Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law Enforcement: Victim, Incident, and Offender Characteristics

• NCJ Number: 182990
• Author(s): Howard N. Snyder Ph.D.
• Date Published: July 2000
• Length: 17 pages
• Publication Series: BJS Full Reports
• Agencies: BJS
• Publication Type: Statistics

Annotation

Presents findings from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) regarding sexual assault, especially of young children.

Abstract

Presents findings from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) regarding sexual assault, especially of young children. The data are based on reports from law enforcement agencies of 12 States and covers the years 1991 through 1996. The report presents sexual assault in 4 categories: forcible rape, forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object, and forcible fondling. Findings include statistics on the incidence of sexual assault, the victims, their offenders, gender, response to these crimes, locality, time of incident, the levels of victim injury, victims' perceptions of offenders' ages, and victim-offender relationships, and other detailed characteristics.

• Sixty-seven percent of all victims of sexual assault reported to law enforcement agencies were juveniles (under the age of 18); 34% of all victims were under age 12.
• One of every seven victims of sexual assault reported to law enforcement agencies were under age 6.
• Forty percent of the offenders who victimized children under age 6 were juveniles (under the age of 18).