Articles Posted in Sexual Abuse Research

Over the past 20 years, the Center for Disease Control has researched the relationship between childhood trauma and illnesses developed later in life. Traumatic experiences such as abuse or neglect, witnessing violence at home, or family with mental illness or substance abuse all had lasting negative impacts. The CDC called these events, Adverse Childhood Experiences…

Incomplete memories of sexual assault, including those with huge gaps, are understandable—if we learn the basics of how memory works.

How childhood sex abuse leads to PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly known as PTSD, is a grave psychological condition triggered by a traumatic or horrifying event in a person’s life, such as childhood sexual abuse. The person’s life may have been placed in mortal danger, or they may have sustained grievous injury-or there may have…

A look at how child sex abuse effects brain structure and function It’s an established fact in psychology and neuroscience that the earliest years of a child’s life are the most formative. The experiences a child has in the first years of life impacts the kind of adult you become. Optimally, an abundance of learning…

How it Helps Sexually Abused Kids A Children’s Advocacy Center, or CAC, is an organization that focuses on helping victimized children sensitively yet efficiently. They do so without forcing children to relive their horrible experience by repeating their stories numerous times. CACs bring together specialists from many different disciplines: law enforcement officials, child protective services,…

A new approach to helping sexually abused children The National Center for Trauma-Informed Care and Alternatives to Seclusion and Restraint, or NCTIC defines trauma-informed healthcare as “an approach to engaging people with histories of trauma (such as childhood sexual abuse) that recognizes the presence of trauma symptoms and acknowledges the role that trauma has played…

Helping Child Sex Abuse Victims & their Parents Move Forward Much attention is being paid to victims of child sex abuse before and during the criminal trial of their abuser. Victims receive the customary outpouring of public sympathy and righteous indignation on their behalf. But what happens after the abuser is convicted and imprisoned? The…