Escape/Aggression Incidence in Sexually Abused Juvenile Delinquents

• Author: Sara E. Gutierres,John W. Reich
• Published date: 01 September 1979
• Date: 01 September 1979
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/009385487900600303
• Subject Matter: Articles

239

ESCAPE/AGGRESSION

INCIDENCE

IN

SEXUALLY

ABUSED

JUVENILE

DELINQUENTS

JOHN

W.

REICH

SARA

E.

GUTIERRES

Arizona

State

University

Authors’

Note:

Requests

for

reprints

should be

sent

to

Dr.

John

W.

Reich,

Department

of

Psychology,

Arizona

State

University,

Tempe,

Arizona

85281.

The

psychological

impact

of

sexual

abuse

on

children

is

not

a

well-understood

phe-

nomenon.

It

has

been

suggested,

however,

that

such

an

experience

renders

the

child

more

aggressive

and

antisocial.

Juvenile

delinquency

crime

data

represent

a

strong

test

of

that

assumption.

This

study

reports

a

continuation

of

prior

research

testing

a

theo-

retical

model

which

predicts

that

juveniles

subjected

to

abuse

will

not

become

aggressive

but

will

engage

in

escape

and

social

avoidance

behaviors.

Analysis

of

the

juvenile

delin-

quency

patterns

of

sexually

abused

children

later

arrested

for

juvenile

crimes

supported

the

hypothesis

derived

from

the

theoretical

model.

Abuse

did

not

lead

to

aggression

significantly

more

than

in

a

control

sample

of

nonabused

juveniles,

but

did

significantly

increase

the

frequency

of

escape

infractions.

nly

recently

has

there

developed

an

active

research

concern

with

the

issue

of

child

sexual

abuse.

Knowing

the

impact

of

a

sexual

abuse

experience

on

a

child

has

twofold

importance:

Knowledge

of

its

short-

and

long-term

consequences

would

be

useful

for

testing

theories

about

abusive

experiences

per

se,

and

it

is

also

potentially

useful

in

developing

helping

techniques

for

the

victims.

Not

only

is

there

a

relative

lack

of

conceptual