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[p.87] Inevitably the picture presented by such a subjective assessment is the popularly accepted cliche of an innocent child harmed irreparably by the wayward behavior of a mentally unbalanced adult. No account appears to be taken of the degree of co-operation given by the child to his adult seducer, nor of the effects of any such co-operation on his subsequent psycho-sexual development.
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[p.89] For many children the legal proceedings involved in the commital of the offender may have a singularly traumatic effect. Coming as they do months after the actual offense, and frequently involving the child in giving evidence and being subjected to cross examination, they may seem more frightening to the child than the experience itself. As Reifen has observed: "Sometimes, it is only the Court appearance and cross-examination which make him realise that he was the victim of a sexual offence."
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[p.168] Finally, the problem of subsequent trauma must be considered. Most follow-up studies of child sex assault crimes agree in viewing the sexual trauma as incidental to the development of any deviant personality characteristics observed later (Rasmussen, Bender and Grugett).
Most children so involved make an adequate personality adjustment: only a few of the more disturbed children for whom the sexual acting-out was undoubtedly symptomatic of a general disintegration of personality, make a poor adjustment.
This study substantiates this viewpoint. There was no evidence in the T.A.T. themes of an excessive anxiety or fear of violence or injury. Only one tendency, to unsettledness and unforthcomingness, appeared more frequently in children whose assault had taken place only a short while before the test. This syndrome expressing as it does the child's defensiveness against new situations and strange people is completely understandable in the circumstances. It might be accounted for by the shock of the offense or by the more general environmental disturbance resulting from its discovery. As a characteristic of the group it appears to wane with time. Except for the significant difference to be observed in affection seeking behavior, as a group sexually assaulted children did not differ in degree or type of unsettledness from a carefully matched control group, when tested on average three years after the assault.
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[p.169] The suggestion is therefore made that seuxal assault of children does not have particularly detrimental effects on the child's subsequent personality development. Given greater affection - by parents, following the event, or by others in the child's environment - the need of affection, which may well have predisposed the child to this form of sexual acting-out, will be outgrown, and affection seeking preoccupations assume a more normal part in the economy of the child's personality.