Child protection professionals were interviewed regarding 175 allegations of abuse. Investigation procedures, factors associated with the decision to substantiate, and degree of confidence in decisions were recorded. Characteristics of the child's disclosure served as the primary basis for substantiation decisions. Case workers were less certain…

In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 women survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Over 160 individual strategies were coded and analyzed, and a theoretical model was developed describing causal conditions that underlie the development of survival and coping strategies, phenomena that arose from those causal conditions, contexts that influenced…

Nonoffending mothers' (n=99) self-reported symptom distress was measured across 3 groups of sexual abuse types: incest, relative, and nonrelative. A multiple regression analysis of psychosocial characteristics indicated that a mother's perceived aloneness in facing the crisis and a personal history of adult sexual assault were positively related…

Examines the experience of four female therapists working with male sex offenders on an outpatient basis, and the variety of difficulties that they faced in maintaining care of the perpetrators. Four general themes emerged: developing a positive view of perpetrators, managing client beliefs and behaviors, controlling personal reactivity, and the…

Seven intensive interviews with female college students at Roseworthy College, a rural agricultural college in South Australia, revealed that the college's historic rural masculine tradition and misogynist social environment restrict women to narrow sexual-subject positions: acting like a male; tutor/cleaner/mother/cook; "slut" versus…

Although higher education for 50% of all school leavers by 2010 is the stated aim of the United Kingdom government, it is clear that initiatives aimed at widening access do not reach those most in need. This is nowhere more true than in the case of people who have spent all or part of their childhood in the care of local authorities, and who…