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Peters J.J.

Children who are victims of sexual assaults and the psychology of offenders

American Journal of Psychotherapy 30(3), 398-421 (1976)

from Sandfort 1986, p.103

Peters (1976) discovered in his research that of the children he investigated who had had pedosexual contacts 32% had never told anybody about the sex. He attributed this to the fear the child had of the reactions of his parents. According to Peters it is possible that the child does not feel guilty about the sex itself but over the fact that he has to hide it from his parents. In the case of the boys he interviewed, feelings of guilt and anxiety did not play a large role in how they experienced the sexual contact.