Stats on Sexual Abuse of Minors

Children and teens in all racial, religious, ethnic, gender and age groups, and at all socio-economic levels are sexually abused. While there are risk factors that may increase the possibility of sexual abuse, sex abuse is found in all types of families, communities and cultures.

The impact of sexual abuse does not end when the abuse ends. Survivors of sexual abuse are at significantly greater risks for severe and chronic mental health issues, including alcoholism, depression, anxiety, PTSD and high risk behaviors.

• One in 10 children will experience contact sexual abuse in the U.S. before age 18[iii]
• More than 50% of sex abuse survivors were sexually abused before the age of 12.[iv]
• One in 25 children (10-17) will receive an online sexual solicitation[v]
• Of substantiated reports of child maltreatment in the US, 9% were unique survivors of sexual abuse[vi]
• The average age for a minor to enter the sex trade is 12 – 14.[vii]
• Globally, prevalence rates show that a range of 7-36% of women and 3-29% of men experience sexual abuse in childhood.[viii]
• More than one-third (35.2%) of the women who reported a completed rape before the age of 18 also experienced a completed rape as an adult, Thus, the percentage of women who were raped as children or adolescents and also raped as adults was more than two times higher than the percentage among women without an early rape history. [ix]
• 42.2% girls experiencing their first completed rape did so before the age of 18 (29.9% between 11-17 years old and 12.3% at or before age 10) [x]
• Over one-quarter of male victims of completed rape experienced their first rape at or before the age of 10. [viii]
• Children with disabilities are 2.9 times more likely than children without disabilities to be sexually abused.[xi]
• Children with intellectual and mental health disabilities appear to be the most at risk, with 4.6 times the risk of sexual abuse as their peers without disabilities.[xii]
• At least 31% of girls and 7% of boys involved in the juvenile justice system have been sexually abused.[xiii]
• The Situation:
• In as many as 93 percent of child sexual cases, the child knows the person that commits the abuse. [xiv]
• Males made up almost 88% of perpetrators [xv]
• 60% of children who are sexually abused do not disclose[xvi] [xvii] [xviii]
• Up to 50% of child sexual abuse cases are perpetrated by someone younger than 18 years old[xix]
• 12 – 24% of sex offenders are known re-offenders [xx]
• Most are acquaintances but as many as 47% are family or extended family.[xxi]
• Juveniles make up 20% of those arrested for sex offenses [xxii]
• The 5-year sexual recidivism rate for high-risk sex offenders is 22% from the time of release, and decreases for this risk level to 4.2% for those who have remained offense-free in the community for 10 years. The recidivism rates of the low-risk offenders are consistently low (1%-5%) for all time periods. [xxiii]
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• [i] U.S. Department of Justice (2015). Child pornography. Retrieved from Justice.gov
• [ii] Meyers, J. E. B. (2011). The ASPAC handbook on child maltreatment (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
• [iii] Townsend, C. & Rheingold, A.A. (2013). Estimating a child sexual abuse prevalence rate for practitioners: A review of child sexual abuse prevalence studies. Retrieved from D2L
• [iv] Snyder, H.N. (2000). Sexual assault of young children as reported to law enforcement: Victim, incident, and offender characteristics. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Retrieved from bjs.gov
• [v] Wolak J., Finkelhor D., Mitchell K., Ybarra M. (2008). Online “predators” and their victims: Myths, realities, and implications for prevention and treatment. American Psychologist, 63(2), 111-128.doi:10.1037/0003-066X.63.2.111
• [vi] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau (2015). Child maltreatment 2013. Retrieved from acf.hhs.gov 
• [vii] Smith, L.A., Vardaman, S. H. & Snow, M. A. (2009). The national report on domestic minor sex trafficking: America’s prostituted children. Retrieved from Shared Hope website.
• [viii] Barth, J., Bernetz, L., Heim, E., Trelle, S., & Tonia, T. (2013). The current prevalence of child sexual abuse worldwide: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Public Health, 58(3), 469-83. doi:10.1007/s00038-012-0426-1
• [ix] Lalor, K., & McElvaney, R. (2010). Child sexual abuse, links to later sexual exploitation/high-risk sexual behavior, and prevention/treatment programs. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 11,159-177. doi:10.1177/1524838010378299
• [x] Black, M. C., Basile, K. C., Breiding, M. J., Smith, S. G., Walters, M. L., Merrick, M. T., Stevens, M. R. (2011). The national intimate partner and sexual violence survey (NISVS): 2010 summary report. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from CDC.
• [xi] Smith, N., & Harrell, S. (2013). Sexual abuse of children with disabilities: A national snapshot. Retrieved from Vera Institute website.
• [xii] Lund, E. M., & Vaughn-Jensen, J. (2012). Victimization of children with disabilities. The Lancet, 380 (9845), 867-869. Source.
• [xiii] Baglivio, M. T., Epps, N., Swartz, K., Huq, M. S., Sheer, A., & Hardt, N. S. (2014). The prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) in the lives of juvenile offenders. Journal of Juvenile Justice, 3(2), 1-23.
• [xiv] Douglas, E., & Finkelhor, D. (2005). Childhood sexual abuse fact sheet. Retrieved from Crimes Against Children Research Center website.
• [xv] U.S.Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau. (2015). Child maltreatment 2013. Retrieved from acf.hhs.gov 
• [xvi] Ullman, S. E. (2007). Relationship to perpetrator, disclosure, social reactions, and PTSD symptoms in child sexual abuse survivors. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 16(1), 19-36. doi:10.1300/J070v16n01_02
• [xvii] Broman-Fulks, J. J., Ruggiero, K. J., Hanson, R. F., Smith, D. W., Resnick, H. S., Kilpatrick, D. G., & Saunders, B. S. (2007). Sexual assault disclosure in relation to adolescent mental health: Results from the National Survey of Adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 36(2), 260 – 266. doi:10.1080/15374410701279701
• [xviii] Smith, D. W., Letourneau, E. J., Saunders, B. E., Kilpatrick, D. G., Resnick, H. S., & Best, C. L. (2000). Delay in disclosure of childhood rape: Results from a national survey. Child Abuse & Neglect, 24, 273 – 287.
• [xix] Hunter, J. A., Figueredo, A. J., Malamuth, N. M., & Becker, J. V. (2003). Juvenile sex offenders: Toward the development of a typology. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 15(1), 27-48. doi: 1079-0632/03/0100-0027/0
• [xx] Hanson, R. K., & Morton-Bourgon, K. E. (2005). The characteristics of persistent sexual offenders: A meta-analysis of recidivism studies. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(6), 1154-1163. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.73.6.115
• [xxi] Briere, J., & Eliot, D.M. (2003). Prevalence and psychological sequelae of self-reported childhood physical and sexual abuse in a general population sample of men and women. Child Abuse and Neglecti, 27(10), 1205-1222. Retrieved from http://johnbriere.com/CAN%20csa%20cpa.pdf(link is external)
• [xxii] Hanson, R. K. & Morton-Bourgon, K. E. (2005). The characteristics of persistent sexual offenders: A meta-analysis of recidivism studies. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(6), 1154-1163. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.73.6.1154
• [xxiii] Hanson, R., Harris, A.J.R., Helmus, L., & Thornton, D. (2014). High-risk sex offenders may not be high risk forever. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 29(15), 2792-2813. doi:10.1177/0886260514526062