Recanting Children’s Descriptions of Influences and Pressures to Recant Intrafamilial Child Sexual Abuse

Zsofia A. Szojka, Breanne E. Wylie, Agnieszka M. Nogalska, Annabel Reay, Thomas D. Lyon, School of Law and Criminology, University of Greenwich, Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, North Carolina, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Department of Psychology, University of California, Gould School of Law, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Child Maltreatment

Published online on January 02, 2026

Abstract

Child Maltreatment, Ahead of Print.
This study examined interviews with 53 4 to 15-year-old children recanting sexual abuse to determine whether they were forthcoming about potential influences and pressures that could have led them to recant. The great majority (87%) of children mentioned ...