Child sexual abuse (CSA) has been shown to differ depending on the relationship between child complainant and defendant, yet no found studies have compared intra-familial and extra-familial CSA in Sweden. The present thesis aimed to study quantitative differences between alleged intra-familial and extra-familial cases of CSA. Cases from Swedish District Courts (n = 174) of sexual abuse against children up to 7 years old were analyzed. In line with previous research, several differences in characteristics between alleged intra- and extra-familial cases were found. A significant difference in juridical decision to convict or acquit was also shown, with more intra-familial cases resulting in acquittal and more extra-familial cases resulting in conviction. Extra-familial relationship was also a significant predictor to conviction. Future studies may want to further examine whether an explanation for the difference in juridical decision could be found in differences in evidence provided. / Fall rörande sexuella övergrepp på barn har visats vara olika beroende vilket förhållande det målsägande barnet och den anklagade har. Trots det har inga svenska studier hittats som jämför rättsfall som berör sexuella övergrepp på barn med avseende på skillnader mellan fall som skett inom och utom familjen. Syftet med denna examensuppsats var att undersöka kvantitativa skillnader mellan påstådda rättsfall av sexuella övergrepp som skett inom och utom familjen. Rättsfall som berörde sexuella övergrepp på barn upp till 7 år från svenska tingsrätter (n = 174) analyserades. I linje med tidigare forskning påvisades flertalet skillnader mellan fall som skett inom och utanför familjen. Det påvisades även en signifikant skillnad i domstolens beslut att fria eller fälla, med fler friade fall som skett inom familj och fler fällda fall där det påstådda brottet skett utanför familj. En utom-familjär relation mellan målsägande och anklagade var dessutom en signifikant prediktor för en fällande dom. Förslag på framtida forskning kan vara att vidare undersöka huruvida skillnaden i beslutet att fria eller fälla kan förklaras av skillnader i tillgången på bevis.

Faculty of Humanities School of Human and Community Development 0008716g Mashils@hotmail.com / This study explored the effects of extra-familial child sexual abuse on the victims’ primary caregivers. The study focused on the experiences of ten mothers whose children were raped during the six months that preceded the study, and they were drawn from Zamokuhle and Nthabiseng clinics in Soweto. A semi-structured individual interview was used to explore the implications of the rape on the primary caregivers’ psychological well being. The data was processed using qualitative content analysis as the methodology. Findings indicate that the children were raped in their everyday environment during their mothers’ absence. The majority of the perpetrators are trusted neighbours and some used violence to coerce the children into participating. Some children concealed the rapes from their mothers and they were threatened with punishment to facilitate disclosure. The primary caregivers responded with anger post-disclosure which was directed toward different parties. They blamed the children for withholding the rape and for failing to combat it, and the perpetrators for betraying them. The mothers’ anger was exacerbated by the failure of the justice system to bring the perpetrators to book, and other people whom the mothers felt should have protected their children. In terms of causal attribution, the respondents questioned their maternal role and felt that they did not provide their children with the necessary care and protection they needed. The primary caregivers also felt that the children could have prevented the rape if they behaved differently. The rape took a toll on the relationship the mothers had with their children as some became overprotective to compensate for the protection they never provided their children with. Most mothers displayed an inability to cope post-disclosure which suggests that child sexual abuse has adverse effects on the psychological well-being of noniv offending mothers. For purposes of clarity, the word “mother” will be used interchangeably with “primary caregiver” throughout the study.

Child sexual abuse is a worldwide problem throughout the history of mankind. Under the influence of Freud in the 1890’s, an impression was established that claims of sexual abuse were the result of hysterical symptoms in women. His theory of the oedipus complex, depicted girls as fantasizing about sexual attention of their fathers. Children were blamed for their own sexual abuse. In the 1960’s, activists for children’s rights brought the plight of children to the foreground. Despite the fact that child sexual abuse is declared as a crime today, in the public opinion children are not beyond suspicion of having initiated or contributed to their own sexual abuse. Child sexual abuse ravages childhood. The effect of sexual abuse on children and their families can not be underestimated. Child sexual abuse affects the child, the parents of the child, and the support system of the child by intense feelings of guilt, anger, blame and mistrust associated with the abuse. Role confusion and transgression of interpersonal boundaries before, during, and after the sexual abuse might occur in families affected by child sexual abuse. It is indicated that the victim, parents and the family system need to undergo a healings process after the ordeal of child sexual abuse. Even though professionals agree that sexual abuse of children has an initial and a long-term negative impact on a person’s life, the cause of this harm is not always agreed on. It appears if harm to the child is caused by the incident of the sexual abuse itself, as well as through the reaction of important others to the abused child. In this study, the researcher explored through a qualitative, applied study, the experiences of adolescents’ of the parental reaction after child sexual abuse. During the literature review, the researcher found that children might hesitate to disclose their sexual abuse to adults as a result of fear. Some children fear that adults will not believe them, blame them for being abused or they fear to cause harm to the family system by the disclosure. Empirical evidence in this study added the observation that children also might not disclose their abuse to parents because they could fear possible parental anger violently expressed towards the offender after disclosure. For the respondents this might lead to the removal of the parent out of the family system, and would implicate according to them, the breaking up of the known family system. Empirical evidence in this study confirms the opinion of literature that the way in which the parental structure responds to the sexual abuse of the adolescent, may be of major importance in predicting the adolescents’ ability to come to terms with the experience. Parents not validating the incident and conjugating effect of child sexual abuse on their child, might cause re-traumatization of the child and they could have a severe negative impact on the healing process of the child. As time goes by, parents might alter their negative response to the disclosure of the abuse, but respondents in this study were not always able to accept or benefit from the changed parental reaction. / Dissertation (MSD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

Le niveau de préparation scolaire des enfants est un prédicteur important de la réussite scolaire ultérieure. Les études ont montré que la fréquentation d’un milieu de garde extra-familial avant l’entrée en maternelle influence le niveau de préparation scolaire des enfants. L’objectif de cette étude est d’examiner quels parcours de garde sont associés à une meilleure préparation scolaire autant sur le plan cognitif que socio-émotionnel. Le second objectif est d’examiner si les différents parcours de garde contribuent différemment à la préparation scolaire selon les caractéristiques socio-familiales de l’enfant. Cinq cent soixante-douze enfants ont été recrutés à partir du registre des naissances du Québec et ont été suivis de l’âge de 5 mois jusqu’à leur entrée en maternelle. Trois parcours de garde ont été considérés: la garde continue en milieu familial (F-F), la garde en milieu familial durant la petite enfance suivie de la garde en installation durant l’âge préscolaire (F-I) et la garde continue en installation (I-I). Le niveau de préparation scolaire des enfants ayant suivi un de ces parcours de garde a été comparé à celui des enfants n’ayant jamais fréquenté de façon régulière un service de garde. La dimension cognitive de la préparation scolaire a été évaluée à l’aide du test du Lollipop et la dimension socio-émotionnelle à l’aide du Questionnaire des comportements sociaux. Les résultats indiquent qu’un parcours de garde favorise la dimension cognitive de la préparation scolaire de tous les enfants, sans nuire à la dimension socio-émotionnelle : le parcours F-I. On observe en outre un effet modérateur de la scolarité maternelle : lorsque les mères ont fait des études universitaires, la préparation scolaire de leurs enfants sur les deux dimensions de la préparation scolaire est aussi élevée pour ceux qui n’ont jamais fréquenté de service de garde sur une base régulière que pour ceux qui ont suivi le parcours de garde F-I. La présente étude confirme la contribution positive des milieux de garde au développement cognitif des enfants de milieux défavorisés. De plus, les résultats de cette étude précisent quel parcours de garde est associé à la meilleure préparation scolaire des enfants. Le parcours de garde F-I pourrait contribuer à réduire l’écart entre ceux qui sont prêts à entrer à l’école et ceux qui ne le sont pas et favoriser le succès scolaire pour tous les enfants, réduisant du coup les inégalités sociales. / School readiness is an important predictor of future academic success. Studies have shown that childcare before kindergarten entry influences academic readiness of children. The objective of this study is to examine which sequences of childcare type are associated with better cognitive and socio-emotional school readiness. The second objective is to examine whether the different sequences of childcare type contribute differently to the school readiness as function of social and family characteristics. 572 children from Quebec were randomly selected from the birth’s register and were followed from 5 months of age until they entered kindergarten. Three sequences of childcare type were considered: continuous home-based care (F-F), home-based care in infancy and center care during preschool period (F-I) and continuous center care (I-I). School readiness of children following one of these sequences of childcare type was compared to those of children who have never used a regular type of care. Cognitive school readiness was assessed with the Lollipop test and socio-emotional school readiness was assessed with the Social Behavior Questionnaire. The sequence of childcare type that promotes the best cognitive school readiness without compromising the socio-emotional dimension is the F-I sequence. Conversely, when the mother had a high level of education (university), children who have stayed at home are as well prepared to enter school as the ones that had followed the F-I sequence of care. Findings of this study confirm the positive contribution of childcare on cognitive development of disadvantaged children. In addition, results of this study specify which sequence of care promotes optimal child development. Attending F-I sequence could reduce the gap between those who are ready to enter school and those who are not and thus ensure that all children start school with the same chance of success. In this way, it would be possible to reduce social inequalities.

Le niveau de préparation scolaire des enfants est un prédicteur important de la réussite scolaire ultérieure. Les études ont montré que la fréquentation d’un milieu de garde extra-familial avant l’entrée en maternelle influence le niveau de préparation scolaire des enfants. L’objectif de cette étude est d’examiner quels parcours de garde sont associés à une meilleure préparation scolaire autant sur le plan cognitif que socio-émotionnel. Le second objectif est d’examiner si les différents parcours de garde contribuent différemment à la préparation scolaire selon les caractéristiques socio-familiales de l’enfant. Cinq cent soixante-douze enfants ont été recrutés à partir du registre des naissances du Québec et ont été suivis de l’âge de 5 mois jusqu’à leur entrée en maternelle. Trois parcours de garde ont été considérés: la garde continue en milieu familial (F-F), la garde en milieu familial durant la petite enfance suivie de la garde en installation durant l’âge préscolaire (F-I) et la garde continue en installation (I-I). Le niveau de préparation scolaire des enfants ayant suivi un de ces parcours de garde a été comparé à celui des enfants n’ayant jamais fréquenté de façon régulière un service de garde. La dimension cognitive de la préparation scolaire a été évaluée à l’aide du test du Lollipop et la dimension socio-émotionnelle à l’aide du Questionnaire des comportements sociaux. Les résultats indiquent qu’un parcours de garde favorise la dimension cognitive de la préparation scolaire de tous les enfants, sans nuire à la dimension socio-émotionnelle : le parcours F-I. On observe en outre un effet modérateur de la scolarité maternelle : lorsque les mères ont fait des études universitaires, la préparation scolaire de leurs enfants sur les deux dimensions de la préparation scolaire est aussi élevée pour ceux qui n’ont jamais fréquenté de service de garde sur une base régulière que pour ceux qui ont suivi le parcours de garde F-I. La présente étude confirme la contribution positive des milieux de garde au développement cognitif des enfants de milieux défavorisés. De plus, les résultats de cette étude précisent quel parcours de garde est associé à la meilleure préparation scolaire des enfants. Le parcours de garde F-I pourrait contribuer à réduire l’écart entre ceux qui sont prêts à entrer à l’école et ceux qui ne le sont pas et favoriser le succès scolaire pour tous les enfants, réduisant du coup les inégalités sociales. / School readiness is an important predictor of future academic success. Studies have shown that childcare before kindergarten entry influences academic readiness of children. The objective of this study is to examine which sequences of childcare type are associated with better cognitive and socio-emotional school readiness. The second objective is to examine whether the different sequences of childcare type contribute differently to the school readiness as function of social and family characteristics. 572 children from Quebec were randomly selected from the birth’s register and were followed from 5 months of age until they entered kindergarten. Three sequences of childcare type were considered: continuous home-based care (F-F), home-based care in infancy and center care during preschool period (F-I) and continuous center care (I-I). School readiness of children following one of these sequences of childcare type was compared to those of children who have never used a regular type of care. Cognitive school readiness was assessed with the Lollipop test and socio-emotional school readiness was assessed with the Social Behavior Questionnaire. The sequence of childcare type that promotes the best cognitive school readiness without compromising the socio-emotional dimension is the F-I sequence. Conversely, when the mother had a high level of education (university), children who have stayed at home are as well prepared to enter school as the ones that had followed the F-I sequence of care. Findings of this study confirm the positive contribution of childcare on cognitive development of disadvantaged children. In addition, results of this study specify which sequence of care promotes optimal child development. Attending F-I sequence could reduce the gap between those who are ready to enter school and those who are not and thus ensure that all children start school with the same chance of success. In this way, it would be possible to reduce social inequalities.

This study explored the relationship between characteristics of children's families and their social adjustment and how extra-familial connections affect this relationship. According to human ecological theory, children who are in jeopardy through higher-risk family systems and other social forces were expected to be protected from sociocultural risks by social connections in such settings as school, church, kin groups, and neighborhood.