Seminar on Child Sexual Abuse
Ralph C. Underwager
and
Hollida Wakefield
Hungary
October, 1996
Introduction
As Western civilization has developed from the beginnings in Athens
over 2500 years ago, there has been a movement toward greater freedom and
individual responsibility. Part of that movement is to seek to reduce the
violence done and to build a peaceful world. In pursuit of that goal, decreasing
the frequency of the abuse of children has moved to a central focus in many
places. There are many, many decisions made by the institutions charged
with carrying out the policies which are intended to protect children from
harm by adults. The accuracy of those decisions is of greatest importance.
No one can dispute that everyone, child, parents, families, and the society,
all benefit from making the most accurate decisions possible. This is what
we hope to foster in these workshops. Sharing the experience of the United
States can contribute meaningfully to those who wish to make the best decisions
possible at any stage or any level of the process. We also hope for learning
from others willing to share their wisdom and knowledge with us so that
we can also progress toward more accuracy in decision making.
I. History and Scope of the Problem
A. Children have been abused by adults throughout history (Bakan, 1971;
Wakefield & Underwager, 1988).
B. Beginning with the passage of the initial British child labor laws in
the mid-nineteenth century, care and concern for children began to be addressed
through government institutions and policies. The concept of a protected
childhood in the home took hold in American and Western European culture.
The history of the development of the system responding to child abuse demonstrates
the scope and limitations of social change policies in a democratic society
(Nelson, 1984).
1. Orphanages and institutions were built, adoption services, foster care
systems, reformatories, and juvenile courts were established and compulsory
education laws were passed.
2. In the United States, following the passage of the Child Abuse Prevention
and Treatment Act (CAPTA) in 1974, laws mandating reporting suspected child
abuse were passed in all fifty states by 1976.
3. These laws made child abuse in the United States a national issue beginning
in 1972 and focused federal intervention on the goal of assuring every child
an abuse free life (Nelson, 1984).
4. The result in the United States was that there was a twenty-fold increase
in the number of reports of all forms of child abuse and neglect.
a. In 1993 there were approximately three million reports of
child abuse and neglect compared to 1963 when 150,000 cases were reported
(Besharov & Laumann, 1996).
b. Of these total reports, nearly half were for sexual abuse (Lamb, 1994).
c. As a result of the reporting laws, child abuse and neglect deaths have
fallen from 3000 to 5000 a year to about 1100 a year (Besharov & Laumann,
1996).
d. Much child abuse still goes unreported in the United States.
e. But there has also been a significant increase in the number of reports
that are unfounded. In the United States the rate of unfounded reports is
now between 60% and 65%. In 1974, the unfounded rate was 45% (Besharov &
Laumann, 1996).
f. This dramatic increase in unfounded reports overloads the system and
prevents help from reaching children who actually are being abused. The
protective service agencies are making mistakes on both sides.
5. Most of the other Western industrialized nations have also witnessed
substantial increases in the number of reported incidents of child abuse.
C. How common is child sexual abuse?
1. Incidence and prevalence
a. Incidence is the rate of new cases occurring during a prescribed period
of time for a given population.
b. Prevalence is defined as the ratio of all active cases present in a specific
population at a particular point in time.
c. Reported incidence rates are generally lower than prevalence rates.
d. Both reported incidence rates and prevalence rates of child sexual abuse
are very inconsistent.
e. The incidence rate for 1992 in the United States was 0.7 and is lower
in other countries (Lamb, 1994).
2. Estimates for prevalence range from 62% for women and 30% for males to
5% for females and 3% for males (Wakefield & Underwager, 1988).
3. The discrepancy in estimates is due to differences in methodology and
definitions between studies. Studies differ on the ages of the victim and
perpetrator, whether the study included noncontact experiences, the characteristics
of the samples, and the method of data gathering.
4. A study with good methodology and a community sample of 3132 found a
lower prevalence rate: 5.3% (6.8% for females and 3.8% for males) (Siegel,
et al., 1987).
5. Studies in other countries have reported prevalence rates ranging from
7% to 36% for women and 3% to 29% for men (Finkelhor, 1994).
II. False Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse
A. How many allegations are false?
1. There has been a continuing dispute about the proportion of sexual abuse
allegations that are false, with some professionals claiming they are extremely
rare and others maintaining false allegations have become a serious problem.
No one knows how many there actually are.
2. The unsubstantiated rate is approximately 60% to 65%.
3. Problems in definition
a. Unsubstantiated does not mean false and substantiated does
not mean true.
b. Some writers define false allegation as all allegations that are not
true; others limit the term to deliberate fabrications. Deliberate false
allegations are relatively infrequent.
4. Following the initial extensive screening of reports, at any one time
around 400,000 families across the country are under the supervision of
child protection. However, a study conducted for the U.S. National Center
of Child Abuse and Neglect found that in about half of these cases, the
parents never actually maltreated their children (Besharov, 1985).
5. In an effort to detect all cases of child sexual abuse the absence of
highly accurate evaluation procedures will inevitably result in an increase
in the number of false allegations. The more we try to reduce the number
of sexually abused children that are missed, the more we will misidentify
children as sexually abused when they are not.
B. Immediate effects of the accusation
1. Once an accusation is made, often the accused parent is not allowed to
see his child. Sometimes the accused parent is not allowed to see his child
for months even though no determination of guilt has been made by the justice
system.
2. The child is often immediately placed in therapy where a therapist, who
believes that abuse occurred, does sexual abuse therapy and solidifies the
story in the mind of the child. This process may also create an account
of abuse that never happened.
3. A criminal indictment often, but not always, follows the accusation.
C. Divorce and custody disputes
1. Many professionals believe that the largest percentage of false allegations
are in divorce and custody disputes.
2. False allegations are usually not deliberate fabrications made for advantage
in a custody dispute.
a. Instead, an angry spouse in a custody dispute is ready to believe the
worst about her spouse and overinterprets or misinterprets a behavior or
comment from the child.
b. Most false accusations are made as a result of questioning by an adult,
usually the mother.
c. Deliberate false allegations have been estimated to occur around 15%
of the time (Wakefield & Underwager, 1991b, Theonnnes & Pearson,
1988).
2. There is there is disagreement over just how often this happens, although
most estimates range between 20% and 80% (Wakefield & Underwager, 1991b;
1994a).
3. Some professionals have speculated about possible reasons for a true
abuse disclosure in a divorce and custody dispute.
a. The nonoffending parent finds out about the sexual abuse and decides
to divorce the offending parent,
b. Long-standing sexual abuse is only revealed in the context of divorce.
i. A child who has been threatened with the breakup of the family may tell
once this has already happened.
ii. It is more difficult for the abusing parent to persuade the child to
keep the secret once he or she is not living with the child.
iii. A child may become genuinely terrified at the prospect of spending
time alone with the abuser and therefore tell in order to avoid a visit.
c. The father may begin sexually abusing his child because of the stress
and emotional devastation of the divorce.
4. Behavior changes resulting from the stress of a divorce situation may
make children more vulnerable to influence from the accusing parent and
others who interview them. The behavior changes observed in children whose
parents are divorcing may be used as evidence that a child is abused.
5. Courts in the United States have held that when a parent is involved
in the fabrication of a false sexual abuse accusation against the other
parent, custody is to be given to the falsely accused parent. A false allegation
of abuse is sufficient grounds to transfer custody and, in some instances,
terminate parental rights of the falsely accusing parent.
D. Allegations by adolescents and older children
1. This is most likely to happen with a stepfather. The motives for such
actions include anger, the attention the accusation gets, and/or a desire
to move to a different home where the child believes there will be more
freedom.
2. For years it was believed that it was extremely rare for a child to fabricate
sexual abuse. But this is no longer the case.
3. Some factors related to false accusations by older children include the
discussions in the media and the schools about good touch and bad touch,
incest, and the ready availability of X-rated videos and cable television,
dial-a-porn, etc.
4. When a false allegation is attended to by adults and authority figures,
reinforced, and then repeated several times in telling it to different people,
the initially fabricated event may become subjectively real for the person
telling it.
5. Even if the tale is later recanted, the recanted testimony may not be
believed because of the widespread (unfounded and erroneous) belief that
a child would not make a false accusation about sexual abuse.
E. Accusations against teachers, camp counselors, day care workers and others
involved with the care of youngsters.
1. Several cases have been very well publicized. When accusations are widely
covered by the media, there has been a surge in reporting sexual abuse in
other facilities.
2. In such cases there is often a predictable evolution of the stories into
wilder and more fanciful accusations.
3. This common progression suggests that repeated interviews tap into an
ever deeper layer of the kind of fantasies children are known to have.
F. Allegations of ritualistic and satanic abuse
1. The allegations of ritual abuse come from two sources
a. Accounts of "survivors" who uncover memories of bizarre satanic
ritual abuse ceremonies during the course of therapy. The alleged abuse
is not remembered until the adult goes into therapy with a therapist skilled
in special techniques of recovered memory therapy, such as survivors' groups
and hypnotherapy.
b. Accounts of children who have allegedly been ritualistically abused at
day care centers and other cases involving allegations of multiple perpetrators
and many children.
c. These sources have affected one another.
2. Such highly publicized cases have occurred not only throughout the United
States, but around the world, including the Netherlands, Great Britain,
Canada, Scotland, New Zealand, and Australia.
3. Despite hundreds of investigations by the FBI and police, there is no
independent evidence of ritual abuse, animal and human sacrifice, murder,
and cannibalism of hundreds of children by a conspiracy of apparently normal
adults who are functional and organized enough to leave no trace of their
activities. There is no corroborating evidence for a conspiracy of satanic
ritual abusers who prey on day care centers and abuse children (see Bottoms,
Shaver, & Goodman, 1996; Rossen, 1989; Victor, 1993; Richardson, Best,
& Bromley, 1991; Lanning, 1992; Hicks, 1991; Nathan & Snedeker,
1995; Wakefield & Underwager, 1994b).
G. Several highly publicized cases in the United States have recently been
overturned on appeal as authorities and the legal system realize that the
allegations were the result of flawed investigations and coercive interviews
of the children.
III. Investigating Child Sexual Abuse Allegations
A. Serious harm to children and adults can occur with both types of
errors-failing to identify an abused child and misidentifying abuse when
it has not occurred.
B. Secondary victimization
1. The massive effort to protect abused children has resulted in damage
to innocent people and nonabused children.
2. The sexual abuse investigation itself can be devastating to families
and children whether or not the allegations is ultimately determined to
be false (Wakefield & Underwager, 1994a; Prosser, 1996a, 1996b; Tyler
& Brassard, 1984).
3. In a study of 8058 sexual abuse victims in Lower Saxony, Baurmann (1983)
found that for one-fifth of his sample, the main cause of the injury was
judged by the victims to be the behavior of relatives, friends, or the police.
4. Jones (1991) describes nine possible components of iatrogenic (doctor
induced) harm by the system when children have been actually been abused.
They are 1) overzealous professional intervention, 2) repeated interviewing,
3) repeated physical examinations, 4) decline in living standards, 5) defensive
decision making, 6) attendance at court, 7) withholding treatment, 8) overtreatment,
and 9) foster care.
5. Minimizing secondary victimization
a. Minimize the risk of identifying a nonabused child as abused. Make the
most accurate decision possible.
b. Do not remove the child from home unless absolutely necessary.
i. Gomes-Schwartz et al. (1990) found that children who were removed from
home were more distressed than those who remained.
ii. Instead of removing the child, either place an observer in the home
to offer security for the child and family or have the alleged perpetrator
removed.
c. Do not interview the child in school.
d. Do a careful assessment of the child before placing the child in sexual
abuse therapy.
e. Do not exaggerate and overstate the consequences of child sexual abuse.
IV. Interviewing children who are suspected of being sexually abused
A. The child witness
1. Young children are capable of providing accurate and useful information.
2. Jones and Krugman (1986) give an example of a three-year-old child who
accurately described her abduction, sexual abuse, and attempted murder.
3. The problem is that adults do not know how to let children produce the
most reliable information they can (Garbarino & Stott, 1989).
B. The memory of young children
1. The free recall of children, particularly if they are questioned soon
after an event, can be accurate. However, young children do not produce
much in the free recall situation.
2. Because of the phenomena of infant amnesia, adults and older children
do not usually remember specific incidents from their lives that happen
prior to age three to four, although they do have script memories.
3. Young children are more suggestible than older children and adults (Ceci
& Bruck, 1993, 1995).
4. Young children are likely to make "source monitoring" errors
(Ceci, Loftus, Leitchman, & Bruck, 1994; Johnson, Hashtroudi, &
Lindsay, 1993).
a. A source monitoring error is when people mistake events they have thought
about, dreamed about, or been questioned about for memories of real events
that have happened.
b. Preschoolers appear to be vulnerable to source attribution errors when
they are repeatedly encouraged to think about or talk about events that
never occurred.
5. Very young children cannot use one object as a representation for another
(DeLoache, 1995).
6. Several facts concerning child witnesses can be said to be generally
accepted in the scientific community (Ceci & Bruck, 1993)
a. There appear to be significant age differences in suggestibility, with
preschool children being more vulnerable to suggestion that either school-aged
children or adults.
b. Children can be led to make false or inaccurate reports about very crucial,
personally experienced central events.
c. Children sometimes lie when the motivational structure is tilted towards
lying.
d. Extreme statements (e.g., children never lie vs. children are incapable
of getting it right) are not supported by credible and reliable scientific
data.
e. Even preschoolers are capable of recalling much that is forensically
relevant.
C. General principles of the investigatory interview
1. The goal of the interview of a child suspected of being sexually abused
is to obtain uncontaminated data.
2. The problem is not that children cannot give reliable information but
rather that adults do not know how to enable them to produce the information
they are capable of providing.
3. The free recall of children may be fairly accurate, but they recall less
than do adults. The less information the child gives in free recall, the
sooner the interviewer may become frustrated and then may turn to using
leading questions and coercive procedures.
4. Contamination can occur when the child's recollections become altered
through poor interview techniques (Ceci & Bruck, 1995; Underwager &
Wakefield, 1990; Wakefield & Underwager, 1988, 1994a).
5. The child's memory of an actual experience may be significantly altered
by the questioning about the incident and the child may even develop a subjectively
believed memory for events that never happened (Ceci & Bruck, 1995;
Ceci, et al., 1994; Loftus & Ketcham, 1991; Underwager & Wakefield,
1990). There is little or no correlation between subjective confidence and
the accuracy of an account of a past event (Brainerd, Reyna, & Brandse,
1995).
6. The primary issue is not whether or not the child is lying. The issue
is the level, nature, extent, and effects of adult social influence upon
young children.
7. Although repeated and/or suggestive interviews and flawed investigations
do not mean that a child has not been abused, they make it very difficult,
if not impossible, to sort out what, if anything, may have happened.
8. The issue is the level, nature, extent, and effects of adult social influence
upon young children. It is through adult social influence that a child can
make statements of sexual abuse that may not be true. The child is unlikely
to be an active participant when a fabricated allegation is developed.
9. Poorly conducted interviews make it very difficult, if not impossible,
to sort out what, if anything, may have happened.
10. Example of a bad interview from the McMartin case
Q Do you think, do maybe-I'll tell you what. Maybe you could show me with
this, with this doll (putting hand on two anatomical dolls, one naked, one
dressed) how the kids danced for the naked movie star.
A They didn't really dance. It was just like, a song.
Q Well, what did they do when they sang the song?
A They just, went around singing the song.
Q They just went around and sang the song?
A (Nods head up and down.)
Q And they didn't take their clothes off?
A (Shakes head negative)
Q I heard that, I heard from, several kids, that they took their clothes
off. I think that (classmate's name) told me that. I know that (second classmate's
name) told me. I know that (third classmate's name) told me. (Fourth classmate's
name) and (fifth classmate's name) all told me that. That's kind of a hard
secret, it's kind of a yucky secret to talk, of-but, maybe, we could see
if we could find-
A Not that I remember.
Q -another puppet. This is my favorite puppet right here. (Reaching, picking
up and putting on the bird puppet.)
A I get to be that puppet.
Q You wanna be this puppet? Okay. Then I get to be Detective Dog.
A (Makes a sound.)
Q Okay, let's see if we can figure this. Let's see.
A (Grabs the dog puppet's nose that the interviewer is wearing, using bird
puppet's beak.)
Q Yeah. Let's be friends. Let's (unintelligible). I know that we're gonna
figure this out-all this stuff out right now. Okay, when that tricky part
about touching the kids was going on, could you (reaching for marker from
can on the table, handing it to girl) could take a pointer in your mouth
and point, on the, on the doll over here, on either one of these dolls,
where, where the kids were touched? Could you do that?
A I don't know.
Q I know that the kids were touched. Let's see if we can figure that out.
A I don't know.
Q You don't know where they were touched?
A Huh-uh. (Slight of head, negative.)
Q (Unintelligible.) Well, I (unintelligible) some of the kids told me that
they were touched sometimes. They said that it was, it kinda sometimes it
kinda hurt. And sometimes it felt pretty good. Do you remember that touching
game that went on?
A No.
Q Okay, let me see if we can try something else and-
A Weeeeee. (Spinning the bird puppet on right hand above her head.)
Q Come on bird, get down here and help us out here.
A No.
Q (Girl's name) is having a hard time talking. I don't wanna hear any more
"no's." No, no, Detective Dog and we're gonna figure this out.
A No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
(To musical cadence, spinning bird puppet over head.)
Q Do you wanna not play with the puppets? Would you rather talk to me directly?
Is that easier for ya?
A No.
Q Okay. How can I help you?
A (Makes sound.) gosh.
Q (Girl's name), look at me! (Putting puppeted hand on bird puppet.) How
can I help you get rid of those yucky secrets? How can we help you to tell
them, so they can go away and not bother you any more? What would be the
best way that we could help you do that? I don't think the puppets are working
really well. And I think that you're real scared to tell. And I understand
why you're scared. 'Cause I heard all about the threats and all the tricks
that he tried to make the kids be scared so they wouldn't talk. Those were
all tricks, they were lies. They weren't true. None of those things happened
to anybody. And none of that stuff that happened at school were the kids'
fault. That was all the it, Ray's fault, it wasn't the kids fault. And I
know the kids are scared to talk about it, but I need you to tell me. How
can I help you get rid of those yucky secrets? What's the best way for me
to help you do that?
A (Looks upward with pointer dangling from mouth.) (Cody, 1989, p. 28.)
D. Specific problems in interviews
1. The interviewer is convinced about what happened before the interview
begins. The interviewer who expects to find abuse is apt to ask questions
in a way to confirm his or her hypothesis (Ceci & Bruck, 1995).
2. The interviewer ignores the pressure felt by the child to conform to
what the child believes the interviewer wants. The pressure to give some
form of answer may result in demand characteristics to which children have
little resistance.
3. The interviewer reinforces selected responses of the child.
a. A child is told that she is brave and that "Mommy will be so proud
of you for telling the scary secret" or a child is told that he can
play with a special toy or go for a treat after he tells about the abuse.
b. Children have been promised or given candy, food, beverages, and toys
if they cooperate and answer the questions.
4. The interviewer does not make it clear to the child that it is all right
not to answer a question if the child does not know the answer.
a. Children will give answers to bizarre, unanswerable questions. In a study
by Hughes and Grieve (1980), 5- and 7-year-old children gave answers to
very bizarre questions, such as "Is red wider than yellow?"
b. The pressure to give some form of answer and to discourage "don't
know" responses may result in demand characteristics to which children
have little resistance.
5. The interviewer ignores responses that don't fit the interviewer's preconceptions.
6. The interviewer encourages a child who does not say anything in response
to questions to "pretend" with puppets or dolls.
7. The interviewer begins the interview with good touch/bad touch questions
and drawings where the child identifies body parts. This tells the child
what will be expected to be discussed in the interview.
8. The interview is not videotaped or audiotaped. A videotape is the only
means whereby the procedures and data obtained during the interview can
be fully documented (Lamb, 1994; McGough, 1995; Myers, 1994; Raskin &
Yuille, 1989; Underwager & Wakefield, 1990; Wakefield & Underwager,
1988, 1994a)
9. Procedures with doubtful or nonexistent reliability and validity are
used in the interview. These unsupported procedures include drawings, projective
tests, and anatomical dolls.
a. Neither the anatomical dolls nor their use are standardized or accompanied
by normative data.
b. The use of the dolls can provide a modeling effect and, as they are often
used, can encourage the child to engage in fantasy.
c. Very young children cannot use one object as a representation for another
(DeLoache, 1995). These studies falsify the use of the dolls as demonstrative
aids.
d. There are no data supporting a differential behavior of abused and nonabused
children when the dolls are used to assess sexual abuse. The studies that
claim to show differences have major methodological shortcomings (Ceci &
Bruck, 1993, 1995; Skinner & Berry, 1993; Underwager & Wakefield,
1990, 1995; Wakefield & Underwager, 1994a; Wolfner, Faust, & Dawes,
1993).
e. We recommend that the dolls not be used. They are controversial and they
are not generally accepted in the scientific community.
f. There are similar problems with books and drawings.
10. Disclosure-based play therapy is used to draw conclusions about abuse.
a. There is no scientific evidence showing any efficacy or utility for play
therapy with sexual abuse victims (Campbell, 1992a, 1992b).
b. The sessions may focus on reenactments and discussions of the abuse and
the behavior of the child in the play therapy sessions is used to form conclusions
about abuse. Play therapy may encourage false allegations (Campbell, 1992b).
c. A major difficulty is the unexamined assumption that play reflects reality
whereas for children play is fantasy (Bretherton, 1984).
d. The therapist providing the therapy may confuse the therapy and investigator
roles.
E. General guidelines for appropriate interviewing
1. Be aware of your own biases and try to explore all possible hypotheses
about what may have happened rather than focusing on just one. Debiasing
procedures have been recommended by a number of decision theory researchers
(Arkes, 1991)
2. Conduct the interview in a comfortable room which does not look like
a business office or doctor's office. Keep distracting toys out of sight.
3. Do not sit on the floor with the child. Sit in a chair and ask the child
to sit in a chair. Children know adults are adults and if an adult suddenly
begins behaving in strange ways the child may perceive it as coercive.
4. Interview the child alone. The presence of another person may induce
bias, distortions or omissions in the child's account. The error can be
in either direction.
5. Begin by establishing the relationship with the child, getting an impression
of the child's level of development and capacities, and establishing the
child's expectations for what is going to happen in the evaluation. Ask
neutral questions regarding age, school and friends before discussing the
events surrounding the alleged abuse.
6. Make it clear to the child that it is all right not to answer a question
if the child does not know the answer. Tell the child to say "I don't
know" and "I don't remember" rather than trying to say what
he thinks the interviewer might want to hear. It may help to practice with
a question such as "Did the doctor who delivered you wear glasses or
not?
7. When the child is comfortable, ask open-ended nonleading questions (i.e.,
"Tell me about your father"). It may take longer to get useful
information but the information obtained is much less likely to be contaminated.
8. Aim toward encouraging the child to provide a free narrative account
by asking open-ended questions. The free recall of a child is as accurate
as that of an adult; the trick therefore is elicit it and not to alter it
through suggestive, leading questions. Open-ended questions can be repeated
a number of times.
9. Do not interrupt the child's narrative with questions.
10. If closed questions must be asked, only ask them at the end after first
attempting to get a narrative from the child through open questions.
11. Avoid repeating questions other than open-ended. When an answer is ignored
and a direct question is repeated again and again, the child learns what
he is expected to answer.
12. Proceed from the most general aspects to the more specific. Explore
specific areas after the child has mentioned them first.
13. Do not encourage make-believe by saying things such as "let's pretend
you are in your bedroom . . ." or "let's pretend this doll is
you . . ."
14. If the child has difficulty providing specific details, try using nonleading
mnemonic devices. For example, ask the child to view the alleged incident
from the eyes of a camera.
15. Use invitational statements in order to get more details from the child
such as, "And then what happened?" or "Would you please tell
me everything you remember about that?"
16. Throughout the interview, be alert to the cognitive developmental level
of the child.
17. Throughout the interview, test for alternative hypotheses.
18. Do not ask the child to remember what he said to others-parent, social
worker, or police-a couple of days ago. This request means that you are
confusing the child between a prior conversation and the reality of a prior
event of abuse.
19. Minimize cues given to a child about what he is supposed to say. Requests
for details should be about events already disclosed by the child.
20. Use a neutral, friendly tone throughout and avoid pressure or coercion
to give a desired response and selective reinforcement of certain types
of responses. A frequent subtle cue to a child as to what the interviewer
wants is the repetition of a question when the child has already answered
but not in the desired direction.
21. Be aware of your own tolerance for ambiguity and frustration level.
Remain calm and don't show irritation when the child is not responding as
desired.
22. Conduct the interview in a way that does not contribute to the emotional
trauma of the child. Know when to stop interviewing. Grilling, coercion,
repeated questioning when a child gives a negative response or says "I
don't know" tells the child that he is not producing what the adult
in authority wants.
23. At some point in the interviews, inquire about possible influences upon
the child that may have taken place prior to the interview. This is important
both in the case of a child who relates sexual abuse and with a child who
recants an earlier story of abuse.
24. At the end of the interview, explore the child's susceptibility to suggestion.
25. Videotape or audiotape all interviews from the beginning. This provides
for fully documented interviews and an accurate account of who said what
can be transcribed. Videotape also permits examination of some of the nonverbal
cues that may be present.
26. Minimize the number of interviews. (However, take the time needed to
do a thorough and reliable assessment.)
27. If there is time pressure, as there may be if a choice about the safety
of the child must be made, get as much reliable information as you can,
and make the choice.
28. A promising technique, Cognitive Interviewing, has produced a number
of research studies suggesting that it improves the accuracy of information
(NIJ, 1992; Powell & Thomson, 1994). Those techniques that appear helpful
are given below.
a. Give four instructions to prepare the child. Practice these answers by
asking questions about an event that occurred in the waiting room or one
that you both participated in or observed.
i. It is all right to say you do not know an answer but do not guess or
make anything up.
ii. If you do not want to answer a question, that is all right. Just tell
me.
iii. If you do not know what I mean, please tell me.
iv. If I ask a question more than once, you do not have to change your answer.
Just tell me what you remember the best you can.
b. Reconstruct the circumstances. You may use pictures, favorite toys, and
familiar objects to assist a child to picture the circumstances, persons,
and feelings surrounding the alleged event(s) you are seeking information
about. Then seek a free narrative recall with the instruction just to tell
you everything that happened, including even little things.
c. For children who are old enough, backward order recall appears to be
more effective in allowing for accurate information to be produced. Recall
the events in backward order beginning with the end, then the middle, and
then the beginning. After each response, ask "What happened right before
that?"
d. Also for children who are old enough to understand this instruction,
ask the child to describe the incident from a different perspective, that
is, as if someone else were watching, what they would have seen.
V. Criteria for judging an allegation
A. A spontaneous disclosure made by a young child without evident adult
influence is more likely to be true.
B. The probability of the behaviors alleged
1. If the alleged behaviors are extremely improbable, then it is less likely
that the allegation is true.
2. A study of two samples of false allegations found many allegations of
abuse that were much more unusual, intrusive, and deviant than has been
found in cases of verified abuse (Wakefield & Underwager, 1994b).
3. It is crucial to think very realistically and practically about what
would actually have to happen in order for the alleged behavior to have
actually taken place
4. Tollison and Adams (1979) describe the general behaviors engaged in by
the pedophile:
Pedophiliac behavior may involve caressing a child's body, manipulating
a child's genitals, or inducing a child to manipulate an adult's genitals.
Occasionally, the behaviors also include penile penetration (partial or
complete--vaginal or anal), oral sex, and any practice utilizing the sexual
parts or organs of a child so as to bring the person in contact with the
child's body in any sexual manner. Pedophiliac acts may be homosexual or
heterosexual in nature and may include touching, caressing, masturbation,
oral-genital contact, and intercourse, as well as pedophilic exhibitionism,
voyeurism, rape, sadism, and masochism....Physical violence to the child
occurs in only 2 percent of instances... (page 326).
5. In homosexual pedophilia, the most common contact is masturbation-done
to rather than by, the boy. This is followed by fellatio. Anal intercourse
is less common.
6. Vaginal and anal penetration is rare in young children and is extremely
painful. It results in injuries and laceration, not stretching of the involved
organ. The molester must have a strategy for muffling the child's screams
(Erickson, Walbek, & Seely, 1988).
7. Vaginal penetration is more likely with an older child and is more common
in clinical samples compared to community samples (Wakefield & Underwager,
1994b).
8. The original Kinsey report on the sexual behavior of females (Kinsey,
et al., 1953) provides information about the preadolescent sexual contacts
their sample had with adult males.
Nature of Contact Percent
Approach only 9
Exhibition, male genitalia 52
Exhibition, female genitalia 1
Fondling, no genital contact 31
Manipulation of female genitalia 22
Manipulation of male genitalia 5
Oral contact, female genitalia 9
Oral contact, male genitalia 1
Coitus 3
9. Bribery is more common than threat. Threatening a child is the way to
assure the quickest disclosure when the threatening agent is not present.
10. Aggression and violence are not usually part of the behavior. Sadistic,
bizarre, or homicidal forms of abuse occur but are extremely rare.
11. There is no evidence for satanic ritual abuse conspiracies.
12. In incest, a grooming process is often involved.
13. In false cases, the allegations may initially be very vague and not
easily amenable to being verified or refuted.
14. Female child sexual abusers (Wakefield & Underwager, 1991a).
a. Sexual abusers are primarily male.
b. There are widely different circumstances in which females may engage
in behavior that is defined as "child sexual abuse" and the circumstances
that lead women to sexually abuse children can often be differentiated from
those causing men to do so.
C. Characteristics of the child's statement
1. Valid accounts of abuse will have appropriate details given the child's
age, especially affective and contextual details, and the child's affect
will be appropriate to the report.
2. If there is strong hatred expressed toward the accused that is based
upon trivial and vague reasons, this may be the result of learning from
the accusing parent rather than from actual abuse.
3. A child who is very eager to talk about the abuse may have learned that
adults reward such talk.
4. Significant contradiction and variation in the story across time, especially
when the account shows that the child has no visual image but is responding
to verbal cues, supports the possibility of the child learning the story
from adults.
5. However, Ceci and Bruck (1995) found that professionals were unable to
differentiate between videotapes of children describing real events and
children describing events they had learned about through suggestive questioning.
Adult judgments or opinions about the accuracy of children's accounts may
be no better than chance.
D. Recantation is not a good criterion for judging whether an allegation
is true or false since children who have been abused as well as children
who have fabricated an allegation may retract once they see the consequences
of the allegation. Nevertheless, recantations must be taken seriously and
evaluated in the context of all information about the specific allegations.
E. Personality characteristics of the persons involved
1. In divorce and custody cases, a personality disorder in the person making
the accusation may increase the possibility of an allegation being false
(Wakefield & Underwager, 1990).
2. The personality of the person accused
a. If it cannot be demonstrated that an accused person has the pathology
associated with most child sexual abusers, the likelihood of a false accusation
increases.
b. However, a "normal" personality based on an MMPI or other assessment
techniques does not mean that the individual could not be a sexual abuser.
A significant minority of child sexual abusers have normal MMPIs and appear
relatively normal.
c. The presence of psychological problems does not prove that the abuse
is real.
d. Consideration of the personality characteristics of the accused is particularly
important when the allegations are of highly deviant behaviors.
e. Unusual or infrequent sexual behaviors in the life of the accused does
not necessarily increase the likelihood of being a child molester. An example
is transvestite behaviors which do not increase the probability of being
a child abuser.
f. Minimization and rationalization are common in child sexual abusers.
F. Behavioral indicators
1. Various behaviors and behavior changes are often cited as signs of sexual
abuse in children and adolescents. For example, The Journal of the American
Medical Association in 1985 (JAMA, 1985, p. 798) includes the following
as behavioral signs of sexual abuse:
a. Become withdrawn and daydream excessively
b. Evidence poor peer relationships
c. Experience poor self-esteem
d. Seem frightened or phobic, especially of adults
e. Experience deterioration of body image
f. Express general feelings of shame or guilt
g. Exhibit a sudden deterioration in academic performance
h. Show pseudomature personality development
i. Attempt suicide
j. Exhibit a positive relationship toward the offender
k. Display regressive behavior
l. Display enuresis and/or encopresis
m. Engage in excessive masturbation
n. Engage in highly sexualized play
o. Become sexually promiscuous
2. Such lists were widely disseminated through the media, pamphlets, popular
articles, seminars and workshop aimed at training or consciousness raising.
a. In 1892 Kellogg proposed a list of behaviors to determine if a child
was masturbating. If so parents were urged to take severe remedial steps,
including clitoridectomies and restraints.
b. The 1892 list is identical with current lists used as indicators of sexual
abuse. Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat the errors of
the past (Legrand, Wakefield, & Underwager, 1989).
3. Behavioral indicators result from stress in general and are not specific
to the stress of sexual abuse.
4. The base rates of the presence of many such behaviors in normal children,
in troubled children, in non-abused children, and as part of the developmental
process for all children is so high that any attempt to use them as indicating
abuse will result in a high rate of error.
5. Not all sexually abused children are symptomatic subsequent to sexual
abuse so the absence of behavioral symptoms cannot be used to rule out sexual
abuse.
6. It is now generally accepted that such behavior changes cannot be used
to conclude that the child has been abused (Lamb, 1994).
7. Sexual behavior in children
a. This is often claimed to be a better behavioral indicator.
b. But nonabused children exhibit many sexual behaviors. Friedrich, et al.
(1991) report that their normal, nonabused sample of children showed a wide
variety of sexual behaviors at relatively high frequencies.
c. However, Friedrich et al. also found that behaviors more imitative of
adult sexual behavior were unusual. Therefore, if a child is found engaging
in explicitly sexual behavior, such as oral-genital contact, this should
be carefully checked out.
d. But even this does not prove that the child was sexually abused by an
adult. Peer sexual play, inadvertently seeing adults having intercourse,
or access to x-rated video might account for it.
G. Medical evidence
1. Many parents, social workers, investigators, prosecutors, defense attorneys,
therapists, etc. erroneously assume that an abused child will show physical
signs of the abuse.
2. In most reported cases of child sexual abuse, however, there is no physical
or medical evidence that a child has been sexually abused (Adams et al.,
1994).
a. Inasmuch as a considerable portion of sexual abuse involves exhibitionism,
breast and/or genital fondling, and masturbation of the perpetrator, this
finding is not surprising.
b. Therefore, a normal physical exam cannot rule out sexual abuse.
3. A medical examination ought be done whenever it may contribute helpful
information if a report is not immediately dismissed as unfounded. It is
particularly important when the allegations are of abusive behaviors that
are likely to result in physical sequelae (i.e., penile penetration of a
young child).
4. The results of medical examinations for sexual abuse are frequently ambiguous
and must be carefully interpreted.
a. Base rate studies of nonabused children indicate that many of the findings
often used to support a conclusion of abuse are found in nonabused children
(McCann et al., 1989, 1990).
b. Some reported findings, such as lax sphincter tone and the anal dilatation
reflex, are controversial and rejected by many medical authorities.
5. However, there are now enough data on normal and nonabused children to
classify many findings as normal or nonspecific and others as lying on a
continuum of certainty that sexual abuse has occurred (Adams, 1995; Bays
& Chadwick, 1993; Heger & Emans, 1992).
6. The only specific and unambiguous physical findings demonstrating sexual
contact are pregnancy or sperm in the vagina or anus (Krugman, 1989).
VI. Effects and Treatment of Victims
A. Effects of sexual abuse
1. Sexually abused children vary widely as to how the abuse affects them.
Some children are relatively unaffected, some show short-term effects, some
are more seriously affected.
2. Research on the effects of sexual abuse generally use clinical samples
which cannot be generalized to the entire population of sexually abused
children.
3. Contrary to what most people believe, the long-term effects of sexual
abuse are not nearly as severe as is often assumed (Levitt & Pinnell,
1995; Rind & Harrington, undated).
a. The effects of physical abuse and neglect are likely to be more serious
and generate more long-term damage (Ney, Fung, & Wickett, 1994).
b. When family dysfunction is controlled, the effects of sexual abuse wash
out. This is because both extrafamilial and intrafamilial sexual abuse are
closely associated with families that are dysfunctional and pathological
(Alexander & Lupfer, 1987, Beitchman et al., 1991, Levitt & Pinnell,
1995; Nash et al., 1993).
3. Some factors seem to be associated with greater harm.
a. Because of the difficulties mentioned above, this does not in any way
establish a direct cause and effect link (Nash, Zivney, & Hulsey , 1993).
b. Also, there is no contributing factor that all studies agree on as being
consistently associated with greater harm.
c. Many studies report greater harm with use of force, genital as opposed
to other types of contact, sex with the father or stepfather, and long duration
of repeated abuse.
d. Studies assessing the effect of age of onset have contradictory results.
4. A supportive environment, including a supportive, functional family,
is associated with less harm.
B. Treatment for sexually abused children
1. Role of the therapist vs. role of the evaluator
a. The professional conducting the evaluation as to whether abuse happened
should not be the professional who provides treatment for sexual abuse.
The roles are different and are contradictory in many respects.
b. Therapy should never be used to make a determination as to whether, in
fact, abuse happened.
c. A child should not be given therapy for sex abuse until there is a determination
that abuse has occurred (Ceci, 1994; Gardner, 1992; Wakefield & Underwager,
1988). If the child needs treatment before a judicial determination, any
treatment should address whatever behavioral problems the child is having,
but not focus on sexual abuse.
d. If a child is in therapy prior to such a determination, the child may
ask questions or talk about sexual abuse. Give careful responses that will
not contaminate the child's memory and answer questions honestly. Remember
that the goal of therapy is to restore the child to normal developmental
growth as quickly as possible. This can be done without focusing on abuse.
2. Begin with a careful individual and family assessment.
a. Children react to abuse differently. There are no typical symptoms of
the sexually abused child. Some children may need only reassurance and support,
but not long-term therapy. There is no such thing as a child sexual abuse
syndrome that is diagnostic of children who have been sexually abused.
b. The assessment should include some assessment of the child's developmental
level, descriptions from the parents as to problem behaviors, and information
about the nature of the abuse.
c. Emphasize measurable, objectively described behaviors and not hypothesized
internal states.
d. Evaluate the extent to which the child's problems are the result of the
investigation process and the child's family's reactions to the disclosure.
This includes interviews by law enforcement and social services, foster
home placement, genital examinations, publicity about the case in the media
which results in the child's peers knowing about the abuse, foster home
placement, and termination of contact with a parent.
e. In intrafamilial abuse, assess the degree of danger for future abuse.
In the United States, this is not likely to be a problem since either the
perpetrator or the child will be removed from home.
f. Assess the family system and the strengths and problems. This can be
done through behavioral observation of the family in interaction as well
as through individual assessments of all members of the family. Stress and
rely upon valid and reliable statistical and actuarial methods as much as
possible. These measures may include personality, intellectual functioning,
and strengths and resources.
3. Include standardized measures of the child's problems.
a. For example, the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Edelbrock),
the Louisville Behavior Checklist (Miller), and the Personality Inventory
for Children (Wirt, et al). These are parent-report checklists that differentiate
between children with psychopathology from children in the general population
and provide descriptive information of the child's assets and problems.
b. Do not use drawings for anything other than interview aids and conversation
starters. There is no evidence that the symbolic sign approach to children's
drawings is reliable or valid.
4. Do not convey to the parents or the child that the child is likely to
be seriously and perhaps permanently damaged by the abuse.
a. The exaggerated emphasis on the harmful effects of abuse can leave the
family hopeless, fearful, and anxious. This can become a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
b. If long-term, intensive therapy is given to a child who does not need
it, a relatively brief, although unpleasant event, in the child's perception,
may be blown up into a major catastrophic event. Misguided therapy may teach
a child to be a lifelong victim.
5. If a careful assessment indicates no problems, do not give the child
long-term intensive therapy. Reassure the child and be in a monitoring role
with the child and parents. If problems appear later, they can be addressed.
6. Family involvement is essential.
a. With incest, treatment of the child must be coordinated with treatment
for the offending and nonoffending parent.
b. In extrafamilial abuse, the parents and other family members should be
actively involved whenever possible. Do not treat the child apart from the
parents.
c. With younger children, the focus should be on helping the parents learn
effective ways of responding to the child's problem behaviors.
d. Parents may attend to problem behaviors that they believe were caused
by the abuse. This often has the effect of increasing the frequency of the
behaviors. Therefore, it is important to work with the parents on effective
ways to respond to problem behaviors.
7. The type of therapy for children which has demonstrated efficacy is cognitive-behavioral
(Casey & Berman, 1985; Weitz et al., 1987, 1995; Weitz & Weiss,
1993).
a. Specific problems are targeted and strategies are developed for working
on them.
b. The treatment strategies will involve step-by-step, daily activities
that help the child and the parents address the child's problems.
8. Child therapy as is practiced in most clinics in the United States is
not effective according to the outcome research (Weitz et al., 1992; Weisz,
Donenberg et al., 1995; Weitz & Weiss, 1993)
9. Play therapy
a. This is the most frequent approach used in the United States. Sometimes,
it is termed "disclosure-based, play therapy."
b. Children are encouraged to express their feelings and act out the abuse
in play sessions. The therapists may use drawings, dolls, puppets, and sand
tables. Their play, in turn, is interpreted as reflecting actual things
that have happened to them.
c. There is no research on play therapy that supports its use with sexually
abused children (Campbell, 1992a; White & Allers, 1994).
10. View the child as an active participant in solving her problems and
help the child modify her behavior.
a. Do not treat the child as a passive victim.
b. Give the child the message that, although she is not responsible for
the abuse, she is responsible for knowing right from wrong and for getting
help if she is abused again.
c. The child can learn more effective ways of dealing with whatever problems
she now has.
10. Cognitive-behaviorally focused group therapy can be helpful with older
children, since meeting other children who have been abused can be helpful.
11. Children may show opposition and resistance to therapy (Haugaard, 1992).
This should be handled by exploring and then gently challenging false beliefs
about therapy that the child may have. These false beliefs include:
a. The child may think she was brought to therapy because of a personal
defect or illness she has that caused the abuse.
b. The child may see therapy as a type of punishment. "Why must I come
here when it was my father who did everything wrong."
c. The child may believe he must go to therapy because people think he will
become a child abuser himself later in life.
12. Family therapy is recommended
a. This was the first approach used to respond to sexual abuse.
b. The Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program (CSATP) was developed by Giarretto
(1980) in Santa Clara County, California beginning in 1971. It succeeded
admirably. 90% of the children were returned home within the first month
and 95% eventually. There was no recidivism reported in more than 250 families.
c. Unfortunately, as the emphasis in the United States shifted to prosecution
and demonization of alleged perpetrators, this established and demonstrated
program dropped out of use. It combined individual treatment, family therapy,
and marriage therapy and emphasized the positive contributions strengths
can make to growth.
d. This was the approach Dr. Underwager first used in 1953 when he encountered
a case of incest. We also used this approach with the cooperation of the
authorities until about 1977 when it became difficult to pursue family therapy
and reunification of families.
e. The advent of a systematized child protection system and the emergence
of a corps of protection workers moved treatment n a different direction.
13. Major premises of family therapy
a. The family is viewed as an organic system. Family members assume behavior
patterns to maintain system balance (family homeostasis).
b. A distorted family homeostasis is evidenced by psychological/physiological
symptoms in family members.
c. Incestuous behavior is one of the many symptoms possible in troubled
families.
d. The marital relationship is a key factor in family organic balance and
development.
e. Incestuous behavior is not likely to occur when parents enjoy mutually
beneficial relations.
f. A high self-concept in each of the mates is a prerequisite for a healthy
marital relationship.
g. High self-concepts in parents help to engender high self-concepts in
children.
h. Individuals with high self concepts are not apt to engage others in hostile-aggressive
behavior. In particular, they do not undermine the self-concept of their
mates or children through incestuous behavior.
i. Individuals with low self-concepts are usually angry, disillusioned,
and feel they have little to lose. They are thus primed for behavior that
is destructive to others and to themselves.
j. When such individuals are punished in the depersonalized manner of institutions,
the low self concept/high destructive energy syndrome is enforced. Even
when punishment serves to frustrate one type of hostile conduct, the destructive
energy is diverted to another outlet or turned inward.
14. Overall the continuing research shows that family dysfunction is the
major issue in causation of abuse, physical, emotional or sexual, and any
long-term negative effects. Children growing up in intact, functional and
supportive nuclear families are significantly less likely to report any
form of abuse (Gaudin et al., 1990; Mullen et al., 1996)
VII. Treatment for Perpetrators
A. Psychological characteristics of child sexual abusers
1. Child sexual offenders must be differentiated from pedophiles.
a. A child sexual offender has committed a criminal act. He may or may or
may not be a pedophile. It is adult/child sexual contact that is against
the law.
b. A pedophile has an anomalous sexual preference. If a pedophile never
acts on his impulses, he is not a sex offender.
c. Pedophiles are an heterogeneous group and many do not fit the stereotype
of the dirty old man lusting after little \children.
2. There is no single child sexual offender personality type, although there
are some characteristics that many child sexual abusers have.
3. It is often claimed that abusers were themselves abused as children.
a. However, most of the studies of this suffer from problems with control
groups and no really good study with appropriate controls has yet been done.
With the current knowledge it is a mistake to think that an abuser must
have been abused in the past or that an abused child will grow up to be
an abuser.
b. Even if it could be established that many abusers were abused themselves,
this does not mean that most persons who were abused as children will later
become abusers. Most abused children do not become abuse perpetrators in
later life (Widom, 1989).
4. Some characteristics of sexual offenders that are often reported include:
a. Inadequate and immature with low self-esteem and poor social skills.
b. Poor impulse control.
c. Hostile, aggressive, psychopathic.
d. Manipulative and lacking in empathy.
e. Many rationalizations and cognitive distortions.
5. Child sexual abusers generally do not have normal MMPIs.
a. The pathology is most likely to be seen in the elevation of the scales
which reflect poor impulse control, antisocial behavior, poor judgment,
a history of acting out, lack of self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy, a
schizoid social adjustment, much time spent in fantasies, and/or thought
disorders and confusion. Scale 4 in various combinations is the usual pattern.
b. However, Erickson, Luxenberg, Walbek, and Seeley (1987) report that 19%
of their convicted sex offenders had within normal limits profiles.
c. The more aberrant the behavior of the abuser, the more likely it is that
he will have a pathological MMPI.
6. Female child sexual abusers (see Wakefield & Underwager, 1991a).
a. Although awareness about female sexual abusers has greatly increased
in recent years, most sexual abusers are males.
b. Female child sexual abusers are less likely than men to fit the psychiatric
definition of "pedophile."
c. There are widely different circumstances in which females may engage
in behavior that is defined as "child sexual abuse" and the circumstances
that lead women to sexually abuse children can often be differentiated from
those causing men to do so. One example of this is sexual abuse which occurs
in conjunction with a dominant male and in which the woman plays a secondary
role. Another is found by the retrospective surveys of college men in which
many of the boys reported that they had engaged in the incidents voluntarily
and did not feel victimized.
d. Many studies depict women who sexually abuse children as being loners,
socially isolated, alienated, likely to have had abusive childhoods, and
apt to have emotional problems. However, most are not psychotic.
B. Assessment of child sexual abusers
1. Perform a clinical interview, which includes a careful social and sexual
history along with details of the offense.
2. Include detailed information about the offenders' sexuality and sexual
fantasies. Knight, Prentky, & Cerce (1994) report that sexual offenders
have more sexual preoccupation, deviance, compulsiveness, and inadequacy
than is evident in their clinical files.
3. Include standardized tests, such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II
(MCMI-II), and the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) for
personality. Get some measure of general intelligence. Use other tests as
indicated.
4. Penile plethysmograph
a. The penile plethysmograph assesses physiological arousal in response
to different sexual stimuli.
b. It is widely used to assess male sexual arousal and preference for various
sexual stimuli.
c. There are problems with it however, and its use is controversial.
d. It cannot be used to assess whether an individual who denies the offense
has, in fact, sexually abused a child.
5. Multiphasic Sex Inventory (Nichols & Molinder, 1984)
a. This a test developed for assessing sexual offenders and developing treatment
strategies.
b. It cannot be used on a person who denies the offense.
6. On the basis of the assessment, develop an individualized treatment plan.
C. Three general types of treatment approaches
1. Organic, biological approach
2. Psychotherapeutic approach (individual, group, and family counseling)
3. Cognitive-behavioral
D. Treatment and Recidivism
1. There has been controversy over the effectiveness of treatment for sex
offenders.
a. Some reviewers have concluded that there is little evidence that treatment
reduces recidivism (Furby, Weinrott, & Blackshaw, 1989; Quinsey et al.,
1993).
b. More recent reviews have reported positive effects when the treatment
is cognitive-behavioral (Lösel, 1995; Nagayama Hall, 1995).
c. Marshall et al. (1991) concludes that comprehensive cognitive-behavioral
programs (for child molesters, incest offenders and exhibitionists, but
not for rapists) are most likely to be effective.
2. Treatment must include attending to the cognitive distortions, be comprehensive,
and be individually designed to meet individual needs (Marshall & Pithers,
1994; Marshall, Eccles, & Barbaree, 1993; O'Donahue & Letourneau,
1993).
3. A June 1996 report by the United States General Accounting Office sees
the research as inconclusive but concludes that cognitive behavioral treatments
are the most promising (U. S. GAO, 1996). This is based on an analysis of
22 review articles on sexual offender treatment.
4. The clinician cannot wait for the research to produce definitive answers.
There is sufficient support now to conclude that cognitive behavioral procedures
are the treatment of choice.
5. Sexual offender recidivism is lowest for incest offenders.
E. Traditional offenders programs
1. In the past, the most common treatment approach in the United States
was group therapy that relies heavily upon punitive and hostile confrontation
and a nonsystematic blend of psychoanalytic concepts and traditional talking
therapy.
2. Most required a threshold requirement of admission of guilt before being
admitted into the program. All in prison treatment programs that we are
aware of still require an admission of guilt for successful completion.
When probation or parole are dependent upon completing a program, this creates
great difficulty for the many innocent persons who have been wrongfully
convicted.
3. The expression of feelings is absolutely required in the traditional
psychotherapeutic approach. Common treatment goals include bringing the
perpetrator to the point where he admits all of his abusive behaviors, expresses
guilt and remorse for them, and is willing to admit and apologize to the
victim.
4. There is no evidence for the effectiveness of this type of treatment
to cure sexual abuse and prevent recidivism.
F. Biological treatment
1. This includes surgical castration, hormonal/pharmacological, and psychosurgery.
The rationale is that if the sex drive is reduced, sexual offenses will
be prevented.
2. The United States General Accounting Office (1996) states that no program
in the United States reports using these methods alone as the basis for
treatment.
3. Some researchers report that there is some effectiveness with hormonal
treatments, but there is no consensus about a particular drug being most
effective or about the duration of positive effects (United States General
Accounting Office, 1996).
4. Surgical castration in widely used in Europe (United States General Accounting
Office, 1996). Over 10,000 men were castrated in Zurich alone in the years
between 1910 and 1961 according to one report (Quinsey & Marshall, 1983).
5. Quinsey and Marshall (1983) report that there is no research supporting
the efficacy of castration on sexual misbehavior and state that sexual potency
is not reduced in many castrated men who continue to engage in some form
of sexual behavior.
6. Nagayama Hall (1995), however, reports on a study in Germany were castration
was reported to lower recidivism.
G. Treatment directions with research support.
1. Treatment should be cognitive-behavioral and include relapse prevention
(Maletzky, 1996a, 1996b; Marques et al., 1994; Miner et al., 1990).
a. Cognitive behavioral treatment seeks to change the offenders' distorted
sexual cognitions and perceptions, reduce deviant sexual arousal, and increase
arousal to appropriate behaviors or partners.
b. The goal is to get offenders to understand and take responsibility for
their actions and to learn skills to help control their deviant behaviors.
c. Cognitive-behavioral treatment includes a wide variety of treatment methods
and combines behavior control techniques with some type of individual, group,
and/or family therapy.
d. This approach is now used by most treatment programs in the United States.
2. Treatment should be individually-tailored and include careful assessment
of the situation along with the capacities, personality, and behaviors of
the individual and a therapy program that uses a broad mix of learning theory-based
treatment techniques. Different treatment interventions must be planned
for different types of child molesters.
3. Treatment should address the level of self-confidence. Low self-esteem
both may be a major factor in causing the sexual behavior and an obstacle
to any behavior change. To change, persons must believe they are capable
of change (Marshall, 1996).
4. Treatment should address social skills and intimacy deficits.
5. Behavioral techniques for strengthening the person's arousal pattern
to appropriate behaviors or partners while weakening the deviant arousal
pattern may include aversion therapy, covert sensitization, satiation, and
directed masturbation.
6. Cognitive-behavioral techniques such as aversive conditioning, cognitive
restructuring, thought stopping, covert sensitization, satiation, contracts,
covert reinforcement, modeling, role playing, social skills training, and
relaxation training may be used.
7. With pedophiles, it may not be possible to change the arousal pattern.
Langevin and Lang (1985) maintain that "sexual preference is a powerful
and persistent feature of human behavior and there is no evidence that therapy
in any form can change it" (p. 409).
a. Therefore the goal of therapy for a pedophile must be to help the pedophile
manage his urges for sexual contact with children.
b. A key factor in the success in any treatment of pedophiles will be motivating
them to change; most pedophiles are resistant to giving up a sexual behavior
pattern which they perceive as positive and rewarding.
8. Treatment should involve material and homework assignments that respond
to what has been learned about the individual.
a. Use didactic materials, bibliotherapy, structured assignments, and individualized
therapy sessions that are aimed at reattribution and cognitive restructuring.
b. Wherever possible, use behavioral homework assignments that are part
of ongoing interpersonal relationships or will guide the individual through
the development of new interpersonal relationships.
8. Group treatment should be cognitive-behavioral rather than confrontational.
9. Treatment should help the person understand the potential harm done to
children by reinforcing and teaching a genitalized view of sexuality.
10. When a satisfactory level of response to the initial cognitive restructuring
has been reached, move to a relapse prevention approach.
a. Relapse prevention is a self-control program designed to teach individuals
who are trying to change their behavior how to anticipate and cope with
the problem of relapse. It is based on social learning theory and combines
behavioral and cognitive interventions. There is an emphasis on self-management.
It is not an isolated treatment; relapse prevention was developed as a maintenance
strategy and is intended to preserve gains in whatever treatment preceded
it (Laws, 1989; Maletzky, 1996b).
b. The relapse prevention program is individually developed following a
careful assessment of the individual. Offenders learn to identify and anticipate
high risk situations, control their urges, develop more effective coping
skills, maintain a more balanced lifestyle and gain a sense of control and
self-efficacy. Through this process, it is hoped that they will be less
apt to relapse and recommit a sexual offense.
c. Offenders learn that there offense is the result of a chain of events
involving cognitions and emotions that trigger a sequence of behaviors that
end with the commission of the sex offense. In relapse prevention, they
learn skills that avoid or interrupt the behavior chain.
H. Court-ordered sex offender treatment.
1. Probation with mandated treatment and perhaps some jail time is a common
disposition in the United States. Also, a person accused of sexual abuse
may be offered a choice of therapy in place of punishment as part of a plea
bargain.
2. There may be a negative effect on therapy when it is court-ordered. The
therapist must make regular reports to parole officers, judges, and child
protection workers and information given by the sex offender about other
victims or offenses must be reported. Langevin and Lang (1985) comment that
a therapist who serves both as helper-therapist and as informer for the
law becomes a "double agent."
3. However, few sex offenders voluntarily seek treatment.
I. Treatment for deniers.
1.The requirement of a threshold admission of guilt may prevent both actual
perpetrators and innocent people from being able to progress in resolution
of their individual situations.
2. An indeterminate number of people found by the family or criminal courts
to be child sexual abusers are, in fact, innocent.
3. When an accused person who is actually innocent enters treatment with
the hope of eventually having a relationship with his children or of benefiting
from therapy, it can be disastrous.
4. Failure to admit abuse can result in termination of parental rights in
the United States.
5. Therefore, it is important to find a way to provide treatment to individuals
who deny.
6. Maletzky (1996a) developed a cognitive-behavioral group and individual
program for deniers.
a. Just over 60% who entered treatment completely denying admitted something
by the end of their program.
b. Group was more effective at producing this verbal change than was individual.
c. The men who made this verbal change were somewhat more successful in
treatment than those who did not.
d. Men who admitted crimes at entry into treatment were more successful
than those who denied.
e. The vast majority of men who did not admit, yet completed the program
were successful at not relapsing.
f. Men in total denial who completed the program were overwhelmingly safer
to be at large than those who admitted but did not complete treatment.
Conclusion
The experience of the United States in pursuing the noble goal of reducing
the frequency of adults savaging little children can be of assistance to
other nations. The flaws and mistakes in the system developed in the US
can be avoided and the strengths demonstrated can be expanded and increased.
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