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Child Sex Offenders Essay

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Sexual abuse is prevalent worldwide which is extremely eye opening especially since a good portion involves children under the age of eighteen (18). There are many types of abusive situations where children are involved. The psychological effects that sexual abuse leaves behind will last a lifetime even with all of the therapy available. There are many types of offenders but the focus here will be more on child sexual abuse and exploitation of children. Child sex offenders are described as feeling a sense of worthlessness, not able to handle adult relationships as well as low self-esteem. The author describes the offender as having similar characteristics to rapists. The child doesn’t threaten the offender which makes it easy to communicate …show more content…

However, if the child is not monitored or educated properly, it could leave the child vulnerable and the person on the other end could be a child sex offender grooming the child. Children can be exploited through sexting, pornography including virtual child pornography, pimps & prostitution and human trafficking rings (Terry, 2015, p 139, 149-150; 152-153). Children that are abused may not be aware of what is or isn’t abuse if they are too young which can go unreported for a long period of time or not reported at all. Also, they may be afraid because their abuser threatened them, especially if this is a human trafficking situation. There are many emotions that children go through after abuse and ways they cope with it. As with death, there are phases that sexually abused victims go through. That is of reactions after learning coping mechanisms for abusive situations which are “denial, anger, grief, depression, taking action and acceptance”. The initial reaction is shock and the victim will feel guilt and shame. Not only does the victim go through all of this but the victim’s family has to go through this with them (Terry, 2013, p.

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