Recently, the news seems to be filled with disturbing stories of sexual abuse. In this hour of Science Friday we'll try to step back from the sensational stories, and focus on the science involved with sexual abuse. Is sexual abuse a mental illness, a criminal behavior, or both? And does treatment for the perpetrators work? We'll talk about the tremendous emotional toll it can take on its victims, and its costs to society. How might science help us deal with sexual abusers, and help its victims deal with the aftermath?

Plus, researchers have designed simple robots that can make copies of themselves. Far from the vision of von Neumann machines that could mine distant planets, for instance, these stacks of magnetic cubes pivot, bend, and reassemble with new parts to form new stacks. We'll find out what the scientists plan to do with them. Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255 (2-3 Eastern). Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.

Guests:
Hod Lipson
Assistant Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and Computing & Information Science
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York

************

Jennifer Freyd
Author, "Betrayal Trauma: the Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse"
Editor, Journal of Trauma & Dissociation
Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon

Elizabeth Letourneau
Assistant Professor
Family Services Research Center
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina

John Q. La Fond, JD
Author, "Preventing Sexual Violence: How Society Should Cope With Sex Offenders"
Professor of Law
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri

Books/Articles Discussed:

Robot self-replication movies

Zykov V., Mytilinaios E., Adams B., Lipson H. (2005) "Self-reproducing machines", Nature Vol. 435 No. 7038, pp. 163-164.

Freyd, J.J., Putnam, F.W., Lyon, T.D., Becker-Blease, K. A., Cheit, R.E., Siegel, N.B., & Pezdek, K. (2005). The science of child sexual abuse. Science, 308, 501.

"Preventing Sexual Violence: How Society Should Cope With Sex Offenders (The Law and Public Policy: Psychology and the Social Sciences)" by John Q. LA Fond. American Psychological Association, 2005.

"Betrayal Trauma: the Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse," by Jennifer Freyd. Harvard University Press, 1998.

(find books discussed on previous broadcasts)

Search by keywords:

This segment produced by Annette Heist and Todd Neale