Noemí Pereda

SEXUAL ABUSE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD: CHARACTERISTICS, EPIDEMIOLOGY AND CONSEQUENCES

SUMMARY

This paper will discuss the characteristics of sexual abuse of children in early childhood, understood as the vital stage from birth to 6 years of age, which corresponds to the preschool period. At the same time, the difficulties in establishing the true magnitude of this problem will be presented, given the scarcity of studies with samples of such young children. The consequences derived from such an experience at such early ages of development will also be analyzed, ranging from bonding problems to sexualized behaviors and other indicators of discomfort. Finally, there will be time to discuss the difficulties in preschoolers sexual abuse evaluation, the intervention with these very young victims and how we can prevent this form of victimization in the youngest children.

BIOGRAPHY

She received her PhD in Clinical and Health Psychology in 2006 from Barcelona University. Professor of Victimology, she taught in Criminology degree, as well as in different masters and postgraduate studies in different Spanish universities. She specialized in developmental victimology, highlighting for her work in the field of child sexual abuse. She has several papers and book chapters in child sexual abuse field, and use to collaborate with Dr. David Finkelhor team in the “Crimes against Children Research Center of the University of New Hampshire”, and Dr. Manuel P. Eisner team in the “Institute of Criminology of the University of Cambridge”. She actually is adviser of the WHO European Regional Office in the Child and Youth violence in Spain study. She also is an expert adviser in the Save the Children association, and a member of the advisory board on the Grievance Trustee in Catalonia. In addition to all this, she participates in training and counseling tasks in different professional colleges, city councils, official institutions and non-governmental associations, such as the Vicki Bernadet Foundation, where she is a member of the Board of Trustees; or RANA Foundation. Since 2009, she is directing the Grupo de Investigación en Victimización Infantil y Adolescente (GReVIA). Nowadays, she is ICREA Academia 2016 researcher, focusing only on her research tasks.