The rise in highly publicized cases of sexual assault, along with offenders in these cases alluding that those alleged victims were being untruthful about their claims, has fostered myths about false reporting of sexual assault, increasing discussions over fears of being falsely accused. This study uses an exploratory approach to identify the…

Background: Child maltreatment (CM) is a serious societal problem that needs to be reported in order to be dealt with. Teachers, who are in a key position to identify and report CM, often do not report it and this instigated much research on teachers' intention to report CM. However, most of this research examined potentially related variables…

This study investigated personal and professional predictors of professional school counselors' (N = 220) accurate recognition and appropriate reporting of child sexual abuse. Additionally, this study examined instances when school counselors suspected child sexual abuse but intentionally elected not to report it and explored considerations that…

Scholars have highlighted the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses. Universities are generally equipped to address victimization through a range of resources, including counseling and psychological services. These resources are instrumental for posttrauma recovery, but students must be aware of and willing to use available services.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate predictors related to personal characteristics (i.e., level of moral reasoning and personal attitudes toward reporting child sexual abuse) and professional characteristics (i.e., experience, and training) of the professional school counselor influencing ability to accurately recognize and likelihood to…

Using a sample of 2,838 students from a Southwestern university in the United States, the authors examine the effect of respondent's gender, the adult's gender, the age gap between the adult and teen, and the adult's authority, on students' perceptions of vignettes describing adult-teen sexual relationships. Specifically, the authors investigate…

This article provides new findings from a national study involving 18 forensic interview sites of 137 children who were randomly assigned to a four or eight session extended evaluation. Cases assigned to the eight session protocol were significantly more likely to be classified "credible disclosure" of sexual abuse (56.6%) than cases assigned to…

Sexual harassment of college students may lead to more serious forms of sexual assault. Few studies have investigated sexual harassment predictors framed within competing theoretical perspectives. In this study, the literature is extended by examining (a) three types of sexual harassment on a college campus, (b) the nature of reporting, and (c)…

Relations between (a) serious suicidal ideation and attempts and (b) demographics, trauma history, assault characteristics, post-assault outcomes, and psychosocial variables were examined among female adult sexual assault survivors. Younger, minority, and bisexual survivors reported greater ideation. More traumas, drug use, and assault disclosure…

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal funds directed at child abuse implement mandated reporting laws. As a result, all states have adopted legislation requiring teachers and other professionals who deal with children to report suspicions of child abuse. The federal mandate for such…

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate disclosure rates and disclosure patterns and to examine predictors of non-disclosure in a sample of male and female adolescents with self-reported experiences of sexual abuse. Method: A sample of 4,339 high school seniors (2,324 girls, 2,015 boys) was examined with a questionnaire concerning…

Objective: Controversy abounds regarding the process by which child sexual abuse victims disclose their experiences, particularly the extent to which and the reasons why some children, once having disclosed abuse, later recant their allegations. This study examined the prevalence and predictors of recantation among 2- to 17-year-old child sexual…

Examines correlates of offender confession in criminal sexual conduct cases involving children. The following four variables are associated with suspect confession: (1) having the state police conducting the law enforcement part of the investigation, (2) more serious abuse, (3) younger age of the suspect, and (4) having a court appointed (as…

The purpose of this study was to compare how parental support, attachment of the parent, and the child's report regarding the quality of the parent/child relationship differentially relate to child and parent reports of the child's symptomatology. After controlling for those variables that covary with it, parental support was only significantly…

This study describes the disclosure processes of 68 sexually abused girls. Circumstances of disclosure were found to be related to long-term psychological functioning. Girls who disclosed accidentally were younger, experienced abuse for shorter durations, and received the most therapy. At follow-up, those who purposefully disclosed had greater…