NCJ Number
208369
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 26 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2002 Pages: 55-71
Editor(s)
John M. Leventhal
Date Published
January 2002
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study examined the consequences of love-bargaining strategies or “soft” perpetrator strategies compared to those involving force among sexually abused girls in Switzerland.
Abstract
This study attempted to determine the prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA) and its long-term effects in a sample of women in Switzerland. Specifically, the study examined specific strategies used by the perpetrator including: love-bargaining or force and the consequences of using either strategy on the victims. Participants were selected from the German speaking areas of Switzerland with the representative sample consisting of 980 women, aged 20 to 40 years old. Results indicated that 39.8 percent of the women reported having experienced one or more abusive sexual episodes before age 16. When differentiating for the degree of severity, the results showed that 14.7 percent were severely abused before the age of 16. The average age at onset of the abuse was 11.2 years. The study also showed that the use of strategies involving affection, either actively or passively, had a stronger effect than those based on force. Factors on the part of the victim that were found to have consequences were self-blaming at the time of the acts and the need for affections as a motivation for tolerating long periods of abuse. It was shown that sexual abuse in which a central role was played by a love-bargaining strategy or a need for affection on the part of the child had negative consequences in the form of a diminished state of psychosomatic well-being in general and an increased depressivity in particular. References