Child Sexual Abuse: It’s More Prevalent Than You Think
Know the signs of abuse and the common behaviors of offenders so you can protect the children in your organization.
Illustration: Ron Rennells
For coaches, giving a massage for sore muscles that is healing, appropriate and in public can be OK but not if it moves to a more sexualized touch.
CS: Is a hug appropriate?
Anderson: I’m on the side that part of the problem is we have a lot of touch-starved children, and the no-touch policies in reaction are never what we wanted. We know that children need appropriate and caring touch. If they are deprived of that, they are far more vulnerable to this kind of manipulation. When children are craving emotional and physical attention, there are very appropriate ways to do that, and it’s about meeting the child’s needs, not the adult’s.
I could be hugging somebody, and they could say ‘I’m not comfortable with that,’ and it’s important for me to say ‘OK, I heard that,’ and I stop. A child can say ‘I’m no longer comfortable with this behavior’ if it pushes their boundaries and especially if the behavior moves from appropriate to inappropriate for them.
Read the common myths about child sexual abuse.
We also need to understand that [asking someone to stop a behavior] is not easy because the person [who is being sexually inappropriate] is pretty skilled at manipulation and often has power and authority over the child.
CS: How can schools and/or parents encourage victims to come forward?
Anderson: Our discomfort in just talking about sex and sexuality is a challenge.
Very often children don’t come out and say it; they’ll hint at it. If we aren’t thinking [that child sexual abuse is a possibility], we’re not going to pick up on it. If they are talking about someone we really like and trust, we aren’t going to think anything of it.
How could such a great person [coach, teacher, minister, theatre director, choir director] also be abusing children? The reali
ty is, all of that often goes together in one package, and it is often how the person [abuser] deludes himself. They have their own distorted thinking that justifies it.
That’s hard for people because we want to believe we can see it.
Child Sexual Assault Victims Statistics
- 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys under the age of 18 are victims of sexual abuse.(2) (Note: The accuracy of these numbers is hotly debated. Most sexual assaults on children are never reported, especially if the offender is a family member or acquaintance).
- The median age for reporting abuse is 9(2)
- 20% of victims are under age eight(2)
- Children tell of their abuse an average of nine times before someone believes them(3)
- Only 1 in 3 victims will tell anyone about the abuse(4)
- Juveniles (youth ages 17 and younger) make up 12% of all crime victims known to police, including 71% of all sex crime victims(5)
- Youth who are emotionally insecure, needy and unsupported may be more vulnerable to the attentions of offenders(7)
Who Are Child Sexual Assault Perpetrators?
- 90% are male(1)
- Approximately a third (29-41%) are juveniles. Among adult perpetrators, young adults who are under the age of 30 are overrepresented.(1)
- Half of offenders are acquaintances, and family members constitute a quarter to a third of offenders(1)
- Strangers make up the smallest group of offenders (from 7% to 25%(1)
- Perpetrators are often drawn to settings where they can gain easy access to children, such as sports leagues, clubs and schools(2)
- Child abusers have an average of 76 victims whereas a rapist has an average of seven victims.(6)
- An average serial child molester may have as many as 400 victims in his lifetime.(8)
(1)Crimes Against Children Research Center
(2)Darkness to Light
(3)U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
(4)National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
(5)U.S. Department of Justice
(6)The Abel and Harlow Child Molestation Prevention Study
(7)Child Sexual Abuse: New Theory & Research (Finkelhor D.)
(8)Child Sexual Abuse Prevention: What Offenders Tell Us
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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