Sexual Abuse and Prevention: Statistics and overview
Child sexual abuse (CSA) includes many behaviors under a single theme. The CSA information and prevention service Stop It Now provides this definition:
“All sexual touching between an adult and a child is sexual abuse. Sexual touching between children can also be sexual abuse when there is a significant age difference (often defined as 3 or more years) between the children or if the children are very different developmentally or size-wise."
Abusive physical contact or touching includes:
- Touching a child's genitals or private parts for sexual purposes
- Making a child touch someone else's genitals or play sexual game
- Putting objects or body parts (like fingers, tongue or penis) inside the vagina, in -the mouth or in the anus of a child for sexual purposes
Non-contact sexual abuse includes:
- Showing pornography to a child
- Deliberately exposing an adult's genitals to a child
- Photographing a child in sexual poses
- Encouraging a child to watch or hear sexual acts
- Inappropriately watching a child undress or use the bathroom
Sexually abusive images of children and the Internet. Non-contact abuse also includes the serious and growing problem of people making and downloading sexual images of children on the Internet. To view sexually abusive images of children is to participate in the abuse of a child, and may cause someone to consider sexual interactions with children as acceptable.
Adults who abuse children typically try to build a connection with the child before initiating abuse; experts call the process “grooming.” They may also use emotional coercion or threats. (A later module will explore why people, including juveniles, offend. For information on adult abusers, see “The 'Nice Guy' Molester” by Dan Malone, a Fort Worth Weekly reporter who wrote for the center’s former The Children’s Beat magazine.)
Adults believe that CSA is widespread and possibly preventable. The ACE Study, an ongoing health effects study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente, asked more than 17,000 adult Kaiser network members about their “ACEs,” or adverse childhood experiences. Respondents – whom the researchers described as generally well educated and middle class – reported significant rates of CSA: 16 percent of men and 25 percent of women said they had experienced contact child sexual abuse.
In 2000, 49 percent of respondents in a national survey called CSA a “serious problem." The Enough Abuse campaign, funded by the CDC to test prevention strategies and a public awareness campaign in Massachusetts reported similar public attitudes. Further, 83 percent of respondents in their 2003 survey said that CSA is definitely or somewhat preventable, but only 27 percent of respondents felt “very confident” they could identify if a child was being abused.
Children who are sexually abused often experience other types of neglect and abuse. Detection is rare. Impact can be substantial. Researchers find it difficult to estimate how many children experience CSA. Among the challenges in data gathering: Surveys show that only a fraction of cases – 30 percent or fewer – are ever reported to authorities; states use different definitions of CSA; and states may assign CSA cases to their criminal systems, so they may not be counted in child welfare data. There’s rarely medical or physical evidence of the crimes. And no single behavior will suggest that a child has experienced of sexual abuse.
For more on the sources and limitations of CSA data, see this useful explainer from the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
State child protection authorities substantiated more than 88,000 cases that involved CSA in 2006. About 9 percent of children identified for other maltreatment were also found to be sexually abused.
But in Vermont, for example, where every CSA case is remanded to the child welfare system, there were 342 substantiated CSA incidents in 2007, compared with 153 incidents of physical abuse and 57 incidents of emotional abuse or neglect.
Another source of CSA data is law enforcement – although it’s important to note that the Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey does not include victims under age 12. In 2001, the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that approximately 225,500 sex crimes against children were reported to police in 18 states. A year earlier, the Bureau published a survey of child sexual assaults reported to law enforcement that found:
• 67 percent of all reported victims of sexual assault were juveniles (under age 18);
• 34 percent of victims were under age 12;
• 1 of every 7 victims was under age 6;
• 40 percent of those who victimized children under age 6 were also juveniles
(under age 18).
Other national data can be broken down by state. The CDC’s Healthy Youth survey reports the percentage of students who have been physically forced to have sexual intercourse. To find state data, choose "violence," then "forced to have sexual intercourse.”
The ACE Study continues to investigate a connection between adverse childhood experiences and health and social outcomes later in life. While many people are resilient, the researchers find that the more ACEs a child has, the greater likelihood that the adult years will be marked by problems such as re-victimization, serious disease and early death.
Overwhelmingly, a child is abused by someone she or he knows. Studies confirm that about half of abusers are acquaintances, and family members account for up to one third of cases. Strangers make up the smallest group of perpetrators, anywhere from 7 percent to 25 percent, depending on the research.* Survey data suggest that girls are much more likely to experience CSA than boys, though advocates warn that CSA may be even more undercounted among boys. Studies referenced by the Crimes Against Children Research Center found that girls were the victimized in at least 78 percent of reported cases.
*Note: The trend holds for victims of all ages: Nearly three-quarters of all sexual assaults are perpetrated by a non-stranger.
