Child Sexual Abuse: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

This literature review provides the reader with an overview of major academic works concerning childsexual abuse in the general population. This is a comprehensive review of the available literature,though it is not a meta-analysis (a synthesis of research results using various statistical methods to retrieve, select, and combine results from previous studies). During the course of the past thirty years, the field of sex offender research has expanded and become increasingly inter-disciplinary. It would be nearly impossible to review every piece of information relating to the topic of child sexual abuse. Instead, this is a compilation of information pertaining to theories, typologies and treatments that have attained general acceptance within the scientific community. I In reviewing the literature concerning sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, the amount of empirical research was limited, and many of the studies suffered from methodological flaws. Additionally, much of the literature consisted of either anecdotal information or impassioned arguments employed by various researchers when characterizing the responses of the church to this incendiary issue. In providing the reader with a comprehensive review, it was necessary to summarize every point of view no matter how controver-sial. Any of the ideas expressed in this review should not be considered indicative of the point of view of either the researchers at John Jay College of Criminal justice, or the Catholic Church. One aim of this literature review is to put into perspective the problem of child sexual abuse in the Catholic

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