Two studies examined interactions between victim age and victim response, and victim relation to perpetrator and victim response influencing perceptions of child sexual abuse (CSA). Undergraduates read one of several vignettes describing a sexual encounter between a man and a girl. In Experiment 1, age of the girl was varied; victim age interacted with victim response to increase ratings of abuse and expected trauma for the girl. In Experiment 2, age was held constant while victim relation to perpetrator was varied; men gave higher ratings of abuse than did women for scenarios involving a step father rather than a neighbor, regardless of victim response. In both studies, psychotherapy was expected to help the victim more than the perpetrator and the law was judged to be less stringent than it is regarding CSA. Results suggest that perceptions of CSA are influenced by several factors and that laws regarding CSA may not be well understood.

We used an analogue experimental method to assess how undergraduate students from two universities in the southwestern United States (n=241) would perceive same gender peers disclosing a history of sexual abuse in childhood (CSA), in comparison to those disclosing a death of their mother or of a pet. Consistent with hypotheses, males perceived a peer disclosing CSA less positively than peers disclosing the other two histories. Women's perceptions were less globally negative, with anticipations that peers disclosing CSA would have poorer health and interpersonal adjustment, but strengths in coping and likeability. We also examined participants' expectations of how a peer would evaluate their own self description, finding gender differences and differences based upon personal history of CSA.

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