Sexual Abuse of Children Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Sexual Abuse of Children - Essay Example The four large scale factors aw self-report measures, improvement in other indicators of crime, administrative changes that have influenced decline, intervention strategies and programs. Other indicators of health status among American children and youth include rates of child abuse and neglect. While there is some controversy about whether the upswing in child abuse and neglect cases is a reflection of better reporting or of actual increases in cases, there appears to be a steady climb in the number of child abuse and neglect cases every year. The International Child Abuse Network: "Child abuse is the bad treatment of a child under the age of 18 by a parent, caretaker, someone living in their home or someone who works with or around children. Abuse of a child is anything that causes injury or puts the child in danger of physical injury" (Defining Child Maltreatment, n.d.). 'Sexual abuse' constitutes a continuum of activities which can range from flashing, exposure to pornographic material through inappropriate fondling to anal or vaginal penetration. On the other hand, just as feminists have sought to define rape as an act of violence, not a sexual act, it is right to remember that what is at stake in sexual abuse of a child is the expression of superior power rather than an inapposite sexual relationship. Sexual abuse is classless representing the expression of deep-structured inequalities - between men and women, between adults and children. Miller-Perrin and Wurtele underline that it is difficult to define sexual abuse "as all definitions are time- and culture-bound as well as direct reflections of the values and orientations of communities and societies at large" (Miller-Perrin, Wurtele, 1993, p. 3). According to statistical results, the vast majority of sexual abuse is perpetrated by adult males on girls. A standard definition of child sexual abuse is that it is the involvement of developmentally immature children and adolescents in sexual actions which they cannot fully comprehend, to which they cannot give informed consent, and which violate the taboos of social roles. It is somewhat redundant given what goes before, and it yokes abuse too closely to incest as traditionally understood (Jackson et al, 1991). Following Miller-Perrin and Wurtele, child sexual abuse "perpetrated by adults involves the exploitation of adult authority and power for sexual ends. This definition also includes children and adolescents as perpetrators if a situation involves the exploitation of a child by virtue of the perpetrator's size, age, sex, or status. It also includes experiences of physical contact between perpetrator and victim and those where contact may be limited or absent" (Miller-Perrin, Wurtele, 1993, p. 5). There were 669,000 reports of child maltreatment in 2005. By 2006, the reports were over 1 million, and in 2007, they had reached more than 2 million per year. Not only has there been a rise in the number of reports, but the type of injury has become increasingly serious, with a decline in the proportion of reports representing neglect and an increase in reports of sexual abuse and other serious maltreatment (the UK Statistics Authority 2008). . Each year, sexual abuse of children costs 4 millions pounds to the state (UK statistics Authority 2008). Area Child Protection Committees (ACPCs) provide the forum for joint working on child protection issues in the United Kingdom. Each ACPC must have