Part I focuses on the contexts and issues in studying child and adolescent sexual experiences. The first chapter presents a history of the folklore, informal sanctions, religious, and legal contexts of sexuality, including Jewish, Christian, English, and American law. Another chapter addresses the substantive issue that confronts helping professionals as they deal with the phenomenon and consequences of child and adolescent sexual experiences. Issues are the varying dimensions of sexual abuse, the quality of the family environments that provide fertile ground for sexual abuse, and societal responses to the abuse that is sometimes harmful to victims also. In chapter 3, some considerations for researchers in studying the long-range effects of sexual experiences are presented. In Part II, the findings of an original research study on the nature and long-term consequences of child/adolescent sexual experiences are presented. A description of the retrospective study of 501 women in the southeastern part of the United States encompasses the methodology used, including the measures of current adult functioning. The nature of the sexual experiences is described. Findings from analyzing differences in experiences of the women over the past 60 years debunk some prevailing myths. Differences in sexual experiences by ethnicity are examined. One chapter gives the various conditions present at the time of the sexual experiences and the respondents' responses to the experiences. The conditions studied were whether the experiences were voluntary or forced, the type of pressure used, if any, whether the partner was at least 5 years older, the size of the community the women lived in as children and as adolescents, and the differences in the sample groups. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to find the relationship between current adult functioning and background variables, sexual experiences as children and adolescents, and long-range consequences. The closing chapter examines future directions for treatment, as it summarizes current treatment programs and presents a composite treatment program for those harmed by early sexual experiences. Prevention measures, including challenging the concept of patriarchy in our culture, are considered. 156 references and author and subject indexes