Statistics show that sexual child abuse occurs more frequently among females, 7 - 13 years of age, compared to males and that 85% of abuse occurs within the home (MacLennon 1993). Such crimes demand attention not only from society, but from a psychological therapeutic standpoint as well. .
In order to foster a treatment to aid those suffering any maladaptive behavior elicited from these experiences, a number of variables need to be considered. Finkelhor states, "Sexual abuse, like many other problems of childhood, does not occur in a vacuum. A variety of other individual, family and community problems tend to accompany sexual abuse" (Finkelhor 1995, p.1421). The system of family communication, socio-economic status and marital discord are just a few external problems that can contribute to and magnify the effect of the actual act of sexual abuse.
It has been proven that therapeutic intervention facilitates children's recovery (Alexander 1989). Thus far, therapy to treat such a phenomenon has usually been through group therapy, yet a wide range of other therapies have been utilized as well. Individual therapy which focuses on the victim, family therapy which centers around helping family members cope and aid in support of the victim and play therapy for those victims that are too young to express themselves verbally, are just a few. However, the only consensus concerning which treatment works best is that any form of therapy is better than no therapy at all. No therapist can predict the exact experiences encountered by each individual victim of sexual abuse. Given such a wide range of variables that are correlated with sexual abuse and the lack of clear support for one treatment over another, it appears to be that no specific treatment can be labeled better than any other. At this point in time, a multimodal approach, that allows the therapist to exercise their clinical judgement and individualize treatment for each client would be the most effective form of therapy for sexual child abuse.