Child Sexual Abuse Images Online: Confronting the Problem

This Special Issue stems from the international symposium, “Child Sexual Abuse Images Online: Confronting the Problem—Research, Policy, Practice,” which was held at Ryerson University in June 2014 with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The collection of papers in the Issue focus on child sexual abuse images online from the perspectives of children's mental health, child protection, and law enforcement. The symposium brought together local and international academics, policymakers, child advocates, practitioners, law enforcement officers, child welfare workers, and other key stakeholders who assume various roles and responsibilities in responding to child sexual abuse. Over two days we shared knowledge, experiences, and insights related to the role of technology in child sexual abuse; specifically the implications of child sexual abuse images online. Through presentations, panel discussions, and round-table working group discussions, participants examined and shared current knowledge about child sexual abuse images online, identified key priorities, and determined critical strategies and vital next steps. The five articles in this Special Issue represent those cross-sectoral contributions. We thank the Editors of Child & Youth Services, Dr. Kiaras Gharabaghi and Dr. Ben Anderson-Nathe, for inviting us to develop a Special Issue for this journal based on the presentations made at the 2014 CSAIO Symposium. We also thank our external reviewers through whom all articles in this Issue were subjected to a rigorous blind peer review.     

Factors Contributing to False Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse in Custody Disputes

This paper describes the mechanisms and psychodynamics underlying the increasingly observed phenomenon of false or unsubstantiated allegations of child sexual abuse initiated during child custody disputes. Misinterpretation of normal caretaking practices involvmg physical or affectionate contact between parent and child during bathing, toileting, dressing, hugging, or kissing is often at the core of the abuse allegation. This article reviews a number of possible situations involving false allegations and the impact on the children and families involved.     

Going Through the Rites of Passage: Timing and Transition of Menarche,Childhood Sexual Abuse,and Anxiety Symptoms in Girls

Menarche is a discrete, transitional event that holds considerable personal, social, biological, and developmental significance. The present longitudinal study examined both the transition and timing of menarche on the trajectory of anxiety in girls with histories of childhood maltreatment (N = 93; 63% European American, 14% multiracial, 10% Latino, 9% African American, and 4% Native American). We hypothesized that because menarche is a novel, unfamiliar experience, girls would show greater anxiety around the time of menarche. The anxiety-provoking nature of menarche may be accentuated among earlier-maturing girls and girls with histories of childhood sexual abuse. Results indicated that earlier-maturing girls were more anxious in the pre- and peri-menarche periods than their later-maturing peers; however, their anxiety declined after menarche. Childhood sexual abuse was associated with heightened anxiety throughout this transition. The developmental significance of the timing and transition of menarche in relation to childhood sexual abuse and anxiety is discussed.     

False and Unsubstantiated Sexual Abuse Allegations:

Since the "discovery" of sexual abuse in the late 1970s there has been a steady rise of sexual abuse allegations. The rate of false positives in sexual abuse allegations has been estimated to be 2-8%. More than 65% of all current reports of suspected child maltreatment (physical and sexual) are assessed to be unsubstantiated. This paper discusses the clinical, cultural, and legal causes and presentations of false positive, false negative, and unsubstantiated allegations of sexual abuse.     

The Role of Child Sexual Abuse Images in Coercive and Non-Coercive Relationships with Adolescents: A Thematic Review of the Literature

The objective of this article is to present a thematic review of literature that pertains to the role of child sexual abuse images in online coercive and non-coercive relationships with adolescents, synthesize and contextualize current research on this topic, and identify some of the complexities in the self-production of sexual images by adolescents and their potential use by offenders. This review examines why there is a trend for child abuse image production to be increasingly associated with adolescent self-produced sexual images and how this may be related to individual coercion, as well as changing social and Internet contexts. Practitioners need to understand the technological and social affordances offered by the Internet, particularly in relation to the ability to produce sexual images, as part of a more ecological approach to understanding online abuse and exploitation.     

Unfounded Allegations of Child Abuse in the United Kingdom:

Until recently, little attention had been paid to foster carers as potential abusers. While this paucity of research is being corrected, an additional problem has now emerge in the form of allegations of abuse against foster carers which subsequently turn out to be without foundation. This paper will report on a survey of foster parents in the United Kingdom who were investigated for child abuse and neglect. Topics discussed will include how allegations were made, how foster parents responded to allegations, and ways in which the sensitivity and efficacy of the investigations could be improved.     

Child Abuse and Neglect Reports in Foster Care:

This chapter discusses "false" allegations of child maltreatment in family foster care. What is a "false" report and who reports "falsely" is considered. Foster parent beliefs, experiences and needs are reviewed in relation to how agencies respond when abuse is alleged. Areas of needed change are proposed.     

Responding to Reports of Child Abuse and Neglect

This paper examines screening and substantiation practices in CPS intake and investigation. The authors note a large degree of variation in screening practices. In the context of false allegations, they note that most reports of maltreatment are specific, and those that are not specific or do not allege maltreatment are generally not investigated.     

Disrupting Identity through Visible Therapy: A Feminist Post-structuralist Approach to Working with Women Who Have Experienced Child Sexual Abuse

This article draws on feminism and post-structuralism to theorize a narrative framework for developing and critiquing therapeutic practices with women who have experienced child sexual abuse. I argue that both objectivism and relativism provide poor guides for conducting therapy and that it is only through situating our knowledges precisely that more liberatory therapy practices may be developed. This approach, termed ‘visible therapy’, is used to directly and explicitly challenge normative constructions of women, child sexual abuse and therapy. I argue that it is necessary to explicate the embedded assumptions produced through practices of abuse, and which serve to construct children's experiences of that abuse, in order to ward against their reproduction within therapy relationships. I demonstrate that it is through situating and explicating the operations of power that the authenticity of experience and identity may be questioned and women's ongoing positioning as guilty victims may be challenged. Thus, I am concerned not with who women ‘really are’ but with how they come to know and be known through practices of both abuse and therapy. This, then, is about making the tactics of abuse and therapy visible. Problems are not located within individuals, but rather within the narratives which situate both past and current relationships but which, through reiteration, obscure their own social production. I conclude that it is only when categorical identity is no longer assumed that progressive therapy practices with women who have been sexually abused can be developed and maintained.     

Reactions of Boys and Girls to Sexual Abuse and to Sexual Encounters with Peers

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - To understand the etiology and consequences of child sexual abuse it is important to study the victims’ subjective reactions to such incidents. Because...     

Coping Alone: Examining the Prospects of Adolescent Victims of Child Abuse Placed in Foster Care

The ability of a young person to cope effectively with stressful life events appears to be associated with their previous experiences and relationships. Young people in foster care who have histories of child abuse, therefore, may find they cannot cope effectively with the situation they find themselves in. This paper attempts to highlight the problems they face. A group of 21 young people were interviewed and were asked to complete the Frydenberg and Lewis Adolescent Coping Scales. Their social workers provided information on their past history both in care and prior to coming in to care. It emerged that the young people who had experienced physical and/or sexual abuse were significantly (p < 0.02) more likely to be/have been involved in problem, or Crisis, foster placements. Additionally these young people displayed less adaptive coping strategies than the young people who had not been abused. The most significant differences indicated that the victims of abuse were more likely to try and cope with stressful situations by themselves, while the other foster adolescents were significantly (p < 0.004) more likely to find support from their friends. Case studies, with reference to the teenager's own accounts, help to illustrate how a history of abuse can complicate the already difficult fostering processes, and can also affect the long-term coping abilities of the victims. The consequences of these issues are discussed.