Definition of "sexual abuse" []

• The forcing of unwanted sexual activity by one person on another, as by the use of threats or coercion. (noun)
• Sexual activity that is deemed improper or harmful, as between an adult and a minor or with a person of diminished mental capacity. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "And Bob Shoop, a Kansas State University education professor and expert witness in thirty court cases involving sexual abuse in schools, summed it up this way: I think our society sort of says to the boy: ‘Congratulations, that’s great."
• "Instead of identifying women who are known to have suffered sexual abuse based upon records and then asking them if they remember the abuse, psychologist Jonathan Schooler and others have identified women who have uncovered memories of childhood sexual abuse and then found corroborating evidence for the abuse."
• "On the other side of the battle was the False Memory Syndrome Foundation,24 founded by family members accused of childhood sexual abuse by their adult children."