NCJ Number
152077
Journal
Journal of Child Sexual Abuse Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Dated: (1994) Pages: 21-36
Date Published
1994
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article identifies environmental and psychodynamic contexts conducive to questionable allegations of child sexual abuse and suggests ways in which clinicians can determine the validity of such allegations.
Abstract
This paper begins with a discussion of environmental circumstances conducive to questionable allegations of child sexual abuse, such as previously determined invalid cases, continuously symptomatic children, and litigated cases. The author next considers conditions related to the involved children: problems with trusting the evaluator, ongoing psychological accommodation to the molester, need for rapid decisionmaking with a well-defended child, the child's amnesia, a child unconcerned about sex abuse, and entrenched psychopathology. Ways to improve the clinical pursuit of questionable allegations of child sexual abuse are offered. They include seeing the child and parents over a longer time period, intensifying the focus on family and molester-child dynamics, and ascertaining the current family milieu that promotes nondisclosure of sexual abuse. Overall, the author concludes that the passage of time and the child's outpouring of spontaneous communications are the evaluator's best allies in determining whether sexual abuse has occurred; unwarranted, questionable, and uncertain allegations of child sexual abuse many not be easily discerned in two or three clinical sessions. Clinicians should listen closely to the child and take their time in forming an opinion about whether sexual abuse has occurred. 11 case examples and 15 references