Problems of Research in Male Child Sexual Abuse

The prevalence of child sexual abuse in community and student samples: A meta-analysis

“…These factors would seem to influence the low rates of positive responses given by men in studies of child sexual abuse, this being a finding reported by most authors (Dhaliwal et al, 1996;Holmes & Slap, 1998;Romano & De Luca, 2001;Violato & Genuis, 1993).…”

“…The comparatively low prevalence rates for child sexual abuse of males has been discussed by several authors (Dhaliwal et al, 1996;Romano & De Luca, 2001;Violato & Genuis, 1993), who consider that one of the most important problems is the methodology used in many studies; it is argued that either the experiences of men are not sufficiently captured by the definition of sexual abuse used, or that men fail to identify themselves with certain questions asked. Social attitudes toward sex and stereotypes about the roles of men and women may also prevent men from explaining their experiences, or even mean that they do not regard what happened as sexual abuse (Violato & Genuis, 1993;Widom & Morris, 1997).…”

“…Social attitudes toward sex and stereotypes about the roles of men and women may also prevent men from explaining their experiences, or even mean that they do not regard what happened as sexual abuse (Violato & Genuis, 1993;Widom & Morris, 1997). Indeed, it would seem that sex stereotypes present in society can lead men to consider that maintaining sexual relationships with adults, particularly with women, is a way of demonstrating their manliness or masculinity (Coxell, King, Mezey, & Gordon, 1999).…”

“…This would require preliminary conceptual work since present formulations do not appear to adequately capture the experience of male children and youth. It would be necessary to formulate specific questions for each sex, since as several authors have pointed out, some questions about child sexual abuse seem not to include men's experience (Dhaliwal et al, 1996;Romano & De Luca, 2001;Violato & Genuis, 1993).…”

The international epidemiology of child sexual abuse: A continuation of Finkelhor (1994)

“…Some authors have argued that the study of male sexual victimization was relatively neglected until fairly recently (Dhaliwal, Gauzas, Antonowicz, & Ross, 1996;Holmes & Slap, 1998;Romano & De Luca, 2001), although there are important publications that do address this potential bias (Finkelhor, Hotaling, Lewis, & Smith, 1990). Several problems have been considered when examining the rates of sexual abuse of males (Violato & Genuis, 1993), for example, substantially varying prevalence rates (Dhaliwal et al, 1996), the small numbers of sexually abused males who seek professional help for abuse-related difficulties (Holmes, Offen, & Waller, 1997), and lower rates than those obtained among female victims (e.g., Bouvier et al, 1999;Briere & Elliott, 2003;Robin, Chester, Rasmussen, Jaranson, & Goldman, 1997). These confounding variables have resulted in insufficient reporting, recognition and treatment of these samples (for a review of the absence of males in maltreatment research, see Haskett, Marziano, & Dover, 1996).…”