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Article: The sexual abuse paradigm in historical perspective: passivity and emotion in mid-twentieth-century America.
- Article from:
- Journal of the History of Sexuality
- Article date:
- July 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 University of Texas at Austin (University of Texas Press). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WHAT MORE CAN HISTORIANS say about the sexual abuse recovery movement of the 1980s and 1990s? Its rise and fall are now well known. In the early 1980s Americans were shocked to learn that incest and child sexual abuse, formerly believed rare, were widespread. Mandatory reporting laws were passed. Statistics skyrocketed, with the percentage of American women who were "survivors of childhood sexual trauma" estimated to be between 10 and over 50 percent. In 1982 the media reported horrifying allegations by children of a sadistic and possibly satanic child sex ring run out of the McMartin preschool center in Manhattan Beach, California; similar cases emerged across the nation. ...