SEXUAL ABUSE

What is Child Sexual Abuse?

Child Sexual Abuse is the use of a child for sexual gratification by an older or more powerful person. The offender is usually an adult, but could also be a more powerful child. Both girls and boys are vulnerable. Besides being a public health concern, it is a crime punishable by law.

Definition of child sexual abuse

It is defined as “the imposition of sexual acts or acts with sexual overtones, by one or more persons on a child (under 18)”-Save the Children, CSA Draft policy. 

Child sexual abuse includes indecent touching, penetration and sexual torture as well as indecent exposure, using sexually explicit language towards a child and showing children pornographic material.  People sexually abusing children may have an emotional or professional relationship with the child, where they exploit their position of trust and power.  Children may also be sexually abused or exploited by abusers or third parties having a commercial or other exploitative interest in the child.

Touching behaviors include

• Fondling a child's body for sexual pleasure.
• Kissing a child with sexual undertones/inclinations.
• Rubbing genitals against a child's body.
• Sexually touching a child's body, and specifically private parts (breasts and genitals). Includes encouraging or forcing a child to do likewise.
• Making a child touch someone else's genitals, or playing sexual ("pants-down") games.
• Encouraging or forcing a child to masturbate, with the child as either a participant or observer.
• Encouraging or forcing a child to perform oral sex (mouth-to-genital contact on or by the child).
• Inserting objects or body parts (like fingers, tongue or penis) inside the vagina, mouth, or anus of a child; includes attempts of these acts.

Non-touching behaviors include

• Encouraging a child to watch or hear sexual acts either in person or lowering the bars of privacy.
• Looking at a child sexually.
• Exposing one's private body parts to a child (exhibitionism).
• Watching a child in a state of nudity, such as while undressing, using the bathroom, with or without the child's knowledge (voyeurism).
• An adult making suggestive comments to the child that are sexual in nature, or commenting on the sexual development of a child.
• Encouraging or forcing a child to read/watch pornography, giving pornographic material or using the child in pornography.

Immediate causes of CSA

• Lack of appropriate sex education for children (life skills).
• Availability of sex-sites on the internet.
• Denial/ignorance by adults about CSA.
• Adults’ attitudes towards children, social taboos, e.g. blaming the child.
• Inappropriate laws and ineffective implementation.
• Sexualisation of children in the media.
• Poverty, ignorance and low levels of education.

Root cause of CSA

• Lack of children’s participation in society at large.
• Patriarchal society.
• Unequal power relations.
• Overall violence in society, including violence against children.
• Unequal sexual relations between males and females, boys and girls.
• Stereotyped gender socialization.