The Four Dynamics of Sexual Abuse

After hearing quite a bit about sexual abuse in the news lately I was curious about the developmental affects caused by the perversion. After an encounter a child goes through four traumagenic dynamic. The dynamics are traumatic sexualization, betrayal, disempowerment, and finally stigmatization.

The first, traumatic sexualization is when the child’s sexuality is shaped in a developmentally inappropriate and interpersonally dysfunctional fashion due to the abuse. This can occur when the child is repeatedly regarded by an offender for sexual behavior that is inappropriate to his or her level of development. It can occur when certain parts of a child’s anatomy are fetishized, or through the misconception and confusions about sexual behavior and sexual morality that are transmitted to the child from the offender. Children that have been traumatically sexualized may have an inappropriate repertoire of sexual behavior, with confusion and misconceptions about their sexual self-concepts, and with unusual emotional associations to sexual activities.

The second, betrayal, occurs when the child discovers that someone they were vitally dependent has caused them harm. This could refer to the actual abuser or a family member that didn’t or couldn’t do anything. Those children who are disbelieved, or blamed experience a greater sense of betrayal than those who are supported. A child who was suspicious of the abuser’s actions from the start may feel less betrayal.

The third, disempowerment, is the process in which a child’s will, desires, and senses of efficacy are continually contravened. The more authoritarian the abuser the more harm done to the child’s sense of power and control. This disempowerment is reinforced when children see their attempts to stop the abuse frustrated. It can be increased when children feel fear, are unable to make adults understand or believe what is happening, or realize how conditions of dependency have trapped them in the situation.

The final dynamic, stigmatization, is the negative connotations that are communicated to the child around the abuse and then become incorporated into the child’s self-image. These negative meanings come from many places such as the abuser, who may blame, or demean the victim. Stigmatization also comes from the attitudes that the victim hears from family or community. Stigmatization may thus grow out of the child’s prior knowledge or sense that the activity is considered deviant, or, after disclosure, people react shocked, hysterical, or blame the child.