Sexual abuse assumes many forms.Below is a summary. Sexual Abuse. Any form of sexual behavior from an adult to a child that causes sexual stimulation of the adult. Any sexual language that is age-inappropriate or that is intended for sexual pleasure or arousal of the adult. Visual exposure to sexual acts. Persistent, offensive or unwanted sexual remarks by peers or older children to younger, or adults to children that produces shame, embarrassment or other similar responses (adult to adult is also possible). Sexual activity acted out in a persistent manner by children upon other children as a result of visual (or physical) sexual abuse.(When children witness intimate sexual activity by parents or older siblings or through pornography, or have, themselves, been sexually abused, they will frequently act out with other children what they have seen or experienced.If thisis done to the degree they have witnessed or on a consistent basis, it can produce a skewing of sexual boundaries in both children.If this behavior covers months, or years, the consequences in future years can be profound.Sexual addiction and other compulsive/obsessive patterns can be established through this form of sexual violation.Both children, the initiator and the unknowing child-partner, are victims.No child behaves that way on his own. Child sexual activity or acting out is always a learned behavior as the result of abusive conditions.)
Sexual abuse can be placed in the following representative categories: verbal, visual, emotional, and physical. Verbal abuse consists of inappropriate sexual talking from a parent (or any adult or older teen) to a child or between parents in front of the children; sexual teasing of the child by a parent or making fun of the child sexually. Visual abuse involves witnessing intimate sexual activity between parents or other adults or teens; pornography (magazines or video/movies/television); or age-inappropriate scenes from television or movies (that are not pornographic). Emotional occurs when a child has become a surrogate spouse by meeting the emotional intimacy needs of a parent.When the parent replaces a spouse with a child in meeting those emotional needs or places a child in competition with their spouse for their affection and attention, the result is emotional sexual abuse. Physical can range from any inappropriate sexual touching or hugging (or coercing the child to do the same to the adult) to sexual intercourse.Physical sexual abuse between a parent and child is the most soul-rupturing kind of abuse.