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Sex and Relationship Education
* The American Medical Association defines child sexual abuse as "the engagement of a child in sexual activities for which the child is developmentally unprepared and cannot give informed consent. Child sexual abuse is characterized by deception, force or coercion.
* Sexual abuse can include fondling, genital exposure, intimate kissing, forced masturbation oral, penile or digital penetration of the mouth, vagina or anus. Child prostitution, pornography and cult (or "ritual") abuse are specific activities also included in the definition. Incest is sexual abuse where the offender is a family member.
* Sexual abuse occurs in rural, urban and suburban areas and among all ethnic, racial and socioeconomic groups. A recent Department of Justice report found that half of the women who reported rapes in 1992 were under the age of 18, 16 percent were under 12.
* Most children are abused by someone they know and trust, although boys are more likely than girls to be abused outside of the family. A study in three states found 96 percent of reported rape survivors under age 12 knew the attacker. Four percent of the offenders were strangers, 20 percent were fathers 16 percent were relatives and 50 percent were acquaintances or friends. Among women 18 or older, 12 percent were raped by a family member, 33 percent by a stranger and 55 percent by an acquaintance.
* Abuse typically occurs within a long-term, on-going relationship between the offender and victim, escalates over time and lasts an average of four years. Offenders often develop a relationship with a targeted victim months before beginning the abuse. Sexual abuse often occurs in successive generations of the same family. In non-familial child abduction, one study found two-thirds of reported cases involved sexual assault.
* In up to 50 percent of reported cases, offenders are adolescents. In 82 percent of accusations recently studied the accused offender was a heterosexual partner of a close relative of the child's. Researchers estimate that between 96 to 100 percent of accused abusers are recognizably heterosexual. Another study found that almost half of offending fathers and stepfathers also abused children outside their family.
* Children are most vulnerable between ages 8-12. The average age for first abuse is 9.9 years for boys and 9.6 years for girls. Victimization occurs before age eight in over 20 percent of the cases. Another study found 24 percent of female child sexual abuse survivors were first abused at age five or younger.
* Estimates of child sexual abuse rates vary for many reasons. Less than 10 percent of abuse is reported to the police. Definitions of both abuse and the age of maturity affect frequency rates. Protective services only record reported cases and typically focus on intra-familial abuse, thus excluding non-caretakers.
* Even in self-reporting surveys, abuse may be under reported because many people are afraid or ashamed to reveal victimization, have repressed memories of abuse, refuse to participate in studies or deny that what happened was "real" abuse.
* The National Resource Council estimates the percent of the
* Studies examining victimization of boys have recorded rates ranging from 3 to 31 percent of all men. Male victimization is particularly hard to estimate due to beliefs that only girls can be abused; that sex between older women and boys is desirable; that male victimization of boys indicates lack of masculinity and/or acquiescence by the child.
* One study found less than 2 percent of abuse reports made by children and 6 percent of those made by adults were judged false, suggesting that false allegations are rare. In one study, all but two children who revoked claims of abuse later disclosed new incidents of abuse. These researchers view revocation of abuse reports as part of the disclosure process rather than an indication of false claims.
* The primary markers for increased risk for child sexual abuse for girls are: few friends, absent or unavailable parents, a stepfather, and conflict with or between parents.
* Other risk factors include: physical or mental disability; separate living arrangements from both biological parents; mental illness, alcoholic or drug abuse in the family; a parent who was physically or sexually abused as a child; homes with other forms of abuse, prostitution or transient adults.
* One study examined eight of these indicators in girls and found sexual abuse histories in 6 percent with no risk factor, 9 percent with one factor; 26 percent with two factors and 68 percent with three factors. Another study found 78 percent of sexually abused children studied had at least three risk factors.
* Gay, lesbian and bisexual youth may be at greater risk because they tend to be socially isolated and are easier targets for abuse. In one study, male sexual abuse survivors self-described as homosexual almost seven times, and as bisexual almost six times, more often than nonabused peers.
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