ABSTRACT
Children … do not have the wherewithal to give informed consent to engage in sexual activity with adults. The responsibility for abuse always lies with its perpetrator. Sexually abusive behaviour in adults is not an illness but is chosen behaviour. The confi dentiality and civil liberties of adults who abuse children must give way to the rights of children to be safeguarded from harm. Children can recover from child sexual abuse. Recovery will be substantially assisted if at least one adult they know and trust believes them and sticks with them. Because of the enormity of the violation that child sexual abuse infl icts on a child – in that it distorts their sense of self and distorts or interrupts their development – most children will need some help from someone to recover from its impact. Building resilience in children and young people will assist them to recover and assist safeguard from being further targeted and abused. The needs of the criminal justice system (an adult arena where sanction is considered and meted out principally on behalf of society as a whole) should not take precedence over the needs of children to recover from their experiences and develop strategies for future safety. The vast majority of children who are abused will be targeted by someone they have some kind of emotional attachment to – therefore understanding how best to assist them will need to take account of and have understanding of their ‘groomed environment’ – what/who has stopped them speaking out. Children who tell will have made a decision at some level that it is better to tell than not tell – they will usually have weighed up that telling will feel ‘least worst’. There are more subtle issues around communication when children tell through their behaviour/functioning.
