Sexual Assault, Adolescent Survivors of

Sexual assault is a prevalent and often devastating life event that affects many adolescents and can have deleterious impact on survivors and their families. The definition of sexual assault varies across scientific and legal contexts. Generally, sexual assault is defined as forced or coerced vaginal or anal penetration, oral sex, breast or genitalia fondling, or forced or coerced touching of another person’s genitalia directly or through clothing, exhibitionism, or exposure to sexual [Page 1489]activity or pornography. Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a related term that refers to sexual assault in which the victim is a minor. Thus, the term sexual assault is generally used for events that occur during adulthood, whereas the term CSA is generally used for events that occur during childhood or adolescence.

Much ...