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How Many Children Are Sexually Abused ? Child Advocates commonly claim that one in four women and one in seven boys are sexually molested before their eighteenth birthday. Factors leading to under reporting are frequently cited, and "true incidence is likely higher" is another often heard claim. But meaningful data are not easy to come by. In her excellent book, "Treating Child Sex Offenders and Victims," (Sage Publications, 1988) Anna Salter summarized 14 American and Canadian studies. Incidence rates ranged from 11% to 38% for females. and 3%-11% for males. Wyatt's 1985 study of 248 Los Angeles women yielded a sexual abuse figure of 62%, a figure so apparently outrageous that Salter chose not to include it. All incidence studies can be criticized in various ways, the biggest problem being that definitions are far from uniform. Two researchers for example, included people who said they had been subjected to "unwanted sexual touching" prior to age 14 (Russell) or 16. (Badgely.) Using definitions like these, girls subjected to a sloppy kiss on the lips by a drunken uncle at a wedding or someone subjected to a "quick feel" by someone on a crowded New York subway train would be included in the statistics. Another researcher (Finkelhor) included "non-contact sexual abuse", such as being the object of an exposer or obscene phone call before age 17, in at least one study. We don't condone such acts, but to include these "victims" in the same category as children subjected to years of incestuous rape seems unfair and misleading. Yet, when looking for funding or asking for harsher penalties against offenders, self styled "child advocates" often do exactly that. Even when inter-generational sexual contact is significant, one ought still to consider the degree of "abusiveness" involved." A study of 501 non-clinical, middle class black and white females in Florida and Georgia inquired into whether the women had sexual experiences prior to age 14, who their partners were, what sorts of acts were performed, and how the sexual experience was perceived. Value laden terms like "abuse," "molestation” and "exploitation" were avoided. Five areas of the subjects' adult functioning were measured with a standardized questionnaire (The Hudson Scales). (Kilpatrick, Journal of Sex Research, May 1986) Many respondents who reported sexual experiences with older partners and relatives rated the experience as neutral or pleasant. Adult functioning among these women was as adequate as among women who had not had such experiences. Yet, most incidence studies and state laws count children under 14 who have sexual partners more than 3 or 4 years older as sexual abuse victims, especially if the older partner is a relative. We also find it interesting that many states give Public Assistance grants and abortions to minor females without taking protective action in regard to the mother or criminal action against the father, even when they know the man is over 18. But, if this same woman later becomes part of a sexual abuse sampling population she may meet definitions for "sexually abused" and be counted as a victim. On the other side of the coin, Linda Meyer Williams published a study of 129 women with previously documented (hospital emergency room) histories of sexual victimization in childhood. ("Recall of Childhood Trauma", Journal of Counseling Psychology, December 1994) The women were asked detailed questions about their abuse histories in general. 38% did not recall sexual abuse that had been reported 17 years earlier. Being younger at time of abuse and close family relationship with the alleged perpetrator were significantly associated with forgetting. Numerous safeguards were built into this excellent study, making it unlikely that the women were simply declining to discuss a distressing and perhaps embarrassing event. The study indicates that delayed recall of CSA among adults may be common. It raises the possibility that retrospective incidence studies like those cited above may be under estimating the numbers of children actually abused, because a significant number of actual victims may not be remembering (and therefore failing to report) their victimization when they are polled. So what's the bottom line? How many children are sexually abused? Studies like Meyer Williams indicate that we may not be counting some victims, while problems of inconsistent and sloppy definitions may be causing gross over estimates of victimization rates. The truth is that we don't have reliable numbers But we do know with certainty that the numbers are very large; much too large to be accepted by a civilized nation.
