The normal-sexual-fantasy consideration in sex-abuse evaluations

Differentiating between children's true and false sexual-abuse accusations can be a formidable task. The problem is compounded by sonic evaluators who make the assumption that normal children no not have sexual fantasies. Suc h evaluators may take the position, "Normal children do not have such thoug hts. Children who have such thoughts must have ban such experiences, or whe re else would the thoughts have come from?" Strict adherence to this positi on has contributed to tbe incarceration of some individuals who indeed did not molest the accusing child. To deny that children have sexual fantasies is to deny reality. Such fantasies can emerge normally and spontaneously in the mind of nonabused children and examiners who do not consider this poss ibility run the risk of concluding that a child was abused when there is no goon evidence for such. In this article the ubiquity of normal children se xual fantasies is discussed and then a clinical example is presented which demonstrates compelling that children can create sexual fantasies that cann ot possibly have any basis in reality.