Sexual abuse of children in comparative and international perspective

Abstract

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a chronic problem that can occur in any family or any country. National governments, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations have given it increasingly high priority in recent decades. Scholars also have given CSA increased attention though more at clinical case-study than at policy levels. Some basic epidemiological conclusions can be drawn. Girls are at considerably greater CSA risk than boys, but in some places boys also experience high levels of victimization. Perpetrators are much more likely to be male than female, and family members or acquaintances than strangers. Victimization is not only by adults but also by young people. Cross-national knowledge is underdeveloped. Comparative studies are rare, partly because they are expensive and complicated to organize but also because of fundamental differences in legal and research definitions of the behaviours studied. Only a few countries have successfully established long-term surveys and data series that provide a solid empirical basis for describing CSA and changes in its nature, prevalence, and incidence. The US data provide a firm basis for concluding that the incidence of CSA in that country has dropped substantially since the early 1990s in parallel with drops in rates of violence generally and sex crimes specifically. The CSA research mission is to build the tools and infrastructure to learn what is happening today, and has happened over time, cross-nationally and in all individual countries, in order to develop better policies at the national and international level.