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Statistical Information: An Overview
It is assumed by professionals that there is a vast underreporting of sexual abuse and rape among males.
The under-reporting of male children in the statistics has been attributed to a number of causes:
- Boys grow up under a male ethic of self-reliance that does not allow them to view themselves as harmed, nor to talk about possibly painful experiences;
- Boys have to grapple with the stigma of homosexuality, usually at the same time as their peer group holds homosexuality as a very strong and fearsome taboo;
- boys may have more to lose from reporting abuse in terms of independence and unsupervised activities.
- Approximately 1 in 6 males are sexually abused before the age of 16 (Lisak & Luster, 1994; Lisak, Hopper, & Song, 1996).
- Similar studies note that prevalence might be as high as 24% (nearly 1/4) among male college students (Lisak & Luster, 1994; Lisak, Hopper, & Song, 1996).
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In a 1996 study of 600 college men, 28% of those surveyed reported some form of sexual abuse as a child.1 If one in eight males is a survivor of abuse, that means that if you live in a dorm with 50 guys, about 6 of them were sexually abused. If you're in a fraternity with 100 members, 12 were sexually abused. In a university with 6,000 men, 750 of them are survivors of sexual abuse.
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Clinical and community samples have wider ranges, due to the nature of surveys or interviews, gender stereotypes, definitions of abuse, behavioral descriptors, and overall failure to report because of stereotypes and a fear of humiliation (Hopper et al.).
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There is evidence emerging that as many as one in three incidents of child sexual abuse are not remembered by adults who experienced them, and that the younger the child was at the time of the abuse, and the closer the relationship to the abuser, the more likely one is not to remember. (Linda Williams).
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33% of men who reported being abused, said that they had never to that point disclosed the abuse to anyone or dealt with their abuse issues. Finkelhor et al. (1990)
- 25% of all adults have been sexually abused
- Statistics suggest that as many as 1 in 4 children becomes a victim of sexual abuse by the time they reach 18 yrs of age
- Up to 90% of sexual abuse of children is committed by someone the child knows
- Approximately 10% of all victims reporting sexual abuse are boys, but probably more are abused
- A study of imprisoned sexual abusers of children revealed that, on the average, they each had molested over 230 victims. Among other things, this indicates how very easy it is for adults to molest children.
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 Among victims of sexual abuse, the inability to trust is pronounced, which also contributes to secrecy and non-disclosure.
Source: Courtois & Watts, 1982.
Children often fail to report because of the fear that disclosure will bring consequences even worse than being victimized again. The victim may fear consequences from the family, feel guilty for consequences to the perpetrator, and may fear subsequent retaliatory actions from the perpetrator.
Sources: Berlinger & Barbieri, 1984; Groth, 1979; Swanson & Biaggio, 1985.
Victims may be embarrassed or reluctant to answer questions about the sexual activity.
Source: Berlinger & Barbieri, 1984.
Victims may also have a feeling that "something is wrong with me," and that the abuse is their fault.
Sources: Johnson, 1987; Tsai & Wagner, l978.
In addition to "sexual guilt," there are several other types of guilt associated with the abuse, which include feeling different from peers, harboring vengeful and angry feelings toward both parents, feeling responsible for the abuse, feeling guilty about reporting the abuse, and bringing disloyalty and disruption to the family . Any of these feelings of guilt could outweigh the decision of the victim to report, the result of which is the secret may remain intact and undisclosed.
Source: Courtois & Watts, 1982; Tsai & Wagner, l978.
A child's initial denial of sexual abuse should not be the sole basis of reassurance that abuse did not occur. Virtually all investigative protocols are designed to respond to only those children who have disclosed. Policies and procedures that are geared only to those children who have disclosed fail to recognize the needs of the majority of victims.
Source: Sorensen & Snow, 1991.
Study of 630 cases of alleged sexual abuse of children from 1985 through 1989: Using a subset of 116 confirmed cases, findings indicated that 79 percent of the children of the study initially denied abuse or were tentative in disclosing. Of those who did disclose, approximately three-quarters disclosed accidentally. Additionally, of those who did disclose, 22 percent eventually recanted their statements.
Source: Sorensen & Snow, 1991.
Young victims may not recognize their victimization as sexual abuse.
Source: Gilbert, l988.
There is the clinical assumption that children who feel compelled to keep sexual abuse a secret suffer greater psychic distress than victims who disclose the secret and receive assistance and support.
Source: Finkelhor & Browne, 1986.
Early identification of sexual abuse victims appears to be crucial to the reduction of suffering of abused youth and to the establishment of support systems for assistance in pursuing appropriate psychological development and healthier adult functioning . As long as disclosure continues to be a problem for young victims, then fear, suffering, and psychological distress will, like the secret, remain with the victim.
Sources: Bagley, 1992; Bagley, 1991; Finkelhor et al. 1990; Whitlock & Gillman, 1989.
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It is estimated that there are 60 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse in America today.
Source: Forward, 1993.
It is estimated that children with disabilities are 4 to 10 times more vulnerable to sexual abuse than their non-disabled peers.
Source: National Resource Center on Child Sexual Abuse, 1992.
Early identification of sexual abuse victims appears to be crucial to the reduction of suffering of abused youth and to the establishment of support systems for assistance in pursuing appropriate psychological development and healthier adult functioning . As long as disclosure continues to be a problem for young victims, then fear, suffering, and psychological distress will, like the secret, remain with the victim.
Sources: Bagley, 1992; Bagley, 1991; Finkelhor et al. 1990; Whitlock & Gillman, 1989.
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