CWASU Child And Woman Abuse Studies Unit

Statistics & Information

Child Sexual Abuse

Basic Statistics

UK Data
FindingSourceMethod
59% of young women and 27% of young men have experienced at least one sexually intrusive* incident before the age of 18Kelly, Regan and Burton, 1991Survey of 1,244 young people attending Further Education colleges, Britain
21% of young women and 7% of young men have experienced sexual abuse involving physical contact before the age of 18Kelly, Regan and Burton, 1991Survey (as above)
Women are between 2 and 3 times more likely to experience sexual abuse than menKelly, Regan and Burton, 1991Survey (as above)
14% of abusers were close relatives, 68% were more distant relatives and other previously known persons, 18% were strangersKelly, Regan and Burton, 1991Survey (as above)
85% of peer abusers were male and 95% of adult abusers were maleKelly, Regan and Burton, 1991Survey (as above)
21% of girls and 11% of boys have experienced child sexual abuse** Cawson, Wattam, Brooker and Kelly, 2000 (NSPCC)National representative study of 2,869 young people aged 18-24 years
16% of girls aged 12 or under were sexually abusedCawson et.ac. 2000NSPCC study
The majority of assaults on girls are committed by known malesKelly et.al., 1991 

* includes 'flashing', being made to look at pornography etc.

** defined as acts 'to which they had not consented or where "consensual" activity had occurred with someone 5 years or more older and the child was 12 years or less'.

 

International Data 
FindingSourceMethod
36% of women and 19% of men have experienced sexual abuseFinkelhor, 1994Survey of 1,125 individuals, Austria
23% of women and 15% of men have experienced sexual abuseFinkelhor, 1994Interviews with 2,000
individuals, Spain
27% of women and 16% of men have
experienced sexual abuse		Finkelhor,1994Interviews with 2,626
individuals, USA
Convicted male sex offenders reported an average of 533 offences and 336 victims eachAbel, Mittleman and Becker, 1985Self-reports of 411 convicted sex offenders, Canada
1 in 2 (49%) adolescent girls had been touched against their willCoker-Appiah & Cusack (1999)Ghana National Study on Violence 1998, survey of 2,069 women and girls suplemented by a five-year review of official records.

 

International Data on Sexual Abuse of Girls 
Country% abused as girls
Costa Rica32
Barbados30
Nicatagua26
Spain25
US21
Australia20
Switzerland19
New Zealand14

Source: Heise et. a. (1999)

 

International Data on Percentage of Adolescent females reporting forced sexual initiation
Country% reporting first sexual intercourse as forced
Caribbean48
Peru40
Cameroon37
Tanzania29
South Africa28
Ghana21
Mozambique19
US9
New Zealand7

Source: WHO (2002)

 

 

NOTE: prevalence and incidence findings vary widely according to the definition of sexual abuse that was applied in each study, the ages at which childhood is deemed to end (14/15/16/17/18), and the data collection methods employed.

Please also see Statistics on Child Marriages

 

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