Based upon interviews with survivors, perpetrators, and mothers, this book answers questions that many people have.

INTRODUCTION
What Child Sexual Abuse Means to Abusers and Child Survivors
Child survivors think abuse is their fault; Perpetrators know otherwise

Perpetrators rarely think of child sexual abuse as abuse. They believe sexual abuse is many other things, such as love, affection, play, comfort, a thrill, a high, a teaching moment, or payback.

For many, sexual abuse is love. These perpetrators say they have fallen in love, what they do is love, they are having a love affair with the children, they want to run away with the children, and they want to marry them. They make claims that the sex is mutually pleasing. They often become angry and disgusted when they hear that someone else is sexually abusing children. “String them up!” they say. In their minds, what they do is love while what others do is abuse.

Those who see sexual abuse as play giggle and joke about the sexual touching they do or have the children do to them. They may play games like “You show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.” Some feel like children themselves. Many men who abuse boys establish a kind of “buddy” relationship with the boys where wrestling and “horsing” around lead to sexual contact. ...

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Jane Gilgun, Alankaar Sharma
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THE AUTHORS
JANE F. GILGUN, PH.D., LICSW
Jane F. Gilgun, Ph.D., LICSW, is professor, School of Social Work, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA. She has done research on child sexual abuse for more than twenty-five years, focusing on perpetrators and survivors in order to discover what child sexual abuse means to them and why some people sexually abuse children while persons with similar risks do not.

She has had many other research projects, including documenting client change in a program for children at risk to enter the juvenile justice system, children in treatment foster care, and adoption of children with special needs. Her primary practice experience has been with abused and neglected children and their families at Rhode Island (USA) Child Welfare Services.

She has published widely, most recently on a new approach to child and family assessment that includes resilience, cognitive schemas, gender issues, and neuropscholgy and on the four cornerstonres of evidence-based practice. She has presented locally, nationally, and internationally on child sexual abuse, other forms of violence, resilience, and treatment approaches that build on client strengths.

She has many publications available at janegilgun.com, helium.com, fionaspeaks.blogspot.com, and ssw.che.umn.edu/Faculty_Profiles/Gilgun_Jane.html Many of these publications are free.

Professor Gilgun has a Ph.D. in child and family studies from Syracuse University, USA, a master's in social work from the University of Chicago, and a licentiate in family studies and sexuality from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. In addition, she has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English literature.

ALANKAAR SHARMA, M.S.W.
Alankaar Sharma, M.S.W., is a Ph.D. student at the School of Social Work, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA.

His interests in social work lie at the intersections of childhood, violence, gender, and sexuality. He has a master’s degree in social work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India. He is specifically curious about exploring and understanding masculinities in today’s age and time across different societies and cultures and interested in pro-feminist men’s movements.

His work as a social work practitioner, researcher, activist, and trainer in the area of child sexual abuse, child labor, sex-selective feticide, and violence against women has taken him to different parts of India and other countries such as Afghanistan, Singapore and Philippines.

In India, he helped start Tulir, a non-profit organization committed to preventing and addressing child sexual abuse. He has also contributed towards developing resources for children, parents, families and schools aimed at building awareness and generating sensitive response on child rights and child sexual abuse.

He likes listening to folk music from around the world, reading fiction, scribbling poetry, and dreaming of traveling to Iceland.

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