The Common Secret: Sexual Abuse of Children and Adolescents

This overview of a very dynamic subject fills a major and current need, for there is nothing like it in print. The Kempes have succeeded in compressing an enormous amount of knowledge into a little more than 200 pages and, using a parsimonious but thoughtful style of writing, have said just about everything that can or should now be said about child sexual abuse. Although in the introduction, they claim that the book "is not written as a scholarly text nor is it meant for experts in the field," this book could not have been written except by scholars and there are few workers in the field, however experienced, who will not benefit by reading it. Still, one hopes that the book will be used mainly by those for whom it was written: professional and lay persons who will occasionally encounter sexual abuse but who will not be working in