Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Child Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse is one form of child abuse. It includes a wide range of actions between a child and an adult or older child. Often these involve body contact, but not always. Exposing one's genitals to children or pressuring them for sex is sexual abuse. Using a child for pornography is also sexual abuse.
Most sexual abusers know the child they abuse. They may be family friends, neighbors or babysitters. About one-third of abusers are related to the child. Most abusers are men. If you think a child may have been abused, it's important to report it.
It sits within Children and Teenagers and Sexual Health Issues.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Child Sexual Abuse
52 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- QAIAx (AIhealth4U) - AI Public Health Central: Microcity-A (re Quantum AI Agency Aka AI City Hall Project, UPSTO App Nos. 64/074,526, 64/063,557, 63/903,181, 63/729,428Veterans Recovery Network Inc.
- A Group Based Psychoeducational Intervention for Partners of Child Sexual Abuse Material Offenders.Region Stockholm
- Responsible Engaged and Loving (REAL) Fathers Intervention EvaluationUniversity of California, San Diego
- Fostering Healthy Futures for Teens: An RCTUniversity of Denver
- Evaluation of Circles of SafetyCenter for Violence Prevention Research Inc
- Rigorous Evaluation of the READY to Stand Curriculum to Prevent the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of ChildrenUniversity of Michigan
Research already completed
- Intensive Inpatient Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (II-TF-CBT) for Adolescents With PTSD Following Sexual AbuseAnkara City Hospital Bilkent
- Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Education for Primary School ChildrenTokat Gaziosmanpasa University
- Help Wanted: Evaluating a Prevention Intervention for People With Sexual Interest in ChildrenJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Tertiary Prevention of Child Sexual AbuseUniversity of Minnesota
- The Effect of the Mandala Method in Reduction of Psychological Distress During Anogenital Examination of Sexually Abused Children Aged 9-12Istanbul University - Cerrahpasa
- Facial Emotion Recognition in Patients Who Committed Sexual Assault Against Children: an EEG StudyHôpital le Vinatier
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- Sexual AbuseAmerican Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Living With
Statistics and Research
- CDC Vital Signs: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Child Abuse, Sexual. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Child Sexual Abuse, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.