The sexual abuse of children portrayed in the recounting of actual events includes child pornography; the homosexual and heterosexual seduction of children, including incest; child prostitution; and sexually oriented physical torture often ending in murder. The perpetrators of such child abuse are parents of the children involved, many of whom force their children into pornography for the money or use their children to satisfy their own sexual appetites; pedophiles, who can be found in all social classes and occupational groups; pimps, who often seduce and intimidate young runaways into prostitution; businessmen, who see the high demand and sizable profits associated with child pornography; and organized crime, which is always quick to use its machinery and methods to dominate lucrative and exploitative markets with low legal risks. The effects of these sordid experiences on the victims are life-scarring. Guilt, shame, and negative self-images are spawned, and love relationships with nonabusive sex become difficult if not impossible to experience. Alienation from normative society, absorption in an exploitative sexually oriented subculture, drug addiction, and even suicide are often the outcomes for those sexually abused as children. The passing of legislation prohibiting various forms of child sexual abuse, aggressive law enforcement, and public outrage have done much to curtail the mushrooming problem, but the socioeconomic dynamics that produce child sexual abuse still exist to fuel its underground forms. Behavioral science research into the roots of such perversion should be used as a basis for developing broad-based social programs that can prevent and modify child abuse behavior. Appended are a partial list of State laws prohibiting the sexual exploitation of children and a State-by-State listing of runaway youth programs.