Browsing by Subject "Child sexual abuse"
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Item Abuse stress and PTSD in victims of child sexual abuse: The roles of coping, support, and cognitive appraisals(2011-05) Huey, Cassandra C.; Wherry, Jeffrey N.; Mulsow, Miriam; Bell, Nancy J.The present study examined the roles of coping responses, cognitive appraisals, and parental support in the development of PTSD symptoms in a sample of 97 sexually abused children, ages 6-13 years, referred for varying types of treatment. Through exploratory factor analysis, the hypothesized latent construct of abuse stress was most accurately conceptualized by testing the severity of the sexual abuse and the events associated with the abuse as separate constructs. Subsequent hierarchical linear regression equations showed a child’s coping responses (i.e., social withdrawal and avoidance) did not meet the conditions for mediation or indirect effects on both parent and child reports of PTSD symptoms. Cognitive appraisals were a main effect on child reports of PTSD symptoms. Sexual abuse severity was a main effect on parent reports of PTSD symptoms, but not child reports. Abuse events were a main effect on child reports of PTSD symptoms, but not parent reports. Parental support did not meet the conditions for mediation or indirect effects on both parent and child reports of PTSD symptoms.Item Cognitive style of incestuous fathers(Texas Tech University, 1985-12) Bennett, Susan RhodeOver the past thirty years, incest, defined as sexual interaction between family members, has become one of the most frequently reported and discussed social problems. When an adult is involved with a minor child, incest is a crime which can result in a lengthy prison sentence. Many communities now offer treatment to incestuous families in addition to or in lieu of incarceration. However, little research with offenders has focused on specific characteristics amenable to change in treatment. This study compares incestuous fathers with non-incestuous fathers on childhood and adolescent experience of sexual abuse and on five aspects of cognitive style: thinking process, paranoid content, behavioral repertoire, externalizing responsibility, and empathy. All of these are factors which can be worked with specifically in treatment. Each aspect of cognitive style was measured by codings of written responses to open-ended questions about difficult marital situations and by responses to Likert-scaie items about the same situations. Childhood and adolescent sexual abuse experience was determined by answers to direct questions about victimization or knowledge of familial sexual abuse. Subgroups of incestuous fathers formed according to the following variables were also compared on the cognitive style measures: progress in treatment, time in treatment, extent of sexual abuse, rainiraizing, coercion, relationship to victim, and age of victim when sexual abuse began. Incestuous fathers were found to be significantly different from non-incestuous fathers in thinking process, attributions of responsibility, breadth of behavioral repertoire, willingness to express negative feelings, attitudes toward the wife, and history of sexual abuse. Progress in treatment was found to be related to thinking process, willingness to express negative feelings, and attitudes toward the wife. Other subgroups of incestuous fathers were found to differ on few of the cognitive style variables. The findings in this study support a treatment focus on changing cognitive style and working through feelings associated with early experience of sexual abuse.Item How age and race of defendant and victim influence mock jurors' perceptions in a child sexual molestation case(Texas Tech University, 2001-12) Escamilla, GuadalupePeople often use preconceived biases to make judgments about other people. This phenomenon is also known to occur in the justice system. Juror bias research has investigated how characteristics, such as physical attractiveness, age, race, and gender, of a defendant can influence jurors' and even judges' decisions about guilt verdicts and sentencings. The characteristics of the victims have also been found to create biases in juror research. More specifically, in cases involving child sexual assault, the age of the victim has been found to influence jurors' perceptions. This dissertation investigated how the effects of defendant and victim characteristics (victim and defendant age and race) combined influenced jurors' perceptions of defendant guilt, defendant and victim credibility, honesty, responsibility, and mental competence. The results indicated that participant gender and victim age were far more likely to influence perceptions of the defendant and the victim. Defendant age did not influence results significantly.Item Keep the drama on the stage: writing an autobiographical play(Texas Tech University, 2004-05) Castillo, ElizabethNot availableItem Protecting Argentina : lawmaking, children and sexual crimes in Buenos Aires, 1853-1921(2011-05) Rahe, Julia Grace; Twinam, Ann, 1946-; Garrard-Burnett, Virginia"Protecting Argentina" explores how the definitions of sexual crimes (rape, seduction, abduction and the corruption of minors) changed in Argentine penal law during the process of congressional codification between 1853 and 1921. It contextualizes an in-depth analysis of legal definitions within the legislative process and the shifting ideologies of criminology that influenced it. It argues that, as nineteenth century positivist criminology replaced Enlightenment-inspired "Classical" criminology, the meaning and foundational presupposition of these crimes shifted from those of their colonial predecessors. Where in colonial times "Acts of lechery" were criminal when committed against chaste women, in the republican era, the law punished "Crimes against honesty" when the victims were children. Liberal lawmakers defined these sexual acts primarily by the age of the victim and secondarily by the violence used in their perpetration. The year 1903 was a watershed in this process, as it marked Positivism's displacement of "Classical" criminology as the guiding ideology of criminal law. These conclusions suggest there were substantive correlations between elite campaigns to ensure the future of the nation by saving children and the codification of national criminal law undertaken by Congress. As argentine elites began to witness what they perceived to be the negative effects of modernization, rapid population growth, industrialization and the accompanying increase in crime, they sought to ensure the future of the nation through "child saving" campaigns. The increasingly age-based definitions of sexual crimes, which aimed to protect young victims, fit within the broader state-led campaign to protect future citizens. "Protecting Argentina" therefore suggests that historians should consider legislative processes of state building as forming an integral part of turn-of-the-century nationalist projects in Latin America. Tying together positivist penology, nationalist discourse, and congressional codification, this report places children at the center of Argentine elites' attempts to ensure the future of the nation through the protection of children.Item Reported prevalence rates of childhood sexual experiences among clients in a university counseling center(Texas Tech University, 1991-08) Stinson, Marilyn HThe present study found statistical support for the importance of querying clients in regard to childhood sexual abuse experiences to encourage clients to disclose this history. The literature suggests that the method of querying about sexual behaviors makes a significant difference in the percentage who report sexual abuse incidents. The present study, which used students who presented for personal counseling at a university counseling center, found no difference in paper-and-pencil or face-to-face interviewing methods of asking clients about sexual abuse incidents. Chi-square procedures did find a significant difference between (a) no formal method of querying and (b) asking clients about childhood sexual abuse either with pencil and paper or at the end of an intake interview after rapport had been established. A series of one-way ANOVAs using self-esteem and depression (as measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory, respectively) as dependent measures found no significant differences in sexual abuse survivors on independent variables of (a) relationship to the perpetrator, (b) age at onset of the abuse, (c) frequency of the abuse, (d) duration of the abuse, (e) whether force was utilized, and (f) whether previous counseling was received. Other exploratory analyses also failed to find significant differences (with the exception that those survivors who had been abused by more than one perpetrator reported significantly lower levels of self-esteem than those who were abused by only one person).