Who gets sexually abused?
Child sexual abuse affects people from a wide variety of backgrounds. The statistics show that child sexual abuse crosses boundaries of race, class, culture, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality – there is no one kind of person child sexual abuse happens to. Child sexual abuse affects boys and men, girls and women, and transgendered youth and adults. People from upper and middle class backgrounds as well as those below the poverty line all experience child sexual abuse. While statistics suggest that girls are more frequent victims of sexual abuse than boys, it is unclear whether or not those statistics reflect the reality of sexual abuse or just the dynamics of reporting. While there are a wide variety of cultural beliefs about gender and sexuality, many cultures remain more comfortable perceiving girls and women as sexual victims than recognizing the sexual abuse of boys and men. Homophobia and sexism perpetuate the myth that “real” men are not sexually victimized, and because of this myt
Related Questions
- If Im being physically or sexually abused or threatened by someone outside of my household where can I go for help? How old do I need to be to press charges against someone?
- An MSW working in a nursing home discovers that a patient has been sexually abused by a member of the staff. What is the MSWs responsibility?
- Why aren’t priests who have sexually abused children in jail?
