ABSTRACT
Social scientific research on child sexual abuse (CSA) began in earnest in the late 1970s. Since that time, the scale of the challenges posed by CSA have only become more, rather than less, apparent. This chapter aims to provide a succinct overview of extant social scientific research on CSA, emphasizing its prevalence, impacts, theories of offending, and the continuum of state responses, before identifying key areas for future research and theorizing. CSA victimization is disproportionately distributed, with twice as many girls victimized as boys. Primary prevention refers to the prevention of a negative outcome before it occurs. Secondary prevention refers to intervention with groups identified as ‘at risk’ in order to prevent a negative outcome. Allegations of CSA are routinely adjudicated in the criminal, civil, and family courts, although the investigation and substantiation of sexual abuse have proven to be fraught. CSA has a pronounced but under-acknowledged role in the intergenerational transmission and instantiation of social inequality.
