What Should I Look For If I Suspect a Child is Being Sexually Abused?

Child sexual abuse cases can be very difficult to prove because of a lack of objective evidence. The first indicators of sexual abuse may not be physical signs, but behavior changes or abnormalities. Unfortunately, because it is usually so difficult to accept that sexual abuse may be occurring, the adult may misinterpret the signals and feel that the child is merely being disobedient or insolent. The reaction to the disclosure of abuse then becomes disbelief and rejection to the child's statements.

The child victim may be the only witness and the child's statements may also be the only evidence that sexual abuse has occurred. In such cases, the central issue sometimes becomes-can the child's statements be trusted as true? Some child welfare experts believe that children never lie about sexual abuse and that their statements must always be believed.

According to Douglas Besharov, it is the job of the child protective agency to make the determination as to whether or not sexual abuse has occurred. As a general rule, all doubts should be resolved in favor of making a report. A child who describes being sexually abused should be reported unless there is clear reason to disbelieve the statement. According to the American Humane statistics, only 2-8% of all reports of child sexual maltreatment are deliberately false.