Risk and Protective Factors of Sexual Abuse - Essay Example

Risk and Protective Factors of Sexual Abuse Sexual assault remains to be a prevalent crime that poses significant negative outcomes for it’s the most common victims – children and women. The following problem is widespread and universal since it can occur in any community across the world. The high rates of occurrence of sexual assault create the demand for the in-depth investigation of the common risks that increase the probability of its occurrence as well as of the prevention and resilience factors. Subsequently, the aim of the given paper is to enumerate the most widespread factors. Although any woman and child can be a potential victim of sexual abuse, there is a list of factors that are most often associated with such crimes. Among such is considered to be age with the younger females being more at risk than the older ones. Emotional stability and psychological health prove to be influential as well. According to statistics, a wide range of emotional problems, such as schizophrenia or lack of confidence and poor self-esteem are often the risk factors of sexual abuse with women being less able to resist the crime. Scientific literature also agrees that low socioeconomic status and living near the poverty level as well as ethnicity are predictors of such kind of crimes. For instance, Native Americans and African Americans are reported to be twice as likely to suffer assault as are Caucasians. (Sochting, Fairbrother & Koch, 2004)Another strong predictor of sexual abuse is the previous history of victimization that makes a woman several times more prone to becoming a victim in future. As for the rest, sorority membership, having many sexual partners, and spending much time on late night and weekend parties also increase the risk of abuse. The risk factors for children are similar to the mentioned above as far as they are often concerned with background of children, their emotional and psychological vulnerability. According to different authors, family structure is the leading risk factor of sexual abuse with the risk being at least 10 times higher when children live with a single or step-parents. Importantly, perpetrators admit that are looking for passive, quite, and lonely children from broken homes and for those who are trusting, so it is possible to establish a connection with them. ("Child sexual abuse," ) Furthermore, females are more likely to be victims than males and those who were witnesses of other crimes are more likely to become victims of sexual abuse than those who did not have such experience. Making a sum of other influential factors it is possible to conclude that the most vulnerable to sexual abuse are African-American or Latino children, most often females, who are between the age of 7 and 13, whose parents are divorced or not in a labor force and who are not properly supervised. Apart from that, alcohol consumption appears to be among top risk factors for both women and children sexual abuse. Studies show that family history of alcoholism is associated with sexual assault where perpetuator is either a parent or a stranger. The possible explanation can be found in two facts: firstly, alcohol consumption is linked to the increased probability of aggressive and antisocial behavior, impulsivity, and lack of control in a perpetuator, and secondly, drinking parents are less capable of providing a supportive, protecting, and nurturing environment. (Widom & Hiller-Sturmhöfel)In fact, the lack of stable living conditions is considered to be among the top risk factors for children. For women, consumption of alcohol also increases the risk of abuse since under its influence they are less capable of protecting themselves by “detecting and effectively acting on warning signs”. ("Sexual violence,") As a whole, consumption of alcohol is likely to place women in settings where the chances of facing an offender are higher. Obviously, sexual assault is a serious crime that produces a list of adverse consequences for a victim, therefore, there is an acute need in discussing protective strategies that can decrease the rate of its occurrence. To start with, sexual abuse can be prevented through policies focusing on confronting attitudes and behaviors that lead to abuse. The following includes school and community based programs aimed at informing the population of the prevalence of sexual abuse among children and women, debunking rape myths, discussing stereotypical behavior, and explaining of who and why appears to be under a greater risk. An important point in this regard is to change attitude of the population towards this type of crimes, explaining that it should not be concealed or tolerated. (Widom & Hiller-Sturmhöfel) What should be gained is the open communication between support organizations and the general population and especially the at risk groups that were previously discussed. The main goal of such programs is to increase knowledge of people about the issue, build preventative skills and encourage to apply efforts to decrease the influence of risk factors on them. In general, a significant percent of the survivors of sexual abuse can show the high degree of resilience when they appear in a positive environment and are offered appropriate treatment. A protecting environment can be considered a one that includes social support and healthy and effective parenting that enabled one to build social and emotional management and problem solving skills. ("Resilience,") Self-esteem and self-efficiency, which are predictive of resilience, also depend on family. As a whole, it is important to have supportive relationships both within the outside the family since they help to deal with the outcomes of poor metal health and trauma. What is more, broad social conditions are also said to be influential. Namely, various opportunities for education, employment, personal achievements and growth are viewed as strong protective factors of abuse. To sum up, the available base of literature enables to give an account of the factors that are commonly linked to sexual abuse of children and women. Despite the presence of some exceptions, the risk factors for both are often associated with low socioeconomic status, alcohol consumption issues, past experiences related to crimes and victimization. Realization of these points is helpful for deciding upon the effective prevention and resilience strategies which essence is to inform the population about different aspects of sexual assault crimes, offering support to its victims, and encouraging poen communication. . References Child sexual abuse facts The Childrens Assessment Center, Retrieved from http://cachouston.org/child-sexual-abuse-facts/ Factors that increase sexual assault risk. (2008). National Institute of Justice, Retrieved from http://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/rape-sexual-violence/campus/pages/increased-risk.aspx Resilience. Adults Surviving Child Abuse , Retrieved from http://www.asca.org.au/About/Resources/Resilience.aspx Sexual violence. (n.d.). World Report on Violence and Health, 149-174. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/global_campaign/en/chap6.pdf Sochting, I., Fairbrother, N., & Koch, W. (2004). Sexual assault of women. University of British Columbia Hospital, 10(1), 73-93. Retrieved from http://www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/Sexual_Assault_of_Women__Prevention_Efforts_and_Risk_Factors.pdf Widom, C. & Hiller-Sturmhöfel, S. (n.d.). Alcohol abuse as a risk factor for and consequence of child abuse. National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism , Retrieved from http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh25-1/52-57.htm Read More