Usage Outside of Scholarly Discussions
Despite the authors' comments that the findings of the paper "do not imply that moral or legal definitions of or views on behaviors currently classified as CSA" should be changed, it caught the attention of, and was used by, advocates for pedophilia. The paper was cited, reviewed, and posted to the Internet by numerous advocacy groups. It has been used to argue that the age of consent should be lowered or abolished, and it has been used in criminal court in the U.S. by attorneys defending those accused of child sexual offenses.
Social psychologist Carol Tavris noted several other groups that reacted negatively to the study. The anti-homosexuality group NARTH, who believe that homosexuality is caused by seduction of a child by an adult, objected to the study's implications that boys who are sexually abused are not traumatized for life and become homosexuals in the process. Therapists who supported the existence of recovered memories and recovered-memory therapy, as well as those who attributed mental illnesses such as dissociative identity disorder, depression and eating disorders to repressed memories of sexual abuse also rejected the study. Tavris attributed this rejection to the fear of malpractice lawsuits. Tavris herself believed that the study could have been interpreted positively as an example of psychological resilience in the face of adversity, and noted that CSA causing little or no harm in some individuals is not an endorsement of the act, nor does it make it any less illegal.
Read more about this topic: Rind Et Al. Controversy
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