|
Radio New
Zealand
January 27 2002
Sunday Supplement
Anne Else
I’m becoming increasingly disturbed by the tone and content of what’s
appearing in the media in connection with the Christchurch Civic Creche
sexual abuse case. What drove me to talk about this on air was a review of a
recent book on the case.
The review referred to something called “the sexual abuse industry” as if the
existence of this strange entity was an established, unquestionable fact. But
what really worried me was a statement later on. It said that “immeasurably
more harm has been created by the overly zealous attempts to stamp out sexual
abuse than by the abuse itself, whether real or imagined.” I’ve heard other
people say similar things.
Now if real sexual abuse of real children does not do any real harm at all –
certainly nothing comparable to the harm done by those who try too hard to
stop it happening or continuing – then the implication is clear. Instead of
trying to detect it, stop it or prevent it, we should all just sit back and
let it happen. The risk of harm would then be much less.
Unfortunately, there is no lack of evidence for the enormous harm done by
sexual abuse of children. A number of highly reputable sources with
impeccable credentials have calmly and impartially set out the now extensive
research findings.
A survey paper from Australia’s
National Child Protection Clearing House sums up the research on long-term
effects. It concludes that in most cases, the fundamental damage done is to
the child's developing capacities for trust, intimacy, agency and sexuality.
Family background makes a difference: a child from a more secure and
privileged background may well be as distressed at the time by the abuse, but
is likely to sustain less long-term developmental damage, than a child who
has already had to cope with family problems.
But in some cases long-term damage does occur, regardless of family
background. Child sexual abuse involving penetration is a significant
predictor of sexual problems in adult life. It also appears to put adolescent
girls at greater risk of sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancy,
multiple sexual partnerships, and sexual revictimisation.
The long-term problems go well beyond sex. The paper’s authors cite three
studies reporting that a history of child sexual abuse is associated in adult
life with insecure and disorganised attachments, and another three reporting
increased rates of relationship breakdown.
A number of studies have implicated child sexual abuse in lowering self
esteem in adults. The most sophisticated showed a clear relationship between
poor self-esteem in adulthood and those who reported the more intrusive forms
of abuse in childhood. They had an increased expectation of unpleasant events
and a sense of inability to influence external events. And those abused as
children have a greater chance of a drop in their socioeconomic status as
adults, compared with their original family’s status.
Sexually abused children face not only an assault on their developing sense
of their sexual identity, but a blow to their construction of the world as a
safe enough environment, and their developing sense of others as trustworthy.
If the abuser is someone they had a close relationship with, the impact is likely
to be more profound.
Most child sexual abuse is not reported to any authority at the time, still
less are those responsible charged or convicted.
The authors conclude, very mildly and calmly, by saying the idea “that
experiences of sexual abuse, particularly when repeated or when involving a
breach of what should be a caring and protecting relationship, leave no
residual damage seems an inherently unlikely proposition.”
So whatever you believe about the Christchurch Civic Creche case – and as the
Commissioner for Children pointed out, that conviction was the result of a
lengthy legal process, involving ten judges and two appeals – please don’t
trivialise child sexual abuse or deny the immense harm that it does. And
please do protest when you hear someone else doing this.
References
Review by Michael Corballis of A City Possessed, by Lynley Hood, NZ
Listener, 26/1/02
Long-term effects of child
sexual abuse by Paul E. Mullen and Jillian Fleming (Issues Paper no.9,
1998, National Child Protection Clearing House, Australia)
|
