sex ratio of girls to boys changed from 2:1 in 1993 to 1.14:1 by 2012. Reports by police and mandated reporters accounted for most of the increase. Positive report outcomes increased twelve-fold for boys and nearly five-fold for girls.

Piaget's Theory on children's competence and truth telling

Children under 7 years are often considered incompetent witnesses based on Piaget's findings in "The Moral Judgement of the Child" (1932/1965). Piaget used complex methods to establish children's understanding of lying.

Re-evaluation of Piaget's view on children's competence

When children are asked in a developmentally appropriate way about lie- and truth-telling, they are much more competent than posited by Piaget.

Outcome expectations and truth telling in children

The more children anticipate punishment for truth telling the less likely they are to tell the truth. Reassurances about telling the truth are likely to increase truth telling and its evaluation (Wagland and Bussey, 2005).

Spontaneous and coached false allegations

False allegations can be spontaneously generated or coached by others. Spontaneously generated false allegations are often made for fun and can usually be detected. Coached false allegations can occur in a court context due to a malicious person or poor interviewing practices.

Research on False Allegations: Children creating fictional events

Children were asked to remember a fictional event and construct a visual picture of it. Over time, younger children assented to more fictional events than older children. Neutral nonparticipant events resulted in the most false assents, whereas negative events resulted in the fewest. Even when an attempt was made to debunk the false events, some children continued to insist that they were true (source misattribution error).

Factors contributing to unreliable testimony

Age or competence to testify will not guarantee truthful and reliable testimony. Factors likely to contribute to unreliable evidence include poor interviewing practices, coaching by a malicious parent, a trusted perpetrator who swears the child to secrecy, and anticipated negative outcome for truth telling.

Plight of Child Witness/Victims

Research on memory-related (and subsequent interviewing procedures) and truth-related competence has enabled children to testify in courts of law. Liberalization of competency requirements in most common law countries enabled many young children to testify in court. However, problems remain with their testimony.

The Barrier of Cross-Examination

Cross-examination can negatively impact children's testimonies. Children often change their responses under cross-examination, leading to reduced accuracy of their testimonies. Despite its detrimental impact, suggestive questions are still permitted for use in cross-examination.

Zajac & Hayne (2003-2006) studies on Cross-Examination,

These studies provided limited support for the assumption that cross-examination is effective for the discovery of truth. However, they showed that cross-examination led to changes in responses and reduction in accuracy of children's reports. The studies had limitations, including the order of direct and cross-examination and the neutrality of events assessed.

Fogliati & Bussey (2014) study on Cross-Examination

Children undergoing a cross-examination as the second interview were less accurate than those having a second direct examination. Grade 2 children provided more truthful disclosures in the direct examination compared with the cross-examination.

Royal Commission Recommendations Accepted in NSW

Key recommendations include a maximum life sentence for "persistent child sexual abuse", introduction of offences for failure to report or protect against child abuse, historical cases to take account of current sentencing standards, and introduction of an offence of grooming to access a child. The seal of the confessional was not addressed.