Child sexual abuse

Child sexual abuse is a term used to describe non-consensual or coerced sexual activity with children. It is typically distinguished from rape by its manipulative and/or recurring nature. In other words, rape is generally considered to be a one-time, often violent (or threatened with violence) act of forceable sex, whereas child sexual abuse is generally considered to be an ongoing series of unwanted sexual interactions gained through manipulation or other forms of subtle coercion ranging from emotional blackmail to bribes.

Likewise, child sexual abuse is distinguished from child molestation by the circumstances in which it occurs. While molestation can be done by strangers or casual acquaintenances, sexual abuse more typically refers to molestation which occurs within the immediate household. The term echoes the similarly-scoped terms physical abuse and emotional abuse in this regard.

Current Usage

These distinctions in the usage of the term, which were historically more clearly demarcated, have in the last few decades become blurred to the point where it is no longer possible to be sure what kind of acts took place with any term. With the move during the eighties, spearheaded by victim's rights groups and certain feminist organization, to blur the lines between (for example) violent rape and slightly different behaviors such as "date rape," "statuatory rape," and even simple day-after regrets, many people use the terms "child sexual abuse," "child molestation" and "rape" interchangeably. Proponents of this melding of terms indicate that it helps us to see unwanted sexual acts of all types for what they really are--that is, acts of coercive sex--and to avoid minimizing the seriousness of certain acts simply because they may not have involved overt physical violence.

Despite the definition (and assumptions that literal-minded speakers would make about the term "abuse"), in current usage, very rarely is the issue of consent or coercion relevant to the term anymore. That is to say, given the modern assumption that no child is capable of consenting to sexual activity, any instance of sex with a child is considered child sexual abuse, regardless whether or not the child consented, desired or even sought the act.

As such, the term can now be used to apply to any interaction with a child that has, or can be interpreted by others to have, sexual overtones, regardless of the desires of the child. In this vein the term is used by some as interchangeable with "pedophilia."

Real Child Sexual Abuse

The fact that many people use the term to cover situations which no longer bear any reference to the consent of the child should not be used to discount the seriousness of acts of "real" child sexual abuse, that is, abuse which fulfills the first definition of the term given above: non-consensual or coerced sexual activity. Listeners and readers of the term today are often caught in the delicate position of having to decide between two conflicting assumptions: that the "child sexual abuse" wasn't really a harmful act, and risk ignoring the needs of a child who has truly been victimized, or that the abuse was a harmful coercive act, and risk ignoring the desires of a child who willingly consented in a mutually beneficial relationship. This lack of precision is a distressing consequence of the aforementioned blurring of terms.

Victims of genuine non-consentual or coercive sex acts often need counseling and suffer from serious psychological after-effects from their ordeals in exactly the same way that adult rape victims can. It is important that children in this position receive the help they need, and it is also important that the perpetrators of such acts are identified in order to prevent them from harming other children.

Unfortunately, the same lack of precision in current usage sometimes means that children who consented to mutually desired sexual acts are often treated as though they were victims and in many cases, after the fact, come to believe it. Likewise, the adults involved in such interactions are treated exactly as if they were violent rapists as well, suggesting that in the long term, the treatment of consensual acts as synonymous with non-consensual ones leads to many of the same consequences as a genuine non-consensual act, except that the consequences are now iatrogenic in origin.