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'''Child Sexual Abuse''' is a term used to describe non-consensual or coerced sexual activity with children. It is typically distinguished from rape by its manipulative and/or recurring nature. In other words, rape is generally considered to be a one-time, often violent (or threatened with violence) act of forceful sex, whereas child sexual abuse is generally considered to be an ongoing series of unwanted sexual interactions gained through manipulation or other forms of subtle coercion ranging from emotional blackmail to bribes.
{{Template:Ac}}__NOTOC__'''Child Sexual Abuse''' (CSA) is a taxonomic term used in academic literature to distinguish most [[minor-adult sex]] as a separate category with unique and innate harmful properties. It was popularized by American [[moral entrepreneur]]s and [[Sexual Abuse|sexual abuse]]/trauma theorists of the late 1970s and early 80s. This influence, has since percolated throughout western culture, law, medicine and other sciences such as psychology. While modern CSA theory is arguably rooted in [[Feminism|feminist]] critiques of power-difference, it also owes a lot to long-held conceptions of childhood as a unique and special period of life, and moral/religious views on sexuality as a topic which can be analyzed and governed through the lens of "valid" and "invalid" subtypes. Much of the early amplification of CSA-adjacent discourse can be ascribed to religious and moral entrepreneurs such as [[Judianne Densen-Gerber]] and [[Lawrence Padzer]].<ref>http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume18/j18_4.htm</ref>


==Current Usage==
Since the conception of CSA, a generalized [[moral panic]] has ensued, peaking with a variety of more specific mass hysterias (such as [[Satanic Ritual Abuse]] in the 80s/90s), and continuity themes ([[Institutional Child Sexual Abuse]] in the 00s and 10s). This moral panic is one of three distinguishable panics concerning adult-youth sexual contacts since the industrial revolution, and we are at the beginning of a fourth.


These distinctions in the usage of the term, which were historically more clearly demarcated, have in the last few decades become blurred to the point where it is no longer possible to be sure what kind of acts took place with any term. With the move during the eighties, spearheaded by victim's rights groups and certain feminist organization, to blur the lines between (for example) violent rape and slightly different behaviours such as "date rape," "statutory rape," and even simple day-after regrets, many people use the terms "child sexual abuse," "child molestation" and "rape" interchangeably. Proponents of this melding of terms indicate that it helps us to see unwanted sexual acts of all types for what they really are--that is, acts of coercive sex--and to avoid minimizing the seriousness of certain acts simply because they may not have involved overt physical violence.
===Sociological Background===


Despite the definition (and assumptions that literal-minded speakers would make about the term "abuse"), in current usage, very rarely is the issue of consent or coercion relevant to the term any more. That is to say, given the modern assumption that no child is capable of consenting to sexual activity, any instance of sex with a child is considered child sexual abuse, regardless whether or not the child consented, desired or even sought the act.
As applied to Minor Attracted People (particularly [[pedophilia|pedophiles]]), CSA represents a key development in the late pathologization and early problematization stages of the problem-cycle:


As such, the term can now be used to apply to any interaction with a child that has, or can be interpreted by others to have, sexual overtones, regardless of the desires of the child. In this vein the term is used by some as interchangeable with "pedophilia."
'''1. Identification''' (turn of 19th/20th Century) > '''2. Pathologization''' (20th Century, inc. postwar era) > '''''3. Problematization''''' (explosion of discourses and taxonomies, late 70s+) > '''4. Normalization''' (starting early 21st Century).


==Real Child Sexual Abuse==
As each stage has corresponded roughly to a specific panic, this would seem to imply that we are due a moral panic over the [[MAPocalypse|normalization of pedophilia]].


The fact that many people use the term to cover situations which no longer bear any reference to the consent of the child should not be used to discount the seriousness of acts of "real" child sexual abuse, that is, abuse which fulfils the first definition of the term given above: non-consensual or coerced sexual activity. Listeners and readers of the term today are often caught in the delicate position of having to decide between two conflicting assumptions: that the "child sexual abuse" wasn't really a harmful act, and risk ignoring the needs of a child who has truly been victimized, or that the abuse was a harmful coercive act, and risk ignoring the desires of a child who willingly consented in a mutually beneficial relationship. This lack of precision is a distressing consequence of the aforementioned blurring of terms.
==Empirical Invalidity==


Victims of genuine non-consensual or coercive sex acts often need counselling and suffer from serious psychological after-effects from their ordeals in exactly the same way that adult rape victims can. It is important that children in this position receive the help they need, and it is also important that the perpetrators of such acts are identified in order to prevent them from harming other children.
A large, but not yet critical number of experts now hold that the concept of CSA is [[Research: Prevalence of Harm and Negative Outcomes|empirically invalid]] and [[Research: Methodological flaws and syndrome construction|pseudoscientific]]. This view is also unsurprisingly held by a number of [[Minor Attracted People]] and is also sometimes expressed in a round-about way by laypersons - particularly those who lived long before contemporary CSA panics. This article will argue from such a position.


Unfortunately, the same lack of precision in current usage sometimes means that children who consented to mutually desired sexual acts are often treated as though they were victims and in many cases, after the fact, come to believe it. Likewise, the adults involved in such interactions are treated exactly as if they were violent rapists as well, suggesting that in the long term, the treatment of consensual acts as synonymous with non-consensual ones leads to many of the same consequences as a genuine non-consensual act, except that the consequences are now iatrogenic in origin.
===Orthodoxy===


==Child Molestation==
Notwithstanding the lack of scientific support for such a theory, CSA has attained the status of a monolithic ''belief system'', or orthodoxy that may not be challenged, even by personal experiences contradicting its narrative. As well as causing pre and post-conditioned harms via [[Research: Secondary Harm|social stigmatization]] and [[Special Article: Adverse effects of hysteria|legal processing]], the dangers of CSA as a belief system also extend to unprosecuted sexual interactions believed to be consensual and non-traumatic when they took place. Consider for example, a person - male or female, who had a voluntary contact with an older person at the age of 12, and is now an adult. In most western cultures, they are left with '''two options''':


Child molestation is any action that violates a legal prohibition against sexual contact with children. Some applicable laws specifically use the term child molestation, while other laws use various terms such as lewd and lascivious acts or sexual conduct with a minor.
*1. '''Stay silent''', and ''assimilate society's shame'', as their experiences are deemed to have been ''invalid''.
*2. '''Speak out''', only to incur the full wrath of a ''shameful society'' expressing its insecurity by casting them as a victim, liar or heretic. All at the risk of incriminating their ex-partner.


Some jurisdictions prohibit contact with certain areas of a child's body (such as the genitals), but make exceptions for situations such as medical examinations or bathing. Other jurisdictions have chosen to focus on motivations rather than specific actions. Those areas tend to have laws that prohibit any contact with a child when it is believed that the contact is for the purpose of sexual gratification.
Despite a [[Research: Association or Causation|complete lack of proof for a causative chain]] in the [[intrinsic harm|harms supposedly ''intrinsic'' to CSA]], and evidence of [[Rind et al|widespread neutral and positive recall]] of events deemed to be abusive, official bodies and lawmakers continue to irresponsibly perpetuate the associated social stigmas and harms under the proviso of protecting the vulnerable.


Laws of the latter category are often considered to be more onerous, since they require a judge or a jury to make a determination about the defendant's motives, rather than simply to decide whether or not the defendant touched a particular part of the child's body.
===Theoretical hubris===


A man in California was imprisoned under the state's motivation-based child molestation law for sucking on a boy's toes. While his conduct was clearly very sexualized and arguably inappropriate, the decision nonetheless raised concern among many boylovers, since the man's actions did not involve any contact with the traditional "private parts." More alarming still was the testimony of one expert witness in the trial, who suggested that a person could be subconsciously sexually aroused while touching a child, thereby committing a crime without even being aware of it.
CSA is used to describe nearly all sexual activity between adults and considerably younger minors; that is to say it has "universality" in both the subject matter it describes and the characteristics it ascribes to said subject matter. According to some [[American]] [[Psychiatry|psychiatrists]], even activities such as being naked in the presence of a child (deemed normative in some parts of Europe and the non-western world) are counted as abusive.  


===Incidence in pedophile and non-pedophile populations===
CSA is (sometimes) distinguished from [[rape]] by its "manipulative" and/or recurring nature. In other words, whilst rape is generally considered to be a violent act of forceful sex, child sexual abuse, when distinguished from rape, is considered to be an ongoing series of unwanted sexual interactions gained through ''manipulation or [[grooming]]'' - forms of subtle coercion ranging from flattery through emotional blackmail, to bribes. However, most academia and legal systems are prone to describing any age-disparate sexual activity below a certain age as rape. This tendency is similar to the idea of [[statutory rape]] (as applied to older teens), but in this case the acts are held to be ethically indistinguishable from one another - and thus the concept of all such activity as rape or assault becomes an axiom. This blurring of language has also infected the media, professional bodies and NGOs.


In the United States, the incidence of child molestation crimes has been estimated at a rate of 6.25 crimes per 1000 individuals per year for the population of pedophile males (or minor-attracted males; sources are not clear on this), and 1.5 crimes per 1000 individuals per year for the population of heterosexual males. This is approximately equal to the divergence in rape statistics between African-American and Caucasian males.[http://www.boychat.org/messages/1004474.htm]
As a result, any distinctions in the usage of the term (historically more clearly demarcated) have in the last few decades become increasingly blurred. For example, when reading a generic local news report, it is no longer possible to be sure what kind of "abusive" acts actually took place - leaving the reader to speculate as to the horrors described as sexual assault, or indeed rape. With the victim-oriented feminist and lesbian push to blur the lines between violent rape, "date rape", "statutory rape" and even regretted encounters during the eighties and following decades, many people now sadly use terms such as "child sexual abuse", "child molestation", "pedophilia" and "rape" interchangeably.
 
Opponents of this blurring of boundaries argue that lumping these categories together undermines severe abuse and punishes misdemeanor/non-abusive acts, thus doing a disservice to parties with a range of experiences, from the positive, thru the forgettable, to the profoundly traumatic. Indeed, despite the actual definition and literal implications of the term "abuse", very rarely is the issue of [[consent]] or coercion relevant to the term's modern use. That is to say, given the assumption that no child is capable of consenting to sexual activity, any instance of sex with a child is considered child sexual abuse, regardless whether or not the child consented, [[Accounts and Testimonies|desired or even sought the act]].
 
[[File:Cycle.png|thumb|Charting the cycles of panic]]
 
==Timeline of a panic==
 
:''See: [[Moral panic]].''
 
The broader moral panic surrounding behaviors now defined as CSA took place in four distinct phases. In the Victorian Era and following decades, panic set in around the purity of young girls, with crackdowns on prostitution. While not highly influential at the time, the sciences started the process of pathologizing and categorizing deviant forms of sexuality. Then between the 30s and 50s, the state focused on the sexual psychopath and stepped up its legal efforts against homosexuals and gender nonconformists. From the mid-70s, children took center stage - in a phase of problematization that remains partly in effect. From around 2020, a fourth phase began, concerning the ''normalization'' of the "[[Minor Attracted Person]]" and his purported modes of deviance.
 
==Is there real CSA?==
 
It can not be denied that some seriously harmful acts do involve both coercion and genital contact, so in essence, they are both ''sexual'' (in the conventional, erogenous sense) and ''abusive''. However, as already explained, stigma/[[iatrogenesis]] is the source of all harms exceeding [[intrinsic harm|intrinsic physical and psychological traumas]], meaning the "CSA category" is in essence a completely unwarranted "''nativization''" of cultural baggage. As repeatedly identified by [[Bruce Rind]], erotophobia and antisexualism (morality) is assimilated into the scientific and public discourse, resulting in a series of absurd [[Debate Guide: Cognitive ability = consent|pseudo-objective ethical circulars]]. These circular arguments live-real, as a series of [[self-fulfilling prophecy|self-fulfilling prophecies]] such as the consenting juvenile (often a female) who goes on to earnestly believe she is a victim of rape, due to misogynistic sex stigma. It is perhaps this unfortunate circumstance that is best described as ''real sexual abuse'', since the resulting moral conflicts are capitalized upon by power-hungry elites and special-interest lobbies, ''at the expense'' of a person's capacity to feel erotic pleasure.
 
==Debunking CSA as a concept==
 
*[[Bruce Rind]] is perhaps the one researcher who has statistically challenged the concept of CSA<ref>http://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/reg_r.htm Ipce - Rind Index</ref> with a thorough, controlled analysis of its assumed characteristics and their relationships with one another.
 
==See also==
 
*[[Research]] - A portal containing many references on CSA.
*:[[Research: Prevalence of Harm and Negative Outcomes]]
*:[[Research: Secondary Harm]]
*:[[Research: Association or Causation]]
*[[David Finkelhor]] - A key proponent of CSA as a concept (and axiom).
*[[List of obfuscatory terms used by authorities]]
*[[Child Pornography]] - Laws and research on the true nature of Child Pornography are linked.
*[[Minor-adult sex]]
 
==External Links==
 
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sexual_abuse CSA] - [[Wikipedia censorship of MAP related topics|Wikipedia]] presents a victimological perspective.
*[https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jan/03/paedophilia-bringing-dark-desires-light?INTCMP=SRCH John Henley in The Guardian - Paedophilia: bringing dark desires to light] - Distinguishes Pedophilia from CSA and challenges the outcomes of CSA.
 
==References==
 
[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: Academic]][[Category:Terminology: Popular]][[Category:Research]][[Category:Research into effects on Children]][[Category:Research: Victimology and other Pseudoscience]][[Category:History & Events]][[Category:History & Events: American]][[Category:History & Events: 1970s]][[Category:History & Events: 1980s]][[Category:History & Events: 1990s]][[Category:History & Events: Real Crime]]

Latest revision as of 16:50, 31 March 2024

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Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is a taxonomic term used in academic literature to distinguish most minor-adult sex as a separate category with unique and innate harmful properties. It was popularized by American moral entrepreneurs and sexual abuse/trauma theorists of the late 1970s and early 80s. This influence, has since percolated throughout western culture, law, medicine and other sciences such as psychology. While modern CSA theory is arguably rooted in feminist critiques of power-difference, it also owes a lot to long-held conceptions of childhood as a unique and special period of life, and moral/religious views on sexuality as a topic which can be analyzed and governed through the lens of "valid" and "invalid" subtypes. Much of the early amplification of CSA-adjacent discourse can be ascribed to religious and moral entrepreneurs such as Judianne Densen-Gerber and Lawrence Padzer.[1]

Since the conception of CSA, a generalized moral panic has ensued, peaking with a variety of more specific mass hysterias (such as Satanic Ritual Abuse in the 80s/90s), and continuity themes (Institutional Child Sexual Abuse in the 00s and 10s). This moral panic is one of three distinguishable panics concerning adult-youth sexual contacts since the industrial revolution, and we are at the beginning of a fourth.

Sociological Background

As applied to Minor Attracted People (particularly pedophiles), CSA represents a key development in the late pathologization and early problematization stages of the problem-cycle:

1. Identification (turn of 19th/20th Century) > 2. Pathologization (20th Century, inc. postwar era) > 3. Problematization (explosion of discourses and taxonomies, late 70s+) > 4. Normalization (starting early 21st Century).

As each stage has corresponded roughly to a specific panic, this would seem to imply that we are due a moral panic over the normalization of pedophilia.

Empirical Invalidity

A large, but not yet critical number of experts now hold that the concept of CSA is empirically invalid and pseudoscientific. This view is also unsurprisingly held by a number of Minor Attracted People and is also sometimes expressed in a round-about way by laypersons - particularly those who lived long before contemporary CSA panics. This article will argue from such a position.

Orthodoxy

Notwithstanding the lack of scientific support for such a theory, CSA has attained the status of a monolithic belief system, or orthodoxy that may not be challenged, even by personal experiences contradicting its narrative. As well as causing pre and post-conditioned harms via social stigmatization and legal processing, the dangers of CSA as a belief system also extend to unprosecuted sexual interactions believed to be consensual and non-traumatic when they took place. Consider for example, a person - male or female, who had a voluntary contact with an older person at the age of 12, and is now an adult. In most western cultures, they are left with two options:

  • 1. Stay silent, and assimilate society's shame, as their experiences are deemed to have been invalid.
  • 2. Speak out, only to incur the full wrath of a shameful society expressing its insecurity by casting them as a victim, liar or heretic. All at the risk of incriminating their ex-partner.

Despite a complete lack of proof for a causative chain in the harms supposedly intrinsic to CSA, and evidence of widespread neutral and positive recall of events deemed to be abusive, official bodies and lawmakers continue to irresponsibly perpetuate the associated social stigmas and harms under the proviso of protecting the vulnerable.

Theoretical hubris

CSA is used to describe nearly all sexual activity between adults and considerably younger minors; that is to say it has "universality" in both the subject matter it describes and the characteristics it ascribes to said subject matter. According to some American psychiatrists, even activities such as being naked in the presence of a child (deemed normative in some parts of Europe and the non-western world) are counted as abusive.

CSA is (sometimes) distinguished from rape by its "manipulative" and/or recurring nature. In other words, whilst rape is generally considered to be a violent act of forceful sex, child sexual abuse, when distinguished from rape, is considered to be an ongoing series of unwanted sexual interactions gained through manipulation or grooming - forms of subtle coercion ranging from flattery through emotional blackmail, to bribes. However, most academia and legal systems are prone to describing any age-disparate sexual activity below a certain age as rape. This tendency is similar to the idea of statutory rape (as applied to older teens), but in this case the acts are held to be ethically indistinguishable from one another - and thus the concept of all such activity as rape or assault becomes an axiom. This blurring of language has also infected the media, professional bodies and NGOs.

As a result, any distinctions in the usage of the term (historically more clearly demarcated) have in the last few decades become increasingly blurred. For example, when reading a generic local news report, it is no longer possible to be sure what kind of "abusive" acts actually took place - leaving the reader to speculate as to the horrors described as sexual assault, or indeed rape. With the victim-oriented feminist and lesbian push to blur the lines between violent rape, "date rape", "statutory rape" and even regretted encounters during the eighties and following decades, many people now sadly use terms such as "child sexual abuse", "child molestation", "pedophilia" and "rape" interchangeably.

Opponents of this blurring of boundaries argue that lumping these categories together undermines severe abuse and punishes misdemeanor/non-abusive acts, thus doing a disservice to parties with a range of experiences, from the positive, thru the forgettable, to the profoundly traumatic. Indeed, despite the actual definition and literal implications of the term "abuse", very rarely is the issue of consent or coercion relevant to the term's modern use. That is to say, given the assumption that no child is capable of consenting to sexual activity, any instance of sex with a child is considered child sexual abuse, regardless whether or not the child consented, desired or even sought the act.

Charting the cycles of panic

Timeline of a panic

See: Moral panic.

The broader moral panic surrounding behaviors now defined as CSA took place in four distinct phases. In the Victorian Era and following decades, panic set in around the purity of young girls, with crackdowns on prostitution. While not highly influential at the time, the sciences started the process of pathologizing and categorizing deviant forms of sexuality. Then between the 30s and 50s, the state focused on the sexual psychopath and stepped up its legal efforts against homosexuals and gender nonconformists. From the mid-70s, children took center stage - in a phase of problematization that remains partly in effect. From around 2020, a fourth phase began, concerning the normalization of the "Minor Attracted Person" and his purported modes of deviance.

Is there real CSA?

It can not be denied that some seriously harmful acts do involve both coercion and genital contact, so in essence, they are both sexual (in the conventional, erogenous sense) and abusive. However, as already explained, stigma/iatrogenesis is the source of all harms exceeding intrinsic physical and psychological traumas, meaning the "CSA category" is in essence a completely unwarranted "nativization" of cultural baggage. As repeatedly identified by Bruce Rind, erotophobia and antisexualism (morality) is assimilated into the scientific and public discourse, resulting in a series of absurd pseudo-objective ethical circulars. These circular arguments live-real, as a series of self-fulfilling prophecies such as the consenting juvenile (often a female) who goes on to earnestly believe she is a victim of rape, due to misogynistic sex stigma. It is perhaps this unfortunate circumstance that is best described as real sexual abuse, since the resulting moral conflicts are capitalized upon by power-hungry elites and special-interest lobbies, at the expense of a person's capacity to feel erotic pleasure.

Debunking CSA as a concept

  • Bruce Rind is perhaps the one researcher who has statistically challenged the concept of CSA[2] with a thorough, controlled analysis of its assumed characteristics and their relationships with one another.

See also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume18/j18_4.htm
  2. ↑ http://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/reg_r.htm Ipce - Rind Index
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