Patrick Parkinson, Child Sexual Abuse and the Churches, Hodder & Stoughton 1997, p. 74

Too much emphasis can be placed on the issues of consent and harm where young teenagers are concerned. It is not necessary to show that the teenager was entirely the unwilling victim of the adult's sexual predations in order to label the relationship as abusive. The issue is not whether the young person is consenting, but WHY. The bonding of a young adolescent to a much older adult may be the result of her emotional need to have a surrogate parent or charismatic leader rather than because she is sexually interested in him as a lover.

Furthermore, if he is in a position of authority in relation to her, his assurances about what is morally right and wrong may overwhelm her doubts. In the early years of adolescence, young people are usually just beginning to work out for themselves whether they can accept the moral codes concerning sexual relations with which they have grown up. Their views about sexual morality may well be quite malleable, and pressure may persuade more than the arguments for abstinence. The adult's gradual and deliberate sexual stimulation of the adolescent may be one powerful source of persuasion. The process of seduction is one in which the adult in the relationship is often very practiced, in contrasts to the naivety of the young person. The adverse effects can be profound, and may not be obvious for many years to come. It may be only with the hindsight of adulthood that a person comes to realise that a first affair was abusive and caused considerable emotional damage.