Child Abuse Statistics

Child Victims

An average of 5.5 children per 10,000 enrolled in day care are sexually abused, an average of 8.9 children out of every 10,000 are abused in the home
Source: Finkelhor & Williams, 1988.

In the adult retrosptective study, victimization was reported by 27 percent of the women and 16 percent of the men. The median age for the occurrence of reported abuse was 9.9 for boys and 9.6 for girls. Victimization occurred before age eight for 22 percent of boys and for 23 percent of girls. Most of the abuse of both boys and girls was by offenders 10 or more years older than their victims. Girls were more likely than boys to disclose the abuse. Forty-two percent of the women and thirty-three percent of the men reported never having disclosed the experience to anyone.
Source: Finkelhor et al., 1990.

"WHEN SEXUALLY abused boys are not treated, society must later deal with the resulting problems, including crime, suicide, drug use and more sexual abuse, said the study’s author, Dr. William C. Holmes of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine." [snip] "The earlier studies found that one-third of juvenile delinquents, 40 percent of sexual offenders and 76 percent of serial rapists report they were sexually abused as youngsters." [snip] "The suicide rate among sexually abused boys was 1½ to 14 times higher, and reports of multiple substance abuse among sixth-grade boys who were molested was 12 to 40 times greater." [snip] "Holmes said a review of the studies leads him to believe 10 percent to 20 percent of all boys are sexually abused in some way. But widely varying definitions of sexual abuse in the studies and differences in who was being studied make it difficult to accurately gauge the prevalence of sexual abuse, he said."
Full Story at MSNBC News, Dec 1998 (Note: may be archived).

Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS):
1. Sexual assault of young children as reported to law enforcement:
Victim, incident, and offender characteristics (Acrobat PDF or ASCII text).
2. National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), ~ regarding sexual assault, especially of young children; based on reports from law enforcement agencies of 21 States and covering the years 1991 through 2002 (or, use the BJS search to find these documents).
The July 2000 NIBRS report presents sexual assault in 4 categories:
Forcible rape,
Forcible sodomy,
Sexual assault with an object, and
Forcible fondling.
Findings include statistics on the incidence of sexual assault, the victims, their offenders, gender, response to these crimes, locality, time of incident, the levels of victim injury, victims' perceptions of offenders' ages, and victim-offender relationships, and other detailed characteristics.
Highlights from 2000 include the following as reported to law enforcement:
67% of victims of sexual assault were juveniles (under age 18);
34% of sexual assault victims were under age 12;
1 of every 7 victims of sexual assault were under age 6;
40% of offenders who victimized children under age 6 were juveniles (under age 18).
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)

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NOTE: For information on the investigation and forensic psychology aspects of child sexual victimization, Dr. Suzanne Sgroi is an excellent resource (Law Enforcement And Child Abuse, by Sgroi and co-authored by law enforcement officer, Patricia Graves).

Excerpt from Sgroi's book review: "Helping sexually abused children depends on the combined efforts of law enforcement, medical, social service, and prosecution personnel. It is essential for those in each field to recognize and understand the others' responsibilities in dealing with child sexual abuse. Only then can we learn how best to help each other to help the victims and their families. As experience, research, and learning advance. It becomes increasingly clear that the police officer -- and indeed the entire criminal justice system -- are an integral part of identifying the problem, protecting the victim, and remedying the situation."

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Impact of Child Sexual Abuse

It is estimated that there are 60 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse in America today.
Source: Forward, 1993.

Approximately 31% of women in prison state that they had been abused as children.
Source: United States Department of Justice, 1991.

Approximately 95% of teenage prostitutes have been sexually abused.
Source: CCPCA, 1992.

It is estimated that children with disabilities are 4 to 10 times more vulnerable to sexual abuse than their non-disabled peers.
Source: National Resource Center on Child Sexual Abuse, 1992.

Long term effects of child abuse include fear, anxiety, depression, anger, hostility, inappropriate sexual behavior, poor self esteem, tendency toward substance abuse and difficulty with close relationships.
Source: Browne & Finkelhor, 1986.

Clinical findings of adult victims of sexual abuse include problems in interpersonal relationships associated with an underlying mistrust. Generally, adult victims of incest have a severely strained relationship with their parents that is marked by feelings of mistrust, fear, ambivalence, hatred, and betrayal. These feelings may extend to all family members.
Source: Tsai and Wagner, 1978.

Guilt is universally experienced by almost all victims. Courtois and Watts described the "sexual guilt" as "guilt derived from sexual pleasure"
Source: Tsai and Wagner, l978.

Sexuality is regarded not simply as a part of the self limited to genitals, discrete behaviors, or biological aspects of reproduction, but is more properly understood as one component of the total personality that affects one's concept of personal identity and self-esteem.
Source: Whitlock & Gillman, 1989.

Sexual victimization may profoundly interfere with and alter the development of attitudes toward self, sexuality, and trusting relationships during the critical early years of development.
Source: Tsai & Wagner, 1984.

If the child victim does not resolve the trauma, sexuality may become an area of adult conflict.
Source: Courtois & Watts, 1982; Tsai & Wagner, 1984.

There is the clinical assumption that children who feel compelled to keep sexual abuse a secret suffer greater psychic distress than victims who disclose the secret and receive assistance and support.
Source: Finkelhor & Browne, 1986.

Early identification of sexual abuse victims appears to be crucial to the reduction of suffering of abused youth and to the establishment of support systems for assistance in pursuing appropriate psychological development and healthier adult functioning . As long as disclosure continues to be a problem for young victims, then fear, suffering, and psychological distress will, like the secret, remain with the victim.
Sources: Bagley, 1992; Bagley, 1991; Finkelhor et al. 1990; Whitlock & Gillman, 1989.

Adolescents with a history of sexual abuse are significantly more likely than their counterparts to engage in sexual behavior that puts them at risk for HIV infection, according to Dr. Larry K. Brown and associates, from Rhode Island Hospital, in Providence. Inconsistent condom use was three times more likely among youths who had been sexually abused than among the 55 who had not. A history of sexual abuse was also significantly associated with less impulse control and higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases. According to Dr. Brown, "These results suggest two things. Abused kids need adequate counseling around abuse issues. A lot of these kids keep re-experiencing the anxiety and trauma for years." The second issue, he said, is that "most therapy does not address current sexual behavior" and the anxieties that sexually abused adolescents experience.
Source: Larry K. Brown, M.D., et al, American Journal of Psychiatry 2000;157:1413-1415.

Young girls who are forced to have sex are three times more likely to develop psychiatric disorders or abuse alcohol and drugs in adulthood, than girls who are not sexually abused. Sexual abuse was also more strongly linked with substance abuse than with psychiatric disorders. It was also suggested that sexual abuse may lead some girls to become sexually active at an earlier age and seek out older boyfriends who might, in turn, introduce them to drugs. Psychiatric disorders were from 2.6 to 3.3 times more common among women whose CSA included intercourse, and the risk of substance abuse was increased more than fourfold, according to the results. Family factors -- parental education, parenting behavior, family financial status, church attendance -- had little impact on the prevalence of psychiatric or substance abuse disorders among these women, the investigators observe. Similarly, parental psychopathology did not predict the association between CSA and later psychopathology.
Source: Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., et al, Medical College of Virginia Commonwealth University, Archives of General Psychiatry 2000;57:953-959.
Also see review at Medscape

Among both adolescent girls and boys, a history of sexual or physical abuse appears to increase the risk of disordered eating behaviors, such as self-induced vomiting or use of laxatives to avoid gaining weight. Among those at increased risk for disordered eating were respondents who had experienced sexual or physical abuse and those who gave low ratings to family communication, parental caring and parental expectations. In light of these findings, the researchers conclude that "strong familial relationships may decrease the risk for disordered eating among youth reporting abuse experiences."
Source: Dr. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, et al, University of Minneapolis, International Journal of Eating Disorders 2000;28:249-258.

Young girls who are sexually abused are more likely to develop eating disorders as adolescents. The findings also add to a growing body of research suggesting that trauma in childhood increases the risk of developing an eating disorder. Abused girls were more dissatisfied with their weight and more likely to diet and purge their food by vomiting or using laxatives and diuretics. Abused girls were also more likely to restrict their eating when they were bored or emotionally upset. Wonderlich suggests that abused girls might experience higher levels of emotional distress, possibly linked to their abuse, and have trouble coping. Food restriction and perhaps other eating disorder behaviors may (reflect) efforts to cope with such experiences. The report also indicates that while girls who were abused were less likely to exhibit perfectionist tendencies (such as making extreme efforts to avoid disappointing others and a need to be 'the best'), they tended to want thinner bodies than girls who had not been abused.
Source: Stephen A. Wonderlich, M.D., et al, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Fargo, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2000;391277-1283.

US Healthcare system missing most mentally ill children and adolescents. More than 7 out of 10 American adolescents with mental health problems are getting no care, according to data released today at the Surgeon General's Conference on Children's Mental Health. See Medscape

References
Link here for full reference citations [onsite].

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Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse
Later Criminal Consequences

by Cathy Spatz Widom
Source: NIJ Research in Brief
March 1995

Discussed in the Brief: Previous research established evidence for a cycle of violence: people who were abused and neglected in childhood are more likely than those who were not to become involved in criminal behavior, including violent crime, later in life. This Research in Brief, the second in a series on the cycle of violence, examines the criminal consequences in adulthood of a particular type of childhood victimization: sexual abuse. It traces the same individuals studied initially, using official records of arrest and juvenile detention.

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Sexual and Other Abuse
May Alter a Brain Region

"Many women and men who have been subjected to severe physical or sexual abuse during childhood suffer from long-term disturbances of the psyche. They may be invaded by nightmares and flashbacks -- much like survivors of war -- or, conversely, may freeze into benumbed calm in situations of extreme stress. Two recent studies find that survivors of child abuse may also have a smaller hippocampus relative to control subjects. If substantiated, the discovery could fill out the profile of an abuse survivor and help define what constitutes abuse."

"Changes in the hippocampus--the part of the brain that deals with short-term memory and possibly the encoding and retrieval of long-term memory--could, researchers suggest, be wrought by hormones flooding the brain during and after a stressful episode."

"Dissociation and PTSD are not sharply separated and often alternate in the same individual. Dissociation, often employed by children who cannot escape from the threat of abuse, is a means of mentally withdrawing from a horrific situation by separating it from conscious awareness. The skill allows the victim to feel detached from the body or self, as if what is happening is not happening to her or him."

"David W. Foy of Pepperdine University notes that within days or weeks of a traumatic experience, therapy seems beneficial in dispelling PTSD. This period, Bremner speculates, could reflect the timescale over which the hippocampus organizes experiences into a person's worldview. Although some functions of the hippocampus are known, its mechanics are poorly understood."

"Psychiatrists contend that if repeatedly invoked in childhood, dissociation prevents memories from being integrated into consciousness and can lead to an altered sense of self. Many normal children play with imaginary companions; abused children can use such creative resources to a pathological extent, in extreme cases falling prey to multiple personality disorder (MPD). Adults may continue to use dissociation as a coping mechanism. Once dissociation or PTSD develops, the majority of psychological symptoms and the hormonal profile are very resistant to treatment."

Reference: Scientific American, N.Y., (273: 4) 10/95, page 14.

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Sex Offenders

The typical child sex offender molests an average of 117 children, most of who do not report the offence.
Source: National Institute of Mental Health, 1988.

About 60% of the male survivors sampled report at least one of their perpetrators to be female.
Source: Mendel, 1993.

About 95% of victims know their perpetrators.
Source: CCPCA, 1992.

It is estimated that approximately 71% of child sex offenders are under 35 and knew the victim at least casually. About 80% of these individuals fall within normal intelligence ranges; 59% gain sexual access to their victims through, seduction or enticement.
Source: Burgess & Groth, 1984.

References
Link here for full reference citations [onsite].

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U.S. Dpt of Health & Human Services,

Administration for Children and Families

Survey Shows Dramatic Increase
in Child Abuse and Neglect, 1986-1993

Excerpts from HHS Release, September 18, 1996
Link to Full HHS Release

The Department of Health and Human Services released a survey estimating that child abuse and neglect in the United States nearly doubled during the seven years between 1986 and 1993.

According to the HHS study, the number of total child maltreatment instances that were investigated by state agencies remained constant from 1986 to 1993; however, the percentage of cases investigated declined dramatically.

"It is shameful and startling to see that so many more children are in danger and that proportionately fewer incidents are investigated," HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala said. "Now states, schools, health care professionals -- all of us -- must commit ourselves to investigating and preventing child abuse with far greater effectiveness than we have seen in the past."

The report estimated the number of abused and neglected children increased from 1.4 million in 1986, to over 2.8 million in 1993. The number of children who were seriously injured quadrupled from about 143,000 to nearly 570,000.

Schools identified the largest number of children at risk, yet state services investigated only 16 percent of these children. For the cases identified in the study, less than 50 percent of children identified as maltreated by any source (except law enforcement) were investigated by child protective services.

Shalala said, "We are giving states more flexibility, demanding more accountability and focusing on the only bottom line that matters: results."

In regard to sexual victimization, the NIS survey concluded:
Girls are sexually abused three times more often than boys;
Boys have greater risk of emotional neglect & serious injury than girls.

The NIS is funded by HHS National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect and mandated by Congress. Previous NIS studies were released in 1981 and 1988.

Link to Health and Human Service press releases.

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Related Research

1. Controversial research on impact of adult-child sex.

2. "Pandora's Box: The Secrecy of Child Sexual Abuse"
Research Article by Dr. Faulkner
published in the Sexual Counseling Digest.

3. Research Abstract:
The Sexual Abuse Recognition & Non-Disclosure Inventory

Additional Resources for Child Abuse Statistics

1. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).

2. The Office for Victims of Crimes: Newly updated collection of Research and Statistics about Victims of Crime, featuring key Office of Justice Programs (OJP) links to statistical data, including Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Crime and Justice Data Online. Research and statistics about victims of crime are provided by several of the other agencies within the Office of Justice Programs, including the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP); as well as from other federal sources and related sites.

3. National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse.

4. US Dpt of Health & Human Services, Admin. for Children & Families.

5. Abstracts on sexual abuse, Medscape Women's Health.

6. The Total Estimated Cost of Child Abuse and Neglect in the United States: Statistical Evidence. Prevent Child Abuse America has estimated the costs of child abuse and neglect based on data from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Justice, and U.S. Census (this is a PDF file).

7. Clearinghouse related publication, Prevention Pays: The Costs of Not Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect.

8. The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) operates the National Data Analysis System (NDAS). The NDAS provides access to all states' child abuse and neglect data for the most recent years available. Users can customize tables and graphs by state and data year.

9. The FEDSTATS Web site links to statistical information produced by more than 70 Federal Government agencies for public use.

10. America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being presents twenty-five indicators that reflect critical aspects of children's lives including economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education.

11. The National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect acquires and disseminates datasets relevant to the study of child abuse and neglect for use in secondary analysis.

12. The annual KIDS COUNT Data Book, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, provides State and national data on the educational, social, economic, and physical well-being of children.

13. The Bureau of Justice Statistics within the U.S. Department of Justice collects, analyzes, and disseminates statistical information on crime victims, criminal offenders, and the justice system.

14. The National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention serves as the Nation's principal health statistics agency.

15. Child Health USA 2000 is the 11th annual report prepared by the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA's) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) on the health status and service needs of America's children.

16. Trends in the Well-being of America's Children and Youth is the fifth edition of an annual report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on trends in the well-being of the nation's children and youth. The report presents the most recent and reliable estimates on more than 80 indicators of well-being.

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Go to Page Two of Child Abuse Statistics

Links to and Summary of US Dpt of Justice, Bureau of Justice,
Statistics on Child Sexual Abuse:

Sex offender statistics.
60% of convicted sex offenders on parole or probation.
Children and teenagers are victims.
Recidivism rates for crimes higher smong sex offenders.
Violent offenders and their victims.
Two-thirds of sex offenders in prisons victimized a child.
Family members of acquaintances most child murders.
Half of women raped were younger than 18 (1992).