CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE STATISTICS

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE STATISTICS

Studies of the general population of adults show that anywhere from 6 to 63% of females were sexually abused as children. A 1985 L.A. Times national survey found that 27% of women and 16% of men reported being sexually abused prior to age 18 (Finkelhor, 1986). The true extent of sexual abuse is unknown.

Finkelhor, D. (1986) A Sourcebook on Child Sexual Abuse. California: Sage Publications.


SEX ABUSE IN DAY CARE

A recent study of disclosed cases of child abuse in center based day care revealed no especially high risk of sexual abuse for children sent to such a setting. While 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 (Finkelhor & Williams, 1988).
Based on information from 21 states, reports of abuse in day care and foster care each represented less than 1% of all confirmed cases in 1994 (Wiese & Daro, 1995). This percentage has remained the same in recent years.

Finkelhor, D. and Williams, L. (1988) Nursery Crimes: Sexual Abuse in Day Care. California: Sage Publications.

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From "Sexual Abuse in Christian Homes and Churches", by Carolyn Holderread Heggen, Herald Press, Scotdale, PA, 1993 p. 73:

"A disturbing fact continues to surface in sex abuse research. The first best predictor of abuse is alcohol or drug addiction in the father. But the second best predictor is conservative religiosity, accompanied by parental belief in traditional male-female roles. This means that if you want to know which children are most likely to be sexually abused by their father, the second most significant clue is *whether or not the parents belong to a conservative religious group with traditional role beliefs and rigid sexual attitudes*. (Brown and Bohn, 1989; Finkelhor, 1986; Fortune, 1983; Goldstein et al, 1973; Van
Leeuwen, 1990). (emphasis in original)


More recently, Gelles and Strauss (1988:66) state that "...however, there has yet to be a national survey that meets the normal standards of scientific evidence (that) can be used to determine a figure for frequency of sexual victimization of children." Lacking such a study, I'm not sure what evidence the hypothesis (that conservative Christianity is highly correlated with child sex abuse) is based on. Tweet