Kathleen Coulborn Faller

Women who sexually abuse children

This article describes a clinical sample of 40 women who sexually abused 63 children. Sixty percent of the female perpetrators victimized two or more children. Almost three-fourths of these women sexually maltreated children in polyincestuous family situations. More than four-fifths were mothers to at least one of their victims. The most common form of sexual activity was group sex; the next most common was fondling. The mean age of these women was a little over 26; they were poor and poorly educated. Their victims were also young, having a mean age of 6.4 years at the time the case was identified. About two-thirds of the victims were female and one-third were male. Female perpetrators evidenced marked difficulties in psychological and social functioning. About half had mental problems, both retardation and psychotic illness. More than half had chemical dependency problems, and close to three-fourths had maltreated their victims in other ways in addition to the sexual abuse.

The Characteristics of Disclosure among Children Who May have been Sexually Abused

Seventy-six children (5 to 10 years old), who were referred because of concerns about sexual abuse, were interviewed as part of a larger study testing the efficacy of a computerassisted interview in sexual abuse evaluations. Data from initial interviews were coded according to the presence of disclosure and the details revealed about sexual abuse. The presence and amount of corroboration were coded through case review. Although 56 children were coded as having disclosed prior to evaluation, only 44 subjects disclosed during the initial interview. Only 1 child disclosed spontaneously. An additional 8 children (11%) disclosed possible sexual abuse in a second or later interview. Although girls disclosed at a higher rate than boys, children did not differ in the amount or types of information they provided about alleged sexual abuse. Findings are discussed in terms of the conceptualization of disclosure as a process. Implications for interviewing strategies are addressed.

Why sexual abuse? An exploration of the intergenerational hypothesis

The issue of sexual abuse in the family backgrounds of offenders and mothers of victims is explored in a clinical sample of 154 cases of intrafamilial sexual abuse. More than a third of the offenders and about half of the mothers had experienced or been exposed to sexual abuse as children. Cases were divided into those where the sexual abuser was the biological father in an intact family, those where he was a stepfather or mothers live-in partner, and those where he was a noncustodial father. In biological father cases, parents were about equally likely to have experienced sexual abuse during childhood, in the stepfather/live-in partner cases, the mother was more likely to have had such an experience, and in the noncustodial father cases, the offender was more likely to have come from a sexually abusive family.

Characteristics of a clinical sample of sexually abused children: How boy and girl victims differ

The article describes a clinical sample of 87 boy victims of child sexual abuse and compares them to 226 girl victims. Boys were on average 6.3 years of age at onset of the sexual abuse; girls were 5.5 years. Boys were more likely to be victimized by someone outside the family than girls, but about two-thirds of the boys were abused by someone within the family. Male victims were more often abused by someone who sexually abused other children than were female victims. The majority of perpetrators were men; however girls were more likely than boys to be abused by men, and boys by both men and women. Only a small percentage of the offenders were women acting alone, but boys were more likely to be abused by women than girls. In addition, data on the role relationship between victim and offender and how these relationships differ for boy and girl victims are presented.

IS THE CHILD VICTIM OF SEXUAL ABUSE TELLING THE TRUTH

In order to adequately investigate an allegation of sexual abuse, professionals must both understand the motives of the victim, perpetrator, and victims mother (in incest cases) to lie or tell the truth and possess the techniques for examining the childs story. Children almost never make up stories about being sexually abused. In fact victims are often revictimized in multiple ways for truthfully asserting they have been sexually abused. Perpetrators usually deny their abusive behavior. Mothers may also have reasons for not acknowledging the sexual abuse. Within this larger framework, the evaluator should systematically explore the allegation in order to assure the story is true. First, in examining the story, the evaluator looks for a detailed description of events surrounding the sexual abuse, explicit information about sexual behavior told from a childs viewpoint, and an emotional response consistent with their statement. Second, the evaluator buttresses the information with other data: statements the child has made to other people about the sexual abuse; sexual content in the childs play, picture drawing or story telling; sexual behavior on the childs part; sexual knowledge beyond what one would expect for the childs age; and symptomatic behavior indicative of stress.

Child sexual abuse: a case study in community collaboration

OBJECTIVE This is an exploratory study that describes the process and outcomes of a Midwestern US communitys approach to case management of child sexual abuse. METHOD Data were abstracted from 323 criminal court files. Specific information gathered included child and suspect demographic data, law enforcement and CPS involvement, child disclosure patterns and caretaker responses, offender confession, offender plea, trial and child testimony information, and sentences received by offenders. Both case process and outcome variables were examined. RESULTS In this community, criminal court records reflect a sex offense confession rate of 64% and a sex offense plea rate of 70%. Only 15 cases went to trial and in six the offender was convicted. CONCLUSION Communities can achieve successful outcomes when criminal prosecution of sexual abuse is sought, but the childs testimony is not necessarily the centerpiece of a successful case. In this study, desired outcomes were a consequence of the collaborative efforts of law enforcement, CPS, and the prosecutors office, which resulted in a high confession and plea rate.

The parental alienation syndrome: what is it and what data support it?

This article describes the parental alienation syndrome, its proposed characteristics and dynamics, and the methods used to document its presence. Research related to various tenets of the parental alienation syndrome is then reviewed. Finally, the syndromes utility for mental health professionals and courts in explaining allegations of sexual abuse in situations of divorce is evaluated.

Unanticipated problems in the United States child protection system

While the United States child protection system is widely recognized as probably the most sophisticated and wide-ranging in the world, it nevertheless has some inherent problems. This article addresses some of the negative effects of mandatory reporting and the lack of fit of a short-term crisis intervention treatment approach for a substantial proportion of the protective services population. Reporting may have detrimental effects on the client-reporter relationship. Further, over half of the cases investigated are not substantiated. Of concern are the impact on innocent families of being investigated and the waste of scarce worker resources on investigation. While some protective services families are well suited to a crisis intervention model, a large number are multiproblem families who are always in crisis and families with chronic problems for whom crisis intervention is totally inadequate. Furthermore, because of high caseload size, workers are often not available to intervene after they have investigated the case. The problems described have been exacerbated by funding cutbacks under the current United States administration. The child protection system, along with other social welfare programs, is at risk for being dismantled by the Reagan administration.

Interviewing children who may have been abused: A historical perspective and overview of controversies.

This article provides a historical perspective on the practice of interviewing children in cases of alleged sexual abuse and current controversies about these interviews. The following controversies and related writing and research are discussed: (a) the ability of the interviewer to conduct a competent interview, (b) the competence of the child to describe actual events, (c) interview structure and process, and (d) decision making about the likelihood of sexual abuse.

The Spectrum of Sexual Abuse in Daycare: An Exploratory Study

Findings from an exploratory study of 48 children sexually abused in daycare centers and daycare homes are presented. About two thirds were female and one third male. Approximately half of victims were maltreated by a single perpetrator and about half by more than one perpetrator, in the latter instance almost always by both men and women. On average, the children were subjected to 5.3 types of sexual abuse, experienced 2.1 different sorts of threats to obtain their cooperation or prevent disclosure of their victimization, and suffered from 3.7 symptoms regarded as sequelae of sexual abuse. Differences in the characteristics of offenders, victims, the sexual abuse, threats, and sequelae were found based upon the daycare context, that is, whether children were victimized in a center with multiple perpetrators, a center with a single perpetrator, or a daycare home.