Childhood Sexual Abuse

In the last decade, the concern about the sexual abuse of children in the United States has intensified. During the 1980's, researchers, professionals and the general public came to realize the magnitude of this problem of sexual abuse. Initially, there was primarily a concern for girls, but over time there became more acknowledgment of a vast amount of boys that were also victimized (Turner, 1996). Currently in the United States, one out of three females and one out of five males have been victims of sexual abuse before the age of 18 years (Dominguez, Nelke, and Perry, 2002). Children who…