Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, 3783Swinburne University of Technology, Alphington, Victoria, Australia.
22830Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health (Forensicare), Victoria, Australia.
Child Maltreat. 2021 Feb;26(1):74-86. doi: 10.1177/1077559520932665. Epub 2020 Jun 23.
Approximately half of child sexual abuse (CSA) victims report sexual revictimization later in life; however, there is limited rigorous evidence concerning factors contributing to sexual and nonsexual forms of revictimization. This article investigates the relationships between CSA and a range of revictimization experiences. It also examines the role of other individual-level factors (demographics, CSA characteristics, psychiatric disorders) in the risk of revictimization. The study compares data from a prospective-longitudinal study of 2,759 Australian children (<17 years old) alleged to have experienced contact-CSA between 1964 and 1995, and a comparison group matched on sex and age. In each case, CSA was deemed likely to have occurred according to expert forensic medical opinion. Abused children and comparisons were followed to age 35 years on average, and their lifetime official crime victimization histories and public mental health service records were extracted from statewide population-level administrative databases. Relative to comparisons, CSA victims experienced significantly higher rates of revictimization, with marked elevations in odds for interpersonal revictimization (i.e., sexual assault, physical assault, threats of violence, and stalking). The CSA-physical assault relationship was moderated by sex, with a stronger association for female victims. Among CSA victims, victim sex, age at index abuse, and several psychiatric diagnostic categories were independently associated with revictimization risk, with different patterns of vulnerability emerging depending on the nature of revictimization. Overall, CSA victims are vulnerable to a range of revictimization experiences later in life. Findings have implications for the identification of particular groups of sexually abused children at heightened risk for revictimization and the role mental health services may play in mitigating risk.
大约有一半的儿童性虐待（CSA）受害者在以后的生活中会再次遭受性虐待；然而，对于导致性虐待和非性虐待再次受害的因素，目前只有有限的严格证据。本文调查了 CSA 与一系列再次受害经历之间的关系。它还研究了其他个体层面因素（人口统计学、CSA 特征、精神障碍）在再次受害风险中的作用。该研究比较了 1964 年至 1995 年期间澳大利亚 2759 名据称遭受过接触性 CSA 的儿童（<17 岁）和按性别和年龄匹配的对照组的前瞻性纵向研究的数据。在每种情况下，根据专家法医意见，都认为 CSA 很可能发生。受虐待的儿童和对照组的随访平均年龄为 35 岁，他们的终身官方犯罪受害史和公共精神卫生服务记录从全州人口级别的行政数据库中提取。与对照组相比，CSA 受害者再次受害的比率明显更高，人际再次受害（即性侵犯、身体攻击、暴力威胁和跟踪）的几率显著升高。CSA-身体攻击的关系受到性别的调节，女性受害者的关联性更强。在 CSA 受害者中，受害者性别、索引虐待时的年龄和几个精神诊断类别与再次受害风险独立相关，根据再次受害的性质，出现了不同的脆弱模式。总体而言，CSA 受害者在以后的生活中容易受到各种再次受害经历的影响。这些发现对识别处于高危风险的特定群体的性受虐待儿童以及心理健康服务在减轻风险方面的作用具有重要意义。
