Maternal sexual abuse of male children

Abstract

Preview Sexual abuse of boys by their mothers is being increasingly reported and must be considered in the course of history taking and physical examination. Often there is little objective evidence of such abuse, and only a cluster of signs and risk factors may reveal the victimization. Drs Elliott and Peterson list characteristics that can help physicians identify sexually abusive mothers and sexually abused children; they also discuss how to retrieve a report of abuse from a child and assess its credibility.

Long-Term Consequences of Childhood Sexual Abuse by Gender of Victim

“…Consistent with other reports on the prevalence of CSA, women had a slightly higher prevalence than men (25% vs 16%, respectively). [45][46][47] It was found that the magnitude of the increased risk of alcohol problems, illicit drug use, suicide attempts, marrying an alcoholic, and current marital and family problems associated with CSA, was similar for both male and female respondents. Furthermore, severity of the CSA consistently showed that intercourse CSA was associated with an elevated risk for the outcomes among both genders.…”

Female sex offenders: Specialists, generalists and once-only offenders

“…Almost all research on sex offending concerns male sex offenders (Daalder & Essers, 2003;Elliott, 1993;Finkelhor, Gelles, Hotaling, & Straus, 1983;Hunter, Becker, & Lexier, 2006;Marshall, Laws, & Barbaree, 1990). In the past few years, however, more attention has been directed, especially in Anglo-Saxon countries, towards women committing sexual offences.…”

Dealing with a problem that doesn't exist? Professional responses to female perpetrated child sexual abuse

“…Low base rates of female sex offending may also be influenced by cultural denial of female sex offending and it is suggested that many victims, particularly males, do not report abuse because they fear they will not be believed (Hetherton, 1999;Saradjian, 1996). A variety of studies highlight that there are more similarities than differences between males and female in terms of the degree of intrusiveness or the use of violence (Allen, 1991;Kaufman et al, 1995) and that victims often experience extreme stigma, shame and isolation (Hislop, 2001;Elliott, 1993;Saradjian, 1997).…”