PROFESSIONALS STANDARDS OF NORMAL BEHAVIOR WITH ANATOMICAL DOLLS AND FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THESE STANDARDS

Do professionals have a consistent standard of what constitutes normal behavior with anatomical dolls? To answer this question, 201 professionals who work with child sexual abuse victims were asked to rate the normalcy of various behaviors with the dolls for nonabused children ages 2 to 5.9 years. The majority of respondents agreed that overtly sexual behaviors, such as demonstrating oral-genital contact or vaginal intercourse, were abnormal for nonabused children. For less obvious behaviors, such as touching the sex parts of dolls. there was more disagreement among professionals about what these behaviors mean. The ratings of these ambiguous behaviors varied depending on profession of the respondent, gender of the respondent, and number of years of experience. Law enforcement professionals, women, and those with the least amount of experience were more likely to view ambiguous behaviors as abnormal. These findings are discussed in the context of past research, with suggestions for future studies.