Child sexual abuse and subsequent offending and victimisation: A 45 year follow-up study

Abstract

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) continues to occur in our communities at an alarming rate, with up to 30 percent of children experiencing CSA of any kind and between five and 10 percent experiencing severe abuse (Fergusson & Mullen 1999). CSA has been associated with an array of emotional, behavioural and social difficulties (Cutajar et al. 2010a, 2010b; Fergusson & Mullen 1999; Gilbert et al. 2009). Of considerable interest is the relationship between CSA, offending and re-victimisation, particularly sexual offending re-victimisation. Existing studies that have investigated these relationships have suffered from a lack of empirical sophistication, which has left a large gap in our understanding of the fundamental questions pertaining to how many sexually abused children later offend or experience re-victimisation. In particular, most studies have been marred by small samples, have relied upon adults, self-reports of CSA, have included samples with relatively few males and the follow-up of offending and victimisation has often been based upon self-report. © Australian Institute of Criminology 2012.