ABSTRACT
This chapter describes and examines the clinical picture of childhood sexual abuse. Sexual violence against women and children is a widespread, systematic phenomenon that occurs across all social sectors and classes. Having always been denied and disavowed in patriarchal society, it only became part of the public agenda with the rise of the feminist movement. A historical review of childhood sexual abuse demonstrates why, despite the prevalence of sexual crimes and the mental and physical damage they cause, such forms of abuse have remained on the margins of social and professional discourse. A review of the feminist analysis of childhood abuse and the development of appropriate modes of diagnosis and treatment is accompanied and illustrated by first-hand reports from women sufferers.
