NCJ Number
187517
Journal
Journal of Child Sexual Abuse Volume: 9 Issue: 2 Dated: 2000 Pages: 57-70
Editor(s)
Robert Geffner Ph.D.
Date Published
2000
Length
14 pages
Annotation
A survey of 164 college women who came from varied ethnic, cultural, and economic backgrounds revealed 18 percent recalled some instance of childhood sexual abuse; most women were abused by non-family members (neighbors, acquaintances, or friends of the family), but strangers were the perpetrators in 21 percent of the cases.
Abstract
Survey participants were recruited from graduate and undergraduate courses at a large university located in a metropolitan area. The Structured Clinical Interview was used to obtain information about the participant's family, including background, income, ethnicity, and role. Of the 164 participants interviewed, 18 percent reported having at least one experience of childhood sexual abuse. The average age at the time of victimization was 9 years, although victims reported a range of ages from 4 to 18 years. In the intra-familial sexual abuse cases, the perpetrator was most commonly a cousin. The majority of sexual abuse consisted of fondling the victim (67 percent), while the second most reported experience involved exposure of the perpetrator to the victim (30 percent). There were differences in the economic backgrounds of the abused women compared to non-abused women, and present findings differed from past research on family of origin income level and sexual abuse. Specifically, the current survey found no relationship between family of origin income level and victimization. Additional research is recommended using a larger sample to explore the role of ethnicity and psychological effects of sexual abuse victimization. 37 references and 4 tables