Rind et al. controversy

The Rind et al. controversy was a debate in the scientific literature, public media, and government legislatures in the United States regarding a 1998 peer reviewed meta-analysis of the self-reported harm caused by child sexual abuse (CSA).[1] The debate resulted in the unprecedented condemnation of the paper by both chambers of the United States Congress. The social science research community was concerned that the condemnation by government legislatures might have a chilling effect on the future publication of controversial research results.

The study's lead author is the psychologist Bruce Rind; it expanded on a 1997 meta-analysis for which Rind is also the lead author.[2] The authors stated their goal was to determine whether CSA caused pervasive, significant psychological harm for both males and females, controversially concluding that the harm caused by child sexual abuse was not necessarily intense or pervasive,[3] that the prevailing construct of CSA was not scientifically valid, as it failed empirical verification, and that the psychological damage caused by the abusive encounters depends on other factors, such as the degree of coercion or force involved.[1] The authors concluded that even though CSA may not result in lifelong, significant harm to all victims, this does not mean it is not morally wrong and indicated that their findings did not imply current moral and legal prohibitions against CSA should be changed.[1]

The Rind et al. study has been criticized by many scientists and researchers, on the grounds that its methodology and conclusions are poorly designed and statistically flawed.[4][5][6] Its definition of harm, for example, has been the subject of debate, as it only examined self-reported long-term psychological effects in young adults, whereas harm can have several forms, including short-term or medical harm (for example, sexually transmitted infections or injuries), a likelihood of revictimization, and the amount of time the victim spent attending therapy for the abuse.[6] Numerous studies and professional clinical experience in the field of psychology, both before and after Rind et al.'s publications, have long borne out that children cannot consent to sexual activity and that child and adolescent sexual abuse cause harm.[7][8][9] Psychologist Anna Salter comments that Rind et al.'s results are "truly an outlier" compared to other meta-analyses.[9]

A later CSA study by Heather Ulrich and two colleagues, published in The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice, attempted to replicate the Rind study, correcting for methodological and statistical problems identified by Dallam and others, and it ultimately supported some of the Rind findings but also acknowledged the limitations of the findings, and, ultimately did not endorse Rind's recommendation to abandon the use of the term child sexual abuse in cases of apparent consent in favor of the term adult-child sex.

The Rind paper has been quoted by people and organizations advocating age of consent reform, pedophile or pederasty groups, in support of their efforts to change attitudes towards pedophilia and to decriminalize sexual activity between adults and minors (children or adolescents).[10][11]

  1. ^ a b c Rind, Bruce; Tromovitch, Philip; Bauserman, Robert (1998). "A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples" (PDF). Psychological Bulletin. 124 (1): 22–53. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.124.1.22. PMID 9670820. S2CID 16123776.
  2. ^ Rind, Bruce; Tromovitch, Philip (1997). "A meta-analytic review of findings from national samples on psychological correlates of child sexual abuse". The Journal of Sex Research. 34 (3): 237–255. doi:10.1080/00224499709551891. JSTOR 3813384.
  3. ^ Rind, Bruce; Tromovitch, Philip (2007). "National Samples, Sexual Abuse in Childhood, and Adjustment in Adulthood: A Commentary on Najman, Dunne, Purdie, Boyle, and Coxeter (2005)" (PDF). Archives of Sexual Behavior. 36 (1): 101–106. doi:10.1007/s10508-006-9058-y. PMID 17139555. S2CID 392041. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
  4. ^ Glicken, Morley D. (2010). Social Work in the 21st Century: An Introduction to Social Welfare, Social Issues, and the Profession. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE. p. 146. ISBN 978-1412975780. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  5. ^ Rosenthal, Martha (2012). Human Sexuality: From Cells to Society. Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning. p. 421. ISBN 978-0618755714. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  6. ^ a b McCoy, Monica L.; Keen, Stefanie M. (2013). Child Abuse and Neglect: Second Edition. Hove, England: Psychology Press. pp. 182–185. ISBN 978-1136322877. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Dallam2001 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Dallam was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Salter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Spiegel, Josef (2003). Sexual Abuse of Males: The Sam Model of Theory and Practice. Abingdon, England: Routledge. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-56032-403-4.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ondersma was invoked but never defined (see the help page).