Definitions
A good JSASSN education begins with the basic definitions of sexual abuse, sexual assault, and sex trafficking. See DEFINTIONS.
THE DEFINITION OF CHILD ABUSE AND SEXUAL ABUSE
World Health Organization: Child Abuse and Sexual Abuse
General Definition
Child abuse or maltreatment constitutes all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power.
Physical abuse
Physical abuse of a child is that which results in actual or potential physical harm from an interaction or lack of an interaction, which is reasonably within the control of a parent or person in a position of responsibility, power or trust. There may be a single or repeated incidents.
Emotional abuse
Emotional abuse includes the failure to provide a developmentally appropriate, supportive environment, including the availability of a primary attachment figure, so that the child can develop a stable and full range of emotional and social competencies commensurate with her or his personal potentials and in the context of the society in which the child dwells. There may also be acts towards the child that cause or have a high probability of causing harm to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. These acts must be reasonably within the control of the parent or person in a relationship of responsibility, trust or power. Acts include restriction of movement, patterns of belittling, denigrating, scapegoating, threatening, scaring, discriminating, ridiculing or other non-physical forms of hostile or rejecting treatment.
Neglect and negligent treatment
Neglect is the failure to provide for the development of the child in all spheres: health, education, emotional development, nutrition, shelter, and safe living conditions, in the context of resources reasonably available to the family or caretakers and causes or has a high probability of causing harm to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. This includes the failure to properly supervise and protect children from harm as much as is feasible.
Sexual Abuse
Child sexual abuse is the involvement of a child in sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to, or for which the child is not developmentally prepared and cannot give consent, or that violate the laws or social taboos of society. Child sexual abuse is evidenced by this activity between a child and an adult or another child who by age or development is in a relationship of responsibility, trust or power, the activity being intended to gratify or satisfy the needs of the other person. This may include but is not limited to:
• The inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual activity.
• The exploitative use of child in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices.
• The exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials.
Exploitation
Commercial or other exploitation of a child refers to use of the child in work or other activities for the benefit of others. This includes, but is not limited to, child labour and child prostitution. These activities are to the detriment of the child’s physical or mental health, education, or spiritual, moral or social-emotional development.
(pp. 13-17, Report of the Consultation on Child Abuse Prevention, Geneva, 29-31 March 1999, World Health Organization, Social Change and Mental Health, Violence and Injury Prevention.)
THE DEFINITION OF SEXUAL ASSAULT
Medical Library- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Definitions of Sexual Assault
The legal term rape has traditionally referred to forced vaginal penetration of a woman by a male assailant. Many states have now abandoned this concept in favor of the gender-neutral term sexual assault. The legal definition of criminal sexual assault is any genital, oral, or anal penetration by a part of the accused’s body or by an object, using force or without the victim’s consent (7). Criminal sexual assault, or rape, is often further stratified to include acquaintance rape, date rape, statutory rape, child sexual abuse, and incest. Such terms generally describe the age of the victim and her relationship to the abuser. Despite these various classifications of rape, it is important to remember that all are acts of rape.
Acquaintance rape refers to those sexual assaults committed by someone known to the victim, frequently a date, teacher, employer, or family member. Instances in which the perpetrator is related to the victim generally are defined as incest. Although incest refers to sexual intercourse among family members, or those legally barred from marriage (8), this definition has been conceptually broadened to also include step-relatives and parental figures living in the home.
Date rape, which is a subset of acquaintance rape, generally refers to forced or unwanted sexual activity that occurs within a dating relationship. For a significant number of adolescents, however, the classic one-on-one date is no longer the social norm. Instead, an adolescent female may be more likely to socialize with a group at a dance, a party, or another unsupervised group activity. As such, she may not respond accurately to questions regarding date rape. The classic date rape, however, remains a significant problem on college campuses.
Statutory rape refers to sexual intercourse with a female under a specified age (9). All 50 states and the District of Columbia have laws criminalizing statutory rape. Such laws typically base the severity of the crime on the age of the adolescent victim and the age difference between the adolescent and her assailant. The age at which an adolescent may consent to sexual intercourse varies by state and ranges from 14 to 18 years of age; however, the consent of an adolescent younger than this range is legally irrelevant because she is defined as being incapable of consenting.
Sexual assault occurring in childhood also is defined by most states as child abuse. The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect defines childhood sexual abuse as “contact or interaction between a child and an adult when the child is being used for the sexual stimulation of that adult or another person” (10). Childhood sexual abuse may be committed by another minor when that person is either significantly older than the victim (often defined as more than 5 years) or when the abuser is in a position of power or control over the child (10).
References
1 National Institute of Justice. The extent and costs of crime victimization: a new look. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 1996
2 Dupre AR, Hampton HL, Morrison H, Meeks GR. Sexual assault. Obstet Gynecol Surv 1993;48:640-648
3 Bureau of Justice Statistics. Criminal victimization 1994. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 1996; publication no. NCJ-158022
4 Koss MP, Harvey MR. The rape victim: clinical and community interventions. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications, 1991
5 Langan PA, Harlow CW. Bureau of Justice Statistics: child rape victims, 1992 crime data brief. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 1994; publication no. NCJ-147001
6 National Victim Center. Rape in America: a report to the nation. Arlington, Virginia: NVC, 1992
7 American Medical Association. Strategies for the treatment and prevention of sexual assault. Chicago: AMA, 1995
8 Hibbard R, Orr DP. Incest and sexual abuse. Semin Adolesc Med 1985;1:153-164
9 Donovan P. Can statutory rape laws be effective in preventing adolescent teen pregnancy? Fam Plann Perspect 1997; 29:30-34, 4
10 National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. Child sexual abuse: incest, assault and sexual exploitation. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1981
Excerpted from: ACOG Educational Bulletin, No. 252, October 1998. Adolescent Victims of Sexual Assault.
NOTE: Using a definition of rape that includes forced vaginal, oral, and anal sex, the National Violence Against Women Survey found that 1 of 6 U.S. Women and 1 of 33 U.S. men has experienced an attempted or completed rape as a child and/or adult. According to estimates, approximately 1.5 million women and 834,700 men are raped and/or physically assaulted annually by an intimate partner in the United States. (Tjaden, P. & Thoennes, N. (1998, November). A Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey, @ p. 2 & 5. Research in Brief. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice.)
Kilpatrick’s study (www.musc.edu/vawprevention/research/sa.shtml)
THE DEFINITION OF SEX TRAFFICKING
US Department of State
Definition of “Severe Forms of Trafficking in Persons”
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act defines “severe forms of trafficking in persons” as (a) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or (b) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.
Definition of Terms Used in the Term “Severe Forms of Trafficking in Persons”
Sex trafficking means the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.
Commercial sex act means any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.
Involuntary servitude includes a condition of servitude induced by means of (a) any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that, if the person did not enter into or continue in such condition, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or (b) the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.
Debt bondage means the status or condition of a debtor arising from a pledge by the debtor of his or her personal services or of those of a person under his or her control as a security for debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined.
Coercion means (a) threats of serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; (b) any scheme, plan or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; or, (c) the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.
