Title: Sexual Abuse / Trauma - AllAboutCounseling.com
Headings: Sexual Abuse / Trauma
Sexual Abuse / Trauma
Perpetrators
Statistics
Trauma Recovery
Legal Issues
Can a child molester be rehabilitated?
Do abuser’s feel remorse?
How can I identify if someone might be an abuser? What are some identifying features?
Why do people sexually abuse children?
What are the perpetrator statistics on fathers, brothers, neighbors, etc.?
How does alcohol play a role?
What are the statistics on boys vs girls who are abused?
For how many years does abuse usually continue?
Is there more sexual abuse in the US than in other countries?
What is traumatic dissociation or amnesia? Are these real?
If I have memories of sexual abuse, how do I know if they are accurate?
Does childhood sexual abuse affect adult relationships?
Can sexual abuse make individuals gay/homosexual?
Why do so many people who were sexually abused wait so long to report it?
Shouldn’t adults who were abused as children try to let it go?
Three stages of healing:
If I, or someone I know was sexually abused, what can I do to help recover?
What is it like to tell someone you’ve been abused and not be believed?
Is it okay to give support to both the abuser and the abused in a family?
Are there changes in laws that protect children?
In what ways are children sexually abused? Is it always physical?
Does pornography promote sexual abuse?
Is there more sexual abuse than there used to be?
I am an adult who was abused as a child, should I tell someone? Should I go to counseling?
How can I tell if a child is being abused? Should I investigate? What should I be doing? Call the police? Question the child?
Are there national or federal laws that pertain to childhood sexual abuse?

Content: back to top of questions
Why do people sexually abuse children? There are many different kinds of abusers, and it’s not clear why people molest children. What’s been found in recent research is an overwhelming majority of people guilty of child molesting, were molested themselves. We used to think this statistic was much smaller, but with more detailed research, we’ve discovered this statistic to be very high. Statistics involving men in New Jersey prisons convicted of sexual abuse, found that over 95% of the men, were in fact abused themselves. And we don’t know, but it could be that the 5% of non-abused men in that case don’t remember being abused as children; they may have amnesia or a traumatic dissociation .. Some abuse may be the attempt to relive one’s own abuse, with power roles reversed. Another reason may be these people have learned that abuse is a way of feeling in control. Fundamentally, in all cases of abuse, it certainly is about power and control. Some abusers don’t relate well to people of their own age group.