Let's stop right there for now. I believe the term sexual abuse, like rape, is a word that has become so politically charged and ambiguous that it's generally best to use alternatives if possible such as unlawful sexual interaction. For evidence to its ambiguousness, I'll quote wordnik.com:
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[1] from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
noun Criminal sexual activity, especially that involving a victim below the age of sexual consent or incapable of sexual consent.
[2] from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
noun Any sexual activity that is undesired by one participant but forced by another participant nonetheless.
[3] from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun a statutory offense that provides that it is a crime to knowingly cause another person to engage in an unwanted sexual act by force or threat
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Source:
https://www.wordnik.com/words/sexual abuse
The astute observer will have noted a few things:
1- The first definition can lead one to believe that it is only sexual abuse if one of the participants is essentially not allowed to engage in sexual activity with someone else by law. No mention of desirability, threat or force is mentioned.
2- The second and third definitions could lead on to believe that it only involves sexual interactions that are undesired by one of the participants and is forced upon them.
For those who prefer Merriam Webster, their definitions are here:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/legal/sexual abuse
Like the definitions quoted, they run into the same types of problems.
Often according to whom? At this point, I think we need studies rather than statements without supporting evidence. In post #5, I referenced a summary of a study that gets into how young males and females who have had sexual experiences with adults reported said experiences. Quoting from said article:
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Importance of age difference
In minor-older sex, partner age difference mattered for girls but not boys. Boys reacted positively, equally so for minor-peer and minor-older sex (77 vs. 78% at the time). Girls involved with older persons reacted positively slightly more than a third of the time (35–36%), which was just over half as often as girls involved with peers for reactions at the time (61%). Adolescent (12+) girls sexually involved with adult males 5 to 7 years older, however, reacted no more negatively than when involved with peer-aged males.
Girls in younger age groups, going from 15–17 to 12–14 to under 12, progressively reacted more negatively and less positively. For boys, on the other hand, those in the adolescent range (12–14 and 15–17) reacted nearly the same, with only younger boys (under 12) showing more negative and less positive reactions.
Boys with adults reacted negatively at the time (9.8%) significantly less often than boys with older minors (28.6%). They also reacted positively at the time more often than boys with older minors (83.0% vs. 66.7%).
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Source:
https://mirror.amapin.love/download/rind-2022-your-5-minute-guide/
Near the end of the article, the following statement is made that I think is rather important:
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. No adult-adult comparison.
• The importance of surveying adult-adult reactions is demonstrated by the Kinsey samples. Unlike the minor- peer reactions in the present study (which were the same or superior to minor-adult reactions), these adult- adult reactions were the same or inferior to the minor-adult reactions.
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