Child Sexual Abuse Sexual abuse of a child sometimes creates confusion in the family. Families who experience child sexual abuse tend to have difficulty talking about the abuse. Around one in four girls and one in five boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. Child sexual abuse occurs in every socioeconomic, ethnic, cultural, religious and educational background. Getting treatment for a victim of child sexual abuse is a difficult process due to a lack of trust on the part of the child. When child sexual abuse occurs, the victim's family has difficulty talking about the abuse, which leads the family to pretend the abuse never happened. Once the family ignores the abuse, it tends to leave the child to face his or her worst fears alone. When sexual abuse occurs on a child, the abuser is usually someone the child knows such as a relative, friend, babysitter, etc. The perpetrator is a person the child knows and trusts. In my opinion, sexual abuse is very traumatic for the family, especially for the child. Sexual abuse can divide the family, especially if the family takes sides over whether or not the abuse occurred. One way to help families overcome this traumatic event is to provide care to the victim and their family. Therapy for families who have experienced sexual abuse can be helpful. By helping the family heal from the event and helping them rebuild their lives by teaching them different coping strategies, families can learn to support each other and the victim. Treatment for child sexual abuse can be difficult, but some of the articles I have read state that individual and group therapy are effective. Individual therapy has sh...... half of paper ......., & Fleming, J. (2006). Long-term effects of child sexual abuse. [National Child Protection Clearinghouse.] Retrieved from http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/issues9.htmlNational Associations to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children (NAPSAC) and Twin City Public Television (Co-producers). (2008). Saving Children: The sex abuse tragedy [DVD] (Available from the National Association to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children at http://www.napsac.usSwan, N. (1998). Exploring the Role of Child Abuse on Subsequent Abuse of drugs. Research addresses large gaps in information. Notes from NIDA, National Institute on Drug Abuse. Retrieved from http://www.nida.nih.gov/nida_noles/nnov/13n2/exploring.html.US Department of Health and Human Services (2010). Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act Retrieved from http://ww.acf.hns.gov/programs/cb/laws/policies/cblaws/capta03/capital/manual.pdf.