ABSTRACT
It is now clear from historical and epidemiological analysis that although child sexual abuse is a recently recognized problem, it has always been present in human societies (Rush, 1980), and people of all ages including those born early in the present century can recall such abuse in their childhood (Badgley, 1984). Although it appears possible from the survey evidence that the amount of child sexual abuse in North American society is increasing as family conditions change (Bagley, 1985a; Finkelhor, 1984), it is not clear whether these assaultive events in childhood are linked to the observed increase in parasuicide that is especially prevalent in younger women (Kreitman, 1981).
