Mykolas Romeris University Applied Psychology Research LAB Senior Researcher Laura Ustinavičiūtė-Klenauskė

Children’s sexual abuse is a cause for concern worldwide. The physical effects of sexual abuse can disappear over time, but the psychological trauma for the child’s psyche can be especially severe and remain even in adulthood. Keeping in mind that children often suffer such physical abuse from those in their family circle or from individuals known to them. Therefore, children remain vulnerable. It is important to determine the scope of this problem.

It is very difficult to evaluate the scope of sexual abuse against children. Minors or vulnerable children often are not equipped with the communication skills to inform about the abuse they have experienced. In some cases, they may not understand what has happened or whether the actions were appropriate or not. Sometimes adults try to forget the sexual abuse they have experienced in childhood. Or sometimes they try to hide it or force it out of their mind, as if nothing had ever happened. And despite the fact that various research data varies, depending on the group and the description of what has happened, the percentage of women who have experienced such abuse varies from 2 to 62 percent. Among men this figure is from 3 to 16 percent. (Johnson, 2004).

 The World Health Organisation describes children’s sexual abuse as any kind of sexual activity that a child is drawn into, which a child doesn’t understand fully and can’t give conscientious permission for such actions, or is not prepared according to the level of cognitive development and/or which is against the law or society’s social norms. Sexual abuse against children includes not only physical contact but also the sending of sexual texts, the showing of pornographic content or talking about sexual relations. Researchers say there are several fundamental criteria which encompass sexual abuse of children: the victim of such abuse is a child, there is no consent from both sides, the actions are of a sexual nature and include abuse (Mathews & Collin-Vezina, 2019). It is important to note that children can experience sexual abuse not only from adults, but also from their peers. The latest research data show that often the perpetrators of abuse against children are other children or minors (Kloppen, et al., 2016).

The phenomenon of children’s sexual abuse was brought to the forefront in Lithuania only in 1996. During the time of the Soviet Union, official statistics wasn’t collected about such abuse and children who experienced it. In 2000, crimes, which included and were connected with sexual abuse of children, were included in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania. Even now, according to indicators from Lithuania’s Dept. of Statistics, there were only 50 crimes in 2020, relating to sexual abuse in a close or family environment that were reported. In 2021 this figure was 47. According to 2021 data from the State Children’s Rights and Adoption Agency under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour there were 239 possible children’s sexual abuse cases reported (41 boys, 198 girls).

Adult surveys are one way of trying to determine the scope of this problem. That is why a group of Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) researchers conducted a representative survey of 2,000 young adults (18-29 years old) about their various forms of sexual abuse experienced in childhood (up to 18 years of age).

 The results indicated that 15,9% of participants had experienced sexual abuse in childhood. There were more incidents of abuse among women than men (18,5% and 13,5% respectively). The most common form of sexual abuse was sexual speech or writing about sexual incidents about an individual. The number of victims, who had reported the physical abuse, including sexual relations, was relatively small. The research also revealed that often the perpetrator was another young individual. Surprisingly, the number of individuals who had experienced sexual abuse from close family members was rather small.

 The results of the research indicated that not only adults, but also children’s peers, are an important part of sexual abusers. Therefore, trying to stop the sexual abuse of children or examining the mentioned incidents or planning intervention, it is necessary to pay attention to those factors.