Laws changed with evolving child sex abuse awareness

Published: 2004-02-23

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The awareness of and research on sexual abuse of children as a problem in the United States is intimately tied up with the evolution of laws in that area in the last half-century. On Feb. 27 the National Review Board on sexual abuse formed by the U.S. Catholic bishops is releasing a study that goes back more than 50 years to examine the incidence of sexual abuse of minors by priests and deacons. While the study goes back to 1950, U.S. public awareness of sexual abuse of children as a significant social problem did not emerge until the 1970s or '80s -- and then only as a result of attention to physical maltreatment of minors by family members that emerged in the 1960s. "It was not until the 1960s ... that child maltreatment issues prompted nationwide interest in protecting the physical and mental well-being of children," says a 2002 paper, "Current Trends in Child Maltreatment and Reporting Laws," by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information.

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