NCJ Number
214383
Date Published
August 2008
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This bulletin provides information on the estimated number and characteristics of children who were sexually assaulted in the United States in 1999.
Abstract
Key findings in this bulletin conclude, that in 1999 an estimated 285,4000 children were victims of a sexual assault and 35,000 were victims of some other type of sex offense; an estimated 44 percent of the child victims of sexual assault and other sex offenses experienced an act of sexual penetration; sexual assault victims were disproportionately female; 95 percent of the sexual assault victims were assaulted by a male, 71 percent were assaulted by someone they were acquainted with or knew by sight, 18 percent were assaulted by a complete stranger, and 10 percent by a family member; 29 percent of the sexual assault victims were assaulted by youth age 17 or younger; and police were contacted in regard to only 30 percent of the sexually assaulted children. The estimates in this bulletin were derived from two components of the Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART-2); the National Household Survey of Adult Caretakers; and the National Household Survey of Youth; information on victimizations for this sample was obtained through proxy interviews with 16,111 caretakers. The total number of children in the households of respondents in the Household Survey sample was 31,787. Each primary caretaker who completed an interview was asked for permission to interview one randomly selected youth between the ages of 10 and 18 residing in the household; permission was obtained for 60 percent of the youth (5,015 youths were interviewed). Tables, notes, and references