| Summary: | Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a global problem and South Africa has been identified as a high-
CSA incidence country (Jewkes, 2002; Meier, 2002; New York Times, 2002 cited in Women’s
International Network, 2002). Belgium is a low-CSA incidence country (Finkelhor, 1994) and
the comparison of two similar populations from these countries would elucidate differences in
unwanted sexual experiences of these two settings, reflecting social and cultural variables that
may affect the problem. Back, Jackson, Fitzgerald, Shaffer, Salstrom and Osman (2003),
contend that very few studies have compared individuals of different nationalities and also
those residing in their own countries, which limits the understanding of potential cultural
differences regarding CSA. In their study of 65 North American and 88 Singaporean women
college students they found 15,4% of North American respondents had been exposed to CSA
compared to 4,5% of Singaporean respondents, the majority of whom did not consider
themselves as being abused. Miller, Johnson and Johnson (1991) contend that self-report
biases and definitional problems permeate CSA research and they developed an Early Sexual
Experience Checklist (ESEC) which seeks to avoid such problems. They argued that, because
the ESEC assesses an explicit variety of non-coital responses and provides a non-restrictive
response format, a high incidence of unwanted sexual experiences may be reported as is the
case in their study.
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