Character reasearch part 1

Child sexual abuse or child molestation is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation.

While children may exhibit regressive behaviours such as thumb sucking or bedwetting, the strongest indicator of sexual abuse is sexual acting out and inappropriate sexual knowledge and interest.

Child sexual abuse often occurs alongside other possibly confounding variables, such as poor family environment and physical abuse

A well-documented, long-term negative effect is the repeated or additional victimization in adolescence and adulthood. A causal relationship has been found between childhood sexual abuse and various adult psychopathologies, including crime and suicide.

Research has shown that traumatic stress, including stress caused by sexual abuse, causes notable changes in brain functioning and development.

Physical effects of sexual abuse:

Depending on the age and size of the child, and the degree of force used, child sexual abuse may cause internal lacerations and bleeding. In severe cases it can cause death.
Child sexual abuse may cause infections and sexually transmitted diseases.


Types of Sexual abuse:

• sexual assault – a term defining offenses in which an adult uses a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification.
• sexual exploitation – a term defining offenses in which an adult victimizes a minor for advancement, sexual gratification, or profit; for example, prostituting a child, and creating or trafficking in child pornography.
• sexual grooming – a term defining the social conduct of a potential child sex offender who seeks to make a minor more accepting of their advances, for example in an online chat room.

Early signs of a serial killer:

• Psychopaths have a strong tendency towards antisocial behaviour, so watch for extremely antisocial children.
• Many serial killers start as arsonists. Arson is psychologically attractive because it involves manipulating power and control, something that serial killing also offers.
• This is one of the strongest warning signs. Children who torture or kill small animals like squirrels, birds, cats, and dogs without showing remorse are highly likely to be sociopaths.
• Many serial killers are abused – physically, psychologically, sexually – as children by a close family member.
• From a young age, many serial killers are interested in voyeurism, sado-masochistic pornography, and fetishism.
• Despite higher than normal intelligence, many serial killers have trouble keeping jobs or work in unskilled labour.
• Bed wetting is also a sign of serial killer at young age if the child in question is still wetting there bed later in their life compared to other children of the same age.

To help me understand my character of Alan I have look into the issue of sexual abuse because in the play it is clearly presented that Alan is a victim of sexual abuse, I have looked at the negative reprocutions this can have on a teenager physically and mentally which will help me better understand Alan as a character. I also thought it would be interesting to look in to signs of a serial killer at a young age as I believe from what I found in the research that Alan fits most of theses signs from lines in the script or by my understanding of the sub text. This is to help me start my character profile of Alan.