ABSTRACT

SUSANNE HABETHA, SABRINA BLEICH, JÖRG WEIDENHAMMER, AND JÖRG M FEGERT

2.1 BACKGROUND

2.1.1 CHILDHOOD TRAUMATIZATION

Traumatization of children (the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a “child” as “a human being below the age of 18 years”) occurs in many ways. Due to their often very pronounced aftereffects, sexual, physical and emotional abuse in the home environment play a central role. For example, Maercker et al. [1] describe a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after sexualized violence in more than one third of the cases and Steil and Straube [2] in up to 80% of the cases. Close relationship with the offender, repetitions and combinations of various forms

of abuse significantly contribute to this strong impact on the individual [3-6].