Sexual abuse: An overview on causes and consequences

Sexual abuse has a wide range of connotations which includes violence on children, women as well as men. The general opinion holds that violence against women and children is more frequent, while the same acts against men are considered extremely uncommon. Possible explanations of the perpetration of this phenomenon vary from attachment patterns to having been victim of a sexual abuse during childhood. Being a victim of such kind of violence affects not only lives of victims themselves but also the lives of the victims' loved ones. Signs and symptoms are often neglected even by the closest family members and companions, but they are extremely important for timely recognition of suffered abuse and prompt action to mitigate possible consequences. Psychiatric implications include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and also self-harming behavior. Moreover, the younger the victim, the greater suffering and consequences he/she experiences. The goal of the present chapter is to highlight current knowledge about this field through clinical data analyses, in order to offer a complete vision of the problem and its implications.