This study ws aimed at understanding the particular experiences of children who have been sexualy abused, with regrds to their experiences in court.With the high prevalence of sexual abuse in South Africa, many children are forced to testify against the alleged perpetrators of these crimes in public courts. Several reforms have been introduced into the child justice system, inorder to make the process of child testimony more child-friendly. The research explicated the children's expereinces of the new courtroom procedures and it was found that some aspects of the legal process were indeed experienced as a form of secondary traumatisation.

Sexual abuse of children has been a problem for decades not only in South Africa, but internationally. There is little evidence that any preventative measures are working effectively. In this study the focus was not on the victim but on the perpetrator of sexual abuse. The researcher aimed at enabling eight adult male sexual offenders to describe explicitly their lived experience of child sexual abuse. The study used a method in which offenders were asked to describe their feelings prior to, during the process and after sexually abusing the child. The researcher believed that verbalisation of how it feels to sexually abuse the child would augment the available knowledge about perpetrators. This information may be used in devising ways and means of minimising the occurrence of sexual abuse. It might serve as a springboard for professional people working with offenders to uncover cognitive skills for sexual offenders to use whenever having thoughts of sexually abusing the child. Respondents were Blacks, Indians and Whites who had been sentenced and were in treatment programmes either at the Correctional Supervision Centre or at Childline in Durban. Treatment at these rehabilitation centres was a condition of sentence for all of them. Their ages ranged from 25-48 years. Five of them were married and three were single men. Svensson"s (1986) phenomenological method was used in analysing data. The findings of this study revealed that for these offenders the major contributing factors to this behaviour was a conflictual adult heterosexual relationship and the fact that other females have more than one sexual partner. Findings also revealed that children are experienced by sexual offenders as being satisfying sexually, non-judgemental, non-threatening and accepting. These findings were examined in relation to theory, their implications for future research, the strengths and shortcomings of the study were also described. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

The following qualitative study explored self-reported iatrogenic effects of intervention with data collected through semi-structured interviews. This small clinical sample consisted of four female adult "survivors" between the age of 34 and 47 who had experienced childhood sexual abuse perpetrated by at least one caregiver. The findings indicated significant iatrogenic effects particularly for the victims who disclosed in childhood that included a strong theme of betrayal by the systems that were supposed to protect them. One woman continued to be sexually abused, while another woman was returned to the home where she had been physically abused, following no intervention and/or protection by child protection services. Although other services such as police, crown attorney, medical and therapeutic systems were involved in some of these situations, the survivors perceived these as inadequate and leading to strong distrust of intervention. In contrast, those survivors who disclosed again in adulthood reported a significantly improved experience with less iatrogenic effects. The iatrogenic effects of intervention require further research with a larger and diversified sample in order to identify current iatrogenic effects of each intervention for children and survivors.

This study ws aimed at understanding the particular experiences of children who have been sexualy abused, with regrds to their experiences in court.With the high prevalence of sexual abuse in South Africa, many children are forced to testify against the alleged perpetrators of these crimes in public courts. Several reforms have been introduced into the child justice system, inorder to make the process of child testimony more child-friendly. The research explicated the children's expereinces of the new courtroom procedures and it was found that some aspects of the legal process were indeed experienced as a form of secondary traumatisation.

Thesis (M.A.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2007. / "Specialization: Criminal Investigations"--T.p. Title from PDF title page (viewed on Oct. 30, 2007). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-87). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1994. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [96]-106).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University.

Thesis (M.S.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2008. / Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bantley. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Criminal Justice." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-45). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.