CSA Accommodation Syndrome

Part of NewgonWiki's series on Academia
[show]Research topics   NewgonWiki Research Project [show]Academics (present)   Angelides, Graupner, Tromovitch, Walker Andersson, Butler, Breslow, Rubin Kershnar, Singer, Rind, Janssen, Smith Hubbard, Horii, Herdt, Edelman, Loftus Cleves, Syrett, Arce Vidal, Thompson Žižek, Sandfort, McCartan, White Goldhill Sinason, Abel, Malesky, Finkelhor [show]Academics (inactive)   Leahy, Dowsett, Sikes, Califia, Gieles Yuill, Kincaid, Paglia, Williams, Langfeldt Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg, Schultz, Kennedy Sax, Farrell, Best, Jenkins, Ullerstam C. K. Li, Okami, Kilpatrick, Dannecker Lautmann, Durber, Schmidt De Young, Dallam, Jackson [show]Academics (historical)   Reich, Foucault, Kinsey, Percy Sonenschein, Faust, Foster, Mader Hekma, Martinson, Bullough, Bernard Johansson, Hocquenghem, De Cecco Schérer, Kentler, Sigusch, Baurmann Burton, Davis, Rutschky, Hertoft, Schorsch Brongersma, Ogrinc, Plummer, Weeks Money, Duvert, Ingram, Green, Mirkin Simon, Gagnon, West, Reeves, Shively Evans, Holt, Tripp, Hardman Densen-Gerber, Reisman, Whitfield, Fink [show]Related topics   Queer Theory, Feminism, Consent Minor-adult sex, CSA, Paraphilia Sexceptionalism, Sexualization Heteronormativity, Trans youth Hebephilia, Pedophilia, Teleiophilia Censorship, Chris Brand, Moral panic Preventionism, Minor Attracted Person Masturbation, Inner child, CSBI IICSA, CSAM, Covert incest Pedophilia OCD, Teen Dating Violence Repressed memory, Anal wink Kent State Study, Rind et al, CSAAS COPINE Scale, Cognitive distortion Adolescence, Abel screening Actuarial testing, Plethysmography Erwin Schrodinger, Carleton Gajdusek David Riegel, Jordan Peterson Wikipedia, Rites of passage Medicalism, Evolving capacity Nocebogenic harm, Moral Recruitment Intrinsic harm [show]Orgs and Publications   JoH, ASB, Paidika, JCI, FSRS B4U-ACT, PF, Ipce, AASECT NARTH, TLC OJP, NSPCC, ASPAC
Template: Ac - This template

Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome (CSAAS) is a fabricated and widely discredited "disorder" used by victimologists to reinterpret a variety of child testimony (disclosure, non-disclosure, sustained denial, retraction) as evidence of CSA. It was a critical propaganda tool in the Day-care hysteria of the 1980s and 90s, and was first proposed by Roland Summit - a pioneer in victimological literature, in 1983.

Proposed mechanism

Summit believed children "learn to accept the situation and to survive", fostering the shamed secrecy thought to typify CSA at the time. "There is no way out, no place to run", he adds; "the healthy, normal emotionally resilient child will learn to accommodate to the reality of continuing sexual abuse."

He posited five stages through which the child attempts to cope with this:

1. Secrecy
2. Helplessness
3. Entrapment and accommodation
4. Delayed disclosure
5. Retraction

Discredit

CSAAS belongs to a long list of false diagnostic tools related to the CSA panics of the 1980s and 90s - often resulting in absurd statements by professionals. Similar fallacious circulars have been used in setting up professional discourses on "cognitive distortion", for example. Practitioners and theorists continue to blame "lack of awareness", or "flawed cultural beliefs" for the prevalence of sexual behaviors they deem to be aberrant.

Several states have prohibited testimony regarding CSAAS, based on evidence that it is not accepted generally by scientists, except for delayed reporting. Summit himself has subsequently identified that the concept has been abused for scientific and legal reasons, and neither the American Psychiatric Association nor the American Psychological Association has recognized CSAAS.