Comparison of 87 child abuse victims of lone female perpetrators with 93 victims of lone male perpetrators found that female perpetrators abused children 3.3 years younger than male perpetrators. Both female and male perpetrators abused more girls than boys and did not differ in severity of abuse. (Author/DB)

This commentary notes that solid empirical evidence on the effectiveness of classroom-based child sexual abuse prevention programs is lacking. Prevention efforts need to target potential victims, potential perpetrators, and those aspects of the social fabric that nurture abusive behaviors; and the merits of prevention efforts must be discussed…

Depressive symptomatology was assessed in 246 male juvenile sex offenders. Scores on the Beck Depression Inventory indicated 42 percent showed appreciable depressive symptomatology. A history of sexual or physical abuse was related to high Beck scores. Racial differences were not statistically significant. (Author/DB)

Medical evaluation of 316 children, mean age 6 years, found 39 perpetrators of sexual abuse were less than 16 years old and 15 were between 16 and 19. Young aggressors were more likely to abuse older female children. Adolescent aggressors appeared to engage in more genital/genital and genital/anal sexual abuse than older aggressors. (Author/DB)