Outline for the development of a screening procedure for children who have been sexually abused

Objective: Child sex abuse has become an increasingly well-researched phenomenon. Issues addressed include preconditions of abuse, short-term and long-term effects on the child, therapeutic interventions to help overcome the effects of abuse, and treatment of perpetrators. However; lack of reliable and nonintrusive detection and disclosure techniques remains a main obstacle for obtaining exact data regarding prevalence of child sex abuse, initiating effective treatment of the child, and ensuring adequate sentencing of the perpetrator. Method: This article outlines the potential for a reliable and nonintrusive screening procedure based on the stimulus equivalence paradigm. Results: The main issue addressed in three experiments was how current stimulus equivalence procedures may be relined to identify specific social experiences.