Is Child Sexual Abuse on the Rise?

Child sexual abuse has been a hot topic in the media lately. We've heard about Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky's allegations as well as Bernie Fine and many, many others. It sounds as though it's becoming a huge ethical issue, but that many not be the case. A study conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services found that both physical and sexual abuse of children have dropped significantly in the last 20 years. The issue seems to be that the media is misrepresenting the incidence of these accusations because many of the accusations that we hear about date back many year, so just because we hear about it now doesn't mean that the occurrence of child abuse is increasing.