Sexual Abuse

The SPH sexual abuse focuses on the child’s weakness to expose to any kind of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. While the EBPH definition placed an emphasis on sexual behaviours by an adult in authority, family relationship, or guardianship, it does not specify the different types of sexual acts. Additionally, it does not include strangers in their definition. Whereas the SCAN definition provides more details on the child’s exposure to any adult’s sexual activities, and classifies the illegal sexual activities. Similarly, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) definition includes three categories of sexual acts, sexual contact and exploitation. Sexual can be completed or non-completed; and involve physical contact, including penetration and oral sex. Sexual contact includes non-penetrative acts such as masturbation, kissing, rubbing and touching. Exploitation includes non-contact activities such as involving children in sexual activities by looking at sexual images, adults watching child sexual activities, and encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways (HM Government, 2010; Leeb, 2008).
Measurement of sexual abuse often relies on retrospective self-reports by   adolescents or adults. Population-based studies in high-income western countries, countries such as  Australia, New Zealand, Canad and the US, showed that between 5-10% of girls and 1-5% of boys had been exposed to penetrative sexual abuse during childhood, although figures on any form of sexual abuse are much higher (Fergusson and Mullen, 1999; Nelson et al., 2002). A UK study by Radford et Al. (2013) reported high rates of sexual assaults experiences, which involved all forms of sexual abuse, ranging from touching to rape, among 7.2% of females aged 11–17 years, and 18.6% of females aged 18–24 years assaulted during their childhood by an adult or peer that included physical contact. Andrews and colleagues (2004) conducted a meta-analysis of worldwide studies. Their established of the prevalence of childhood rates of 3.1% male, 6.8% female of non-contact sexual abuse, 3.7% boys, 13.2% girls experienced contact sexual abuse, 1.9% boys, 5.3% girls assaulted of penetrative sexual abuse, and 8.7% boys, 25.3% girls exposed to any sexual abuse. Despite the quality assessment of the included studies and the rating criteria of the meta-analysis, even these rates maybe underestimates for the methodological reasons discussed earlier. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services (2015), 9.0% of children who were less than 18 years old were sexually abused.
In relation to the impact of sexual abuse, a systematic review was conducted by Maniglio (2009) to investigate the literature between 1966 and 2008, on short- and long-term outcomes. The results showed that childhood sexual abuse survivors are significantly at risk for a wide range of problems; for instance, medical problems, which appeared as chronic non-cyclical pelvic pain, but not with menstrual pain (dysmenorrhoea); and sexual transmission of genital herpes. Non-epileptic seizures were significantly higher among  children with a history of sexual abuse. Results also indicated that there was a strong association between child sexual abuse and adult mental health disorders  such as borderline personality disorder and depression, anxiety, eating and post-traumatic stress disorders. as well as problems like Child victims are more likely to have early and often abusive sexual experiences, as well further sexual victimization and domestic abuse in adulthood. Although longitudinal studies have several advantages, they are resource-intensive, for which reason similar findings have been corroborated in retrospective studies by adults with these types of mental health disorders, and who had higher reported rates of sex abuse as children (Brewerton, 2007).