ABSTRACT
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a widespread problem that affects one in every four girls (Dube et al., 2005). A recent meta-analysis of prevalence rates of CSA suggests that almost 8% of males and almost 20% of females have been the victims of CSA (Pereda, Guilera, Forns, & Gomez-Benito, 2009). In 2000, there were approximately 88,000 substantiated cases of CSA, and these constituted about 10% of all officially reported child abuse cases (Putnam, 2003). The children in these cases, who were 4 years of age or older at the time of reporting the abuse in 2000, would all be approaching the age of majority in 2014. These reported cases represent only a portion of the actual cases of CSA that have occurred, as only a fraction of all cases of CSA are reported. Research suggests that only about half of all victims disclose the abuse to anyone (Putnam, 2003).
