This bulletin, part of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's "Crimes against Children Series," draws on the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System to provide data on the frequency and nature of crimes against children committed by babysitters. According to the bulletin, babysitters account for approximately 4 percent…

This study explored the possibility that bullies, victims of bullying, and bully-victims (i.e., youth who both perpetrate and are victims of bullying) are at increased risk for victimization in four other domains: conventional crime, child maltreatment, sexual victimization, and witnessing or indirect victimization. It also evaluated the extent to…

Proposed is a system of flexible options for the mandated reporting of child abuse and neglect, to improve compliance with and reduce burdens on the child protective system. Potential benefits and drawbacks of the plan, which would identify and train "registered reporters" and offer the option of explicit deferred investigation, are…

Surveys of child sexual abuse in large nonclinical populations of adults have been conducted in at least 19 countries other than the United States and Canada, including 10 national probability samples. All studies have found rates comparable to North American research, ranging from 7% to 36% for women and 3% to 29% for men. (Author/DB)

Compares the responses of 10- and 11-year olds with those of 12- to 17-year olds in a national telephone survey of youth (N=2,000) concerning victimization and victimization prevention education. Younger children disclosed fewer sensitive kinds of victimization, but their rates for assaults were equivalent to the older children. (Author/MKA)

Objective: To understand to the degree to which a broad variety of victimizations, including child maltreatment, conventional crime, peer, and sexual victimizations, persist for children from 1 year to the next. Design: A national sample of 1467 children aged 2-17 recruited through random digit dialing and assessed via telephone interviews (with…

Survey information shows that sexual abuse of children is widespread, being reported by 19% of the females and 9% of the males in the sample. Most sexual victimization took place within the child's family, not with strangers, as "child molesters" have traditionally been stereotyped. While the problem cuts across social and economic lines, it seems…

This paper reviews clinical experience and research evidence about father-daughter incest and family sexual abuse, and suggests six factors important in its etiology: the personal characteristics of the offender; the role of the mother; a milieu of abandonment; subcultural isolation; poor family sexual boundaries; and opportunity factors. (Author)

This study, involving 44 boys (ages 10 to 16), found that exposure to sexual abuse prevention programs was associated with a lower perceived likelihood of being sexually abused, whereas discussion of child sexual abuse with parents was associated with a higher perceived likelihood. Results are attributed to emphasis on controllability of sexual…

Interviews were conducted with child protection administrators in 43 states. More than half in states with large declines of cases of substantiated sexual abuse were unaware of any discussion of the declines within their agency or state. Possible causes for decline included increased evidentiary requirements and increased caseworker caution.…

Objective: Children who experience multiple victimizations (referred to in this paper as poly-victims) need to be identified because they are at particularly high risk of additional victimization and traumatic psychological effects. This paper compares alternative ways of identifying such children using questions from the Juvenile Victimization…

Described in this executive summary is a study attempting to identify and analyze all cases of sexual abuse in day care settings that were reported in the United States from January 1983 through December 1985. The study described the problem of sexual abuse in day care in terms of its incidence, perpetrators, victims, dynamics, disclosure, impact…

A national survey of 1000 parents concerning disciplinary practices and violence included questions about whether the children had been sexually abused, to assess the feasibility of epidemiological research on contemporaneous sexual abuse using parental interviews rather than the usual adult retrospective approach. Results indicated rates of…

Efforts to revolutionize the child welfare system must consider social trends and forces. Encouraging trends that child welfare reformers might be able to harness include biotechnology, availability of medical care, gender equality, awareness of parenting skills, and service sector growth. Discouraging trends include increasing rate of divorce and…

A study of 1,000 children examined the effectiveness of the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales (CTSPC) in measuring parental psychological and physical maltreatment of children, as well as nonviolent modes of discipline. The CTSPC was found to be better suited to measuring child maltreatment than the original Conflict Tactics Scales. (Author/CR)