Citation

Reynolds LL, Birkimer JC. J. Child Sex. Abus. 2002; 11(1): 53-74.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-2015, USA. psyched_lisa@hotmail.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16221633

Abstract

Two studies examined interactions between victim age and victim response, and victim relation to perpetrator and victim response influencing perceptions of child sexual abuse (CSA). Undergraduates read one of several vignettes describing a sexual encounter between a man and a girl. In Experiment 1, age of the girl was varied; victim age interacted with victim response to increase ratings of abuse and expected trauma for the girl. In Experiment 2, age was held constant while victim relation to perpetrator was varied; men gave higher ratings of abuse than did women for scenarios involving a step father rather than a neighbor, regardless of victim response. In both studies, psychotherapy was expected to help the victim more than the perpetrator and the law was judged to be less stringent than it is regarding CSA. Results suggest that perceptions of CSA are influenced by several factors and that laws regarding CSA may not be well understood.