[...]
[p.188] On one hand, there is a body of opinion that sees childhood as a relatively trecherous time in the development of sexuality. During this period, children need protection from the common sexual traumas that our civilization inflicts on them, one of the most common of these being sexual victimization by adults.
[...] Feminists have been instrumental in drawing attention to the unrecognized suffering of victims of both rape and child sexual abuse, traumas that have often been exarbated by the social stigmas attached to such victims and the social taboos around discussing such experiences. Their conclusion is clearly that the extend of victimization and the trauma produced by such victimization have been insufficiently recognized in the past (Armstrong, 1978; Butler, 1978; Herman & Hirschman, 1977).
On the other hand, another point of view has urged the public and professionals to give up alarmist concerns about child sexual development (Farson, 1974; Menninger, 1942; Pomeroy, 1968, 1974). Quoting Storr (1965, p.91),
[p.189] "there is no doubt that, in the past, far too much emphasis has been placed upon childhood seduction as the cause of subsequent neurosis." Although they do not discount the idea that children can be harmed by early exploitation, they are critical of what they see as an exclusive preoccupation with harm in discussions of child sexuality. They appear to fear that if child sexuality is viewed as so fragile and subject to ruin, the positive element of child sexuality will become neglected (Currier, 1977). In particular, these writes have argued, probably more restrainedly than they would if they did not feel in the minority, that children's sexuality needs to be encouraged and developed (Constantine & Martinson, 1982; Yates, 1978). Some of these writers have tended to minimize the dangers of sexual victimization (Pomeroy, 1978).
Those who wish to stress the seriousness of child sexual abuse have plenty of clinical evidence to which to turn. There have been many reports - for example, those reviewed and supplemented by De Young (1982), Herman (1981), and Meiselman (1978) - of adults with substantial psychological problems, which seem very plausibly connected to a history of child sexual abuse (Courtois & Watts, 1982). Studies of various troubled populations such as drug abusers (Benward & Densen-Gerber, 1975), juvenile offenders (Jones, Gruber & Timbers, 1981; Youth Policy and Law Center, 1982), adolescent runaways (Nakashima, 1982; Weber, 1977), prostitutes (James & Meyerding, 1977; Janus, Seanlon & Price, 1984; Silbert & Pines, 1981), and adults with sexual dysfunctions (McGuire & Wagner, 1978) show that high proportions of these troubled individuals were sexually victimized as children. The case seems easily made that some fraction of those who are sezually victimized in childhood are affected quite badly by these experiences.
[...] On the other hand, there has been plenty room for critics to argue that conclusions from clinical samples such as these could be misleading. [...] Critics are correct to point out that studies of nonclinical cases are needed, hopefully studies that allow a comparison between victimized and nonvictimized children controlling for various background factors to be able to assess whether and where there exists any long-term effects of sexual abuse.
[review of Gagnon 1965]
[review of Landis 1956]
[review of Tsai, Feldman-Summers, and Edgar, 1979]
[review of Finkelhor, 1979]
To tap the possible effects of sexual feelings and behavior, a measure called "sexual self-esteem" was developed. This scale is composed of six items intended to capture attitudes toward current sexual feelings and activity among a group of young people. The items included:
This sexual self-esteem scale is the most comprehensive outcome measure in the study, since it captures a broad evalutation of a person's current level of sexual satisfaction and sexual adjustment. Therefore it was of no little importance to find that: students who had been sexually victimized as children, both women and men, had lower levels of sexual self-esteem than other people in the sample. Results can be seen in Table 12-1.
Table 12-1
Sex Sexual Self-Esteem Score (N) Sexual Self-Esteem Score (N)
for Victims for Nonvictims
Boys 40.9** (17) 52.4 (243)
Girls 45.7* (104) 51.6 (432)
* p<.01
** p<.05
[...] The victimized women were especially likely to report that they often got into awkward sexual situations. The victimized men revealed especially high feelings of dissatisfaction after current sexual experiences.
[...]
The current study has only weak evidence in support of this assertion. Women who were sexually victimized before the age of 13 were more likely to be the victims of another forced sex experience after the age of 13 (32% of the child victims compared to 22% of the rest of the sample). The difference is statistically weak (p=.07) [...] and should be taken with some caution. [...]
Even if researchers ultimatively establish such associations, they need to be careful. They need to be very alert to the possibility that women who report one form of victimization, particularly sexual victimization, may also report another: The statistical association between child sexual abuse and later sexual victimization may result from candid respondents willing to talk about both. Thus it is a finding which needs careful scrutiny before beeing fully accepted.
If, after such careful scrutiny, the connection between childhood and later victimization is firmly established, a number of factors could be at work.
Some clinical research has concluded that childhood sexual victimization can result in homosexuality among women, too (Finch, 1967; Gundlach, 1977). The explanation suggested is that a woman who has a traumatic childhood encounter with a man will conclude that men are undesirable sexual partners and opt to conduct her relationships with other women.
When we looked at this question in our study, wee indeed found evidence that there may be a connection between childhood victimization and adult homosexual activity for boys at least. We could find no such relationship for girls. Boys victimized by older men were over four times more likely to be engaged in homosexual activity than were nonvictims (Table 12-2).
Table 12-2
Kind of Childhood % Engaging in Homosexual (N)
Homosexual Experience Activity in Last Year
None 11 (174)
With peer 20 (30)
With much older partner 45* (11)
* p < .01
[...]
Another thing that should be clarified is even if childhood victimization sometimes leads to later homosexual behavior, this victimization cannot be seen as a simple matter of homosexual men "recruiting" young boys. Although the data are sparse, the evidence suggests that a great number of the men who victimize young boys are not self-identified homosexuals (Newton, 1978). On the one hand, many abusers of boys appear to be married and have lengthy heterosexual histories (Gebhard et al., 1965). Others are exclusive pedophiles, who have no interest in adult males at all and do not consider themselves to be gay ( and in fact often bridle at such a label) (Groth & Birnbaum, 1978). In short, these kinds of findings cannot and should not be used to increase our culture's already intense fear of homosexuals.
[...]
Some observers have concluded that the trauma of sexual victimization results not so much from the experience itself as from the alarmed reaction that such victimization elicits from a child's family, friends, and the community. The study was also not well-equipped to answer this question by distinguishing among the various possible long-term traumatizing aspects of the experience. Supporting this claim, there is some week evidence from the study that those who told their parents about the experience may have fared worse than those who did not. But, true or not, the more general issue is that it should not be assumed that a victimized child is destined for difficulty. It may be that by providing a calm and supportive reaction to victimization, the risks of long-term effects on the child can be completely dissipated.
[...]
It needs to be made clear that even if sex abuse does contribute to later homosexuality, this process would explain only a small fraction of adult homosexuality. In the recent Bell and Weinberg (1981) study, only 5% of the homosexual men reported childhood sexual experiences with adults. Such a small figure means that childhood sexual victimization can have little to do with the source of most homosexual behavior.
Moreover, even in cases where victimization might be causally related to homosexuality, it could not necessarily be argued that the homosexuality was a traumatic outcome of the victimization. [...]