How victim age affects the context and timing of child sexual abuse: applying the routine activities approach to the first sexual abuse incident

The aim of this study was to examine from the routine activities approach how victim age might help to explain the timing, context and nature of offenders’ first known contact sexual abuse incident. One-hundred adult male child sexual abusers (M = 45.8 years, SD = 12.2; range = 20–84) were surveyed about the first time they had sexual contact with a child. Afternoon and early evening (between 3 pm and 9 pm) was the most common time in which sexual contact first occurred. Most incidents occurred in a home. Two-thirds of incidents occurred when another person was in close proximity, usually elsewhere in the home. Older victims were more likely to be sexually abused by someone outside their families and in the later hours of the day compared to younger victims. Proximity of another person (adult and/or child) appeared to have little effect on offenders’ decisions to abuse, although it had some impact on the level of intrusion and duration of these incidents. Overall, the findings lend support to the application of the routine activities approach for considering how contextual risk factors (i.e., the timing and relationship context) change as children age, and raise questions about how to best conceptualize guardianship in the context of child sexual abuse. These factors should be key considerations when devising and implementing sexual abuse prevention strategies and for informing theory development

Employing Self-Study Research to Confront Childhood Sexual Abuse and Its Consequences for Self, Others, and Communities

This chapter discusses the, as yet largely unrealized, potential of self-study research to demystify the taboo of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), as well as other forms of exploitation and abuse. We share how we each have endeavored to include instruction about CSA in our work with preservice teachers and to study the implications of our instruction for ourselves and students. Our work is situated within the tenets of social justice and advocacy that have long traditions in self-study. Across our careers as teacher educators, we have consciously worked to hold ourselves to ideals of social justice. We see our focus on CSA as an attempt to confront an injustice that has historically been silenced but has devastating consequences for individuals, families, and communities across all socioeconomic backgrounds, religions, races, and cultures. Likewise, we strive to prepare teachers who will advocate for students who have experienced CSA or other trauma. While this chapter focuses primarily on our efforts to teach about and study our practice surrounding CSA, it has the potential to inform teaching and scholarship in teacher education dedicated to many other difficult/taboo topics (i.e., mental health, homelessness, suicide)