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Abuse Disclosure: What Adults Can Tell

Thomas D. Lyon, University of Southern California

Article comments

Forthcoming in Bottoms, B.L., Goodman, G.S., & Najdowski, C.J. (eds.), Child Victims, Child Offenders: Psychology and Law (New York: Guilford). This paper can be downloaded at http://works.bepress.com/thomaslyon/57/

The full text of this version of the article is not currently available online.

Abstract

This book chapter reviews 14 retrospective surveys inquiring into respondent’s child abuse experiences and whether they ever disclosed abuse as children. I discuss the advantages of retrospective surveys (representativeness, reduced likelihood of false allegations, reduced suspicion bias). However, I also emphasize the likelihood of survey reluctance, and explain how this biases upwards estimates of abuse victims’ prior disclosure. If respondents who previously disclosed abuse are more likely to acknowledge abuse to a surveyor than respondents who never previously disclosed abuse, respondents who acknowledge abuse are disproportionately likely to be those who have previously disclosed. Difficulties notwithstanding, the research supports the proposition that most sexual abuse is not disclosed during childhood, and that, indeed, disclosure is difficult even for older respondents, particularly so in cases of intrafamilial abuse.

Subject Area

Criminal Law and Procedure, Domestic Relations, Evidence, Juveniles, Psychology and Psychiatry

Recommended Citation

Thomas D. Lyon, "Abuse Disclosure: What Adults Can Tell" (May 2009). University of Southern California. University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series. Working Paper 39.
http://law.bepress.com/usclwps/lss/art39

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