The Best Kept Secret: Sexual Abuse of Children

Florence Rush has done an excellent job in delineating the problem of the sexual abuse of children. If this book does nothing else, it may alert people, parents in particular, to the extent of the problem, the denial that often accompanies it, and certain strategies of defence. On the minus side, Rush seems to assume that nearly all the sexual abuse that occurs is perpetrated on females, and while she does devote one chapter to the sexual abuse of males, she seems to regard this as the exception rather than the rule (I find this odd, consodering that mosr abusers seem to be male, and sexual predators have been found almost invariably to have been victims of similar crimes themselves). Also was a rather pointless excerpt about why Lewis Carroll was not a child molester, but merely a bloke who liked little girls (? ). Anyway, the book is an excellent resource for everybody despite it's shortcomings, and should be read by all people, but parents in particular.