Title: Sexual Abuse legal definition of Sexual Abuse
Headings: Sexual Abuse
Sexual Abuse
Sexual Abuse
C hild T estimony in D ay C are C Enter S exual A buse C ases
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Content: Until the 1970s the prevalence of sexual abuse was seriously underestimated. Growing awareness of the problem led legislatures to enact reporting requirements, which mandate that any professional person (doctor, nurse, teacher, social worker) who knows or has reason to believe that a child is being abused report this information to the local Welfare agency or law enforcement department. Statistics vary widely about the level of sexual abuse, but most researchers agree that it occurs at a higher rate than previously believed. Experts on the subject estimate that more than 130,000 children a year are sexually abused in the United States. Perpetrators of sexual abuse are prosecuted under state Criminal Law statutes that have been toughened for sexual assaults on minors. The prosecution of reported sexual abuse has required children to testify in court about the abuse. Children are often unwilling to testify against the abuser, who may be a family member and may exert control over their victim. To relieve these pressures, courts have allowed the use of closed-circuit television to protect the child witness from the trauma of testifying in court before the defendant, expanded the Hearsay evidence exception to allow testimony about what the child said if the child lacks a motive to lie or if the child uses sexual terminology unexpected of a child, and made rules that suspended the Statute of Limitations until the abusive conduct is discovered. During the 1980s a rash of sexual abuse cases involving day care centers drew national attention. The McMartin preschool case in Manhattan Beach, California, which began in 1984, accused a group of day care employees of sexual abuse and bizarre rituals of animal sacrifice.