What Is a CSA Survivor?
A child sexual abuse, or CSA, survivor is someone who experienced molestation, rape, or other sexual activity while a minor. Survivors often experience lasting trauma that affects their personal relationships, emotional well-being, and quality of life. Whether you or someone you love has experienced sexual abuse as a child, understanding what a CSA survivor is and the resources available can help.
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Author: Kathryn Kosmides
- A Child Sexual Abuse, or CSA, survivor is someone who experienced sexual abuse, such as rape or assault, under the age of 18.
- Children suffering from abuse may become withdrawn or aggressive, and adult survivors often struggle with anxiety, depression, and PTSD.
- Those affected by CSA can seek support through various outlets, including free therapy provided by nonprofits, online group therapy, and other options.
What Is a CSA Survivor?
A CSA survivor is someone who suffered sexual abuse during their youth. More specifically, child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse involving sexual activity. Children cannot legally consent to sexual activity, and even if they believe at the time they gave consent, it is still considered child sexual abuse.
The World Health Organization has officially defined child sexual abuse as “the involvement of a child in sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to, or for which the child is not developmentally prepared and cannot give consent, or that violates the laws or social taboos of society.”
Types of Child Sexual Abuse
CSA takes many different forms and doesn’t always involve physical contact with a child. Some common examples of abusive behaviors include:
- Rape or non-consensual sexual intercourse
- Sexual assault, including groping, molestation, forced kissing, forced oral sex, and other non-consensual sexual contact
- Sexual battery or sexual assault involving the use or threat of force
- Exposure to pornographic materials, including images and videos
No form of sexual contact with a minor is consensual in the eyes of the law. Minors can’t consent to any sexual activity because they don’t have the emotional, psychological, and cognitive development to understand it. The age of consent differs by state but generally ranges from 16 to 18 years old. However, just because a child is the legal age of consent does not mean the act was automatically consensual.
Perpetrators of Child Sexual Abuse
Most perpetrators are not strangers but individuals the child knows and trusts. Understanding who can commit these offenses is crucial in recognizing warning signs and preventing abuse.
Prevalence of CSA
Although CSA is illegal under federal law and that of every state, it’s sadly all too common. Children’s Advocacy Centers reported in 2023 that it responded to 236,601 reported cases of sexual abuse. Data from the WHO stated that more than 1 billion children suffered sexual, physical, or emotional violence from 2021 to 2022.
The Impact of CSA on Survivors
Many CSA survivors suffer in silence because of fear and shame. However, they should know that sexual abuse is never their fault. Recognizing the signs of child sexual abuse can help protect children who might currently be experiencing abuse. It can also provide awareness to adult survivors of child sexual abuse.
Understanding the Signs of Abuse
One study found that CSA, including online activity, affects at least one in five children, but that number may not fully represent the extent of the problem. Many children don’t report sexual abuse because of threats, embarrassment, or a lack of trust in adults. In addition, some CSA survivors don’t recognize their childhood experiences as abuse until years later.
Even when children aren’t comfortable coming forward, they often still exhibit indicators of abuse.
Children who have suffered from child sexual abuse might exhibit the following behavior:
- Become quieter and more reserved
- Withdraw from family or friends.
- Have difficulty concentrating.
- Experience eating, sleeping, or hygiene changes
- Act out or behave aggressively or violently
- Have new problems at school
- Complain about unexplained headaches and stomachaches
- Engage in self-harm
Physical symptoms may also appear seemingly out of nowhere. For example, children who experience sexual abuse may develop sexually transmitted infections and injuries, including bruises or lacerations. In very young children, this kind of abuse can also lead to developmental delays and behavioral regressions, such as bed-wetting.
Long-Term Effects: Physical & Mental Impacts
While some of the impacts of CSA are apparent right away, others develop over time. In many cases, they don’t become apparent until adulthood, many years or even decades after the initial abuse occurred.
The potential long-term effects of child sexual abuse include the following:
- Anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder
- Dissociation and borderline personality disorder
- Sleep disturbances and eating disorders
- Health complications associated with long-term stress, such as obesity and heart disease
- Relationship and trust issues, including with family members and romantic partners
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CSA can also have serious behavioral consequences. In response to their trauma, some survivors develop unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as substance abuse, self-harm, and emotional suppression. They’re also more likely to experience suicidal ideation or attempt suicide.
Remember that a survivor’s symptoms may not always be consistent. They can fluctuate depending on your life circumstances, often becoming worse during times of high stress or when events occur that trigger memories of the abuse.
Support for CSA Survivors
If you or someone you know experienced sexual abuse as a child, options are available to help you process what happened, understand your legal rights, and move forward in the best ways possible.
Survivor CSA Support Groups
Building a support network can be critical to recovering from CSA. Having a trusted group of people who know about your past experiences reminds you that you aren’t alone on this journey.
National organizations, such as Adult Survivors of Child Abuse and RAINN, can connect you with support groups and resources in your area. You can also join online communities, such as Help for Adult Victims of Child Abuse and isurvive.org. These sites offer forums where people who have experienced CSA can communicate and share their fears, challenges, and healing strategies.
Mental Health Support
Support networks offer a valuable sense of belonging and understanding but should not serve as a substitute for professional mental health treatment. Those impacted can connect with a mental health provider through their insurance carrier, and many local nonprofit organizations offer free services.
Mental health treatment can improve your emotional well-being and allow you to open up about events you may not have previously discussed with anyone.
Legal Rights and Advocacy
If you are a CSA survivor, you have legal rights and options, including reporting to law enforcement. While anyone can report harm at any time—even if years have passed—the state’s ability to prosecute the offense will depend on a variety of facts and circumstances, including the state’s criminal statute of limitations. For instance, there is no statute of limitations for criminal charges in Florida if a minor experienced the abuse after July 1, 2020. Similarly, in New York, crimes such as first-degree rape and aggravated sexual assault have no statute of limitations.
Unfortunately, most CSA cases go underreported and underprosecuted, but filing a police report can be an important step for survivors. We encourage them to do so if they feel comfortable.
If you or someone you know has experienced child sexual abuse by someone employed by an institution, such as a religious clergy member, teacher, foster parent, coach, or other adult within an organization, you might be eligible to file a child sexual abuse lawsuit. Child sexual abuse lawsuits allow those impacted to seek compensation for their losses, which can provide the means to obtain mental health support and move forward.
Civil statutes of limitations impose deadlines for filing lawsuits. These vary by state, and some have recently amended their laws to provide more time to those impacted.
Most CSA lawsuits are filed against the institutions and organizations that enabled the abuse rather than individual perpetrators. Organizations that have faced CSA lawsuits include schools, after-school and youth programs, and religious institutions. This is because the main outcome for these cases is financial compensation, and individuals often do not have the funds to compensate survivors sufficiently.
An experienced child sexual abuse attorney can determine if you are eligible to file a CSA lawsuit and help you determine if litigation makes emotional and financial sense. Helping Survivors can connect you with an experienced CSA lawyer today who can provide a free consultation. The lawyers we work with represent clients on a contingency fee basis, meaning there are no upfront costs. They only get paid if they recover compensation.
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