The Problem with Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome
See the abstract below from this article:
Citation
O'Donohue, W., & Benuto, L. (2012). Problems with child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome. The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice: Objective Investigations of Controversial and Unorthodox Claims in Clinical Psychology, Psychiatry, and Social Work, 9(1), 20–28.
Abstract
Summit (1983; 1992) published two influential articles describing the Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome (CSAAS). In his first article (Summit, 1983) he described, among other claims, that the accommodation syndrome consisted of five major components: 1) secrecy; 2) helplessness; 3) entrapment and accommodation; 4) delayed unconvincing disclosure; and 5) recantation. In his second article. Summit (1992) described what he saw as abuses of the CSAAS. He was particularly concerned that the CSAAS was being misused in court when it was used to "diagnose" whether or not abuse has occurred. Although this syndrome has received significant attention in legal settings as well as in the literature, including two recent highly critical reviews (London, Bruck, Ceci, & Shuman, 2005; London, Bmck, Wright, & Ceci, 2008), not all of its problems have been articulated. In this article we point out 21 problems with CSAAS categorized into three major domains. We conclude that given the number and seriousness of these problems, the CSAAS should be considered as an exemplar of junk science and should not be used in any way in any context particularly in legal settings, where impactful decisions are being made. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)