NCJ Number
226674
Journal
Journal of Child Sexual Abuse Volume: 18 Issue: 1 Dated: January-February 2009 Pages: 19-39
Date Published
February 2009
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study investigated prevalence rates for different types of sexual abuse, abuse characteristics, and associated variables, such as sociodemographics and consensual sexual experiences, in Swedish adolescents.
Abstract
Results show the necessity of distinguishing different categories of child sexual abuse (CSA) based on types of behavior that correspond to the severity of the abuse since there are clear differences between the categories concerning abuse characteristics, sociodemographics, and consensual sex. Results indicated that females reported exposure to CSA more often than males; depending on the type of abuse, the prevalence ratio was between 1.6 and 3.6 females for every male. The prevalence rates for CSA reported in this study were generally higher than in other studies; this could be partly explained by the broad definition of CSA used and the inclusion of both noncontact CSA and peer CSA. Findings also showed a dose response effect insofar as adolescents reporting the most severe CSA (penetrating) generally described the most severe abuse characteristics, while adolescents reporting the least severe CSA (noncontact) described the least severe abuse characteristics. As found in other studies, there was a clear association between reported CSA, especially penetrating CSA, and young age at first intercourse. Contrary to the results in other studies, family members or relatives were seldom mentioned as offenders of all kinds of abuse; many exposed adolescents reported that the offender was unknown to them. This may suggest that the question about the relation between victim and offender was highly sensitive and that some participants chose not to disclose their real relation to the offender. Data were collected from 4,339 of Swedish high school seniors from Stockholm, 1 large port, and some smaller cities. Tables, note, and references