There is no pattern of symptoms that is characteristic of the sexually abused child.

CAVEAT:  Massachusetts' highest court held the contrary: "Expert testimony regarding the general behavioral characteristics of sexually abused children is admissible to `assist the jurors in assessing a victim witness's testimony and credibility.'"  Commonwealth v. Federico, 425 Mass. 844, 848 (1997), which at least held that an expert's "testimony `must, however, be confined to a description of the general or typical characteristics shared by child victims of sexual abuse.'"  Id. at 848.

In contrast, Com. v. Spear, 43 Mass.App.Ct. 583 (1997), the Court reversed and remanded for new trial on the grounds that it was reversible error to admit improper opinion testimony from the child's therapist.  That opinion testimony improperly endorsed the child's credibility and testimony as true.  "In any retrial," the court cautioned, "all comparisons between the general characteristics of sexually abused children and the characteristics of the child complainant must be avoided."  Id. at 594.

The sexually abused child may show symptoms, but these same symptoms occur for a child under stress, for a child under many other circumstances.

There is currently a dispute amongst psychologists as to whether the child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome (CSAAS), developed by Roland Summit as a diagnostic tool, can be used to distinguish between abused and nonabused chldren if a cluster of defined symptoms is present.