Finkelhor D
Family Research Laboratory, University of New Hampshire.
Future Child. 1994 Summer-Fall;4(2):31-53.
Approximately 150,000 confirmed cases of child sexual abuse were reported to child welfare authorities in the United States during 1993. This number represents about 15% of the more than one million confirmed cases of all child abuse and neglect. But the true scope of this problem is better reflected in retrospective surveys of adults, and this article summarizes data from 19 of these surveys. Considerable evidence exists to show that at least 20% of American women and 5% to 10% of American men experienced some form of sexual abuse as children. The rates are somewhat lower among people born before World War II, but there is little evidence of a dramatic increase for recent generations. The studies provide little evidence that race or socioeconomic circumstances are major risk factors. They do show elevated risk for children who experienced parental inadequacy, unavailability, conflict, harsh punishment, and emotional deprivation. Adult retrospective studies are also good sources of information about the characteristics of abuse. Most sexual abuse is committed by men (90%) and by persons known to the child (70% to 90%), with family members constituting one-third to one-half of the perpetrators against girls and 10% to 20% of the perpetrators against boys. Family members constitute a higher percentage of the perpetrators in child protective agency cases because the mandate of these agencies generally precludes their involvement in extrafamily abuse. Around 20% to 25% of child sexual abuse cases involve penetration or oral-genital contact. The peak age of vulnerability is between 7 and 13. Studies of the criminal justice processing of sexual abusers suggest that, compared with other violent criminals, slightly fewer are prosecuted, but of those prosecuted, slightly more are convicted. Studies conducted in the 1980s also showed that, once convicted, relatively few sexual abusers receive sentences longer than one year, while 32% to 46% serve no jail time. Overall, there is little evidence to suggest that either the child welfare system or the criminal justice system abandons its usual standards of operation and acts hysterically when confronted with sexual abuse.
1993年期间，美国约有15万起儿童性虐待确诊案例报告给了儿童福利机构。这个数字约占100多万起儿童虐待与忽视确诊案例总数的15%。但该问题的真实规模在针对成年人的回顾性调查中体现得更为明显，本文总结了其中19项调查的数据。有大量证据表明，至少20%的美国女性和5%至10%的美国男性在儿童时期遭受过某种形式的性虐待。二战前出生的人遭受性虐待的比例略低，但几乎没有证据表明近几代人的比例有大幅上升。这些研究几乎没有证据表明种族或社会经济状况是主要风险因素。不过研究确实表明，父母能力不足、无法陪伴、存在冲突、惩罚严厉以及情感缺失的儿童遭受性虐待的风险更高。成年人回顾性研究也是了解虐待特征的良好信息来源。大多数性虐待行为是由男性实施的（90%），且施虐者为儿童认识的人（70%至90%），其中家庭成员占针对女童施虐者的三分之一至二分之一，占针对男童施虐者的10%至20%。在儿童保护机构处理的案件中，家庭成员占施虐者的比例更高，因为这些机构的职责通常使它们不会介入家庭外的虐待案件。约20%至25%的儿童性虐待案件涉及性侵或口交。儿童最易遭受性虐待的年龄在7岁至13岁之间。对性虐待者刑事司法程序的研究表明，与其他暴力罪犯相比，受到起诉的性虐待者略少，但在受到起诉的人中，被定罪的比例略高。20世纪80年代进行的研究还表明一旦被定罪，相对较少的性虐待者会被判处一年以上的刑期，而32%至46%的人无需入狱服刑。总体而言，几乎没有证据表明儿童福利系统或刑事司法系统在面对性虐待时会放弃其通常的运作标准并做出过激反应。
