SEXUALIZED BEHAVIOR OF A CHILD AS A DIAGNOSTIC MARKER OF SEXUAL ABUSE

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to systematize the scientific and methodological approaches to recognizing a child’s sexualized behavior as a diagnostic marker of sexual abuse, to analyze the multilevel factors of its emergence, the psychological typology of persons who commit abuse, and the dynamics of how victims experience abuse, as well as to formulate practical guidelines for specialists of a multidisciplinary team regarding the detection of, response to, and prevention of this phenomenon.

Methodology. The methodological basis of the study is a theoretical and methodological analysis of international and domestic scholarly sources and of the normative-legal documents of the Council of Europe. Methods of theoretical analysis, synthesis, systematization, and generalization of the principles of the psychology of child sexual abuse, criminal victimology, and forensic psychology were applied. The analysis was carried out across three interrelated dimensions: the phenomenological one (differentiation of normative, alarming, and pathological manifestations of sexualized behavior), the etiological one (a multilevel model of the factors of abuse), and the applied one (an algorithm of professional response and a system of prevention).

Scientific novelty. For the first time, the scholarly discourse offers an integrated systematization of a child’s sexualized behavior as a complex diagnostic marker of sexual abuse: a three-dimensional age-based scale for assessing sexualized manifestations following the «traffic light» principle is generalized; a four-level model of the factors of abuse (individual, family, sociocultural, and crisis contexts) is substantiated; the psychological typology of offenders is systematized; and R. Summit’s five-stage accommodation syndrome model is examined in combination with contemporary forms of abuse mediated by information and communication technologies.

Conclusions. It is established that a child’s sexualized behavior is a complex psychological phenomenon whose correct assessment requires the consistent differentiation of normative, alarming, and pathological manifestations and consideration of the age norm, cultural environment, and family practices. The multifactorial etiology of child sexual abuse is substantiated, and the notion of the «classic pedophile» is refuted: the overwhelming majority of offenders are persons in a state of regression, for whom the child is a substitute object of gratification. The accommodation syndrome explains the paradoxical behavior of victims and substantiates the need to provide the child with immediate support at the moment of disclosure. Effective counteraction to abuse is possible only through the coordinated work of a multidisciplinary team, the implementation of the «Barnahus» model, and the realization of a three-level preventive strategy that takes into account the contemporary challenges of the commercial sexual exploitation of children and abuse mediated by information and communication technologies.