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Strong Mothers Against Child Molesters |
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Facts and Statistics
Is it True that most Victims of Child Molestation Know Their Attacker?
Is it True that More Child Molesters are White Males than any other Demographic?
Is it True that Child Molesters Start Molesting Before They Reach Adulthood?
Is it true that most Child Molesters were Molested as children themselves?
Is it True that Child Molesters Don’t Really Want to "Hurt" Children?
Don’t the People Who Hurt Children Receive Tougher Sentences than Those Who Hurt Adults?
Note:
You will notice some variation in the numbers quoted in these Statistics. It is very difficult for any researcher to quote precise numbers on this subject. If you think about it, how would we really know how many children each child molester victimizes, or how many child molesters re-offend, or any of a dozen other facts we wish to quantify? You will also notice, however, that the numbers quoted by (what appear to be) the most reliable sources are very similar.
The serial killer has the same personality characteristics as the sex offender against children.
- Dr. Mace Knapp, Nevada State Prison Psychologist1
Dr. Gene Abel estimates that between 1% and 5% of our population molest children.
- CNN Specials Transcript #454-Thieves of Childhood
The typical offender is male, begins molesting by age 15, engages in a variety of deviant behaviors, and molests an average of 117 youngsters, most of whom do not report the offense.
- Dr. Gene Abel in a National Institute of Mental Health Study1
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The median age of the victims of imprisoned sexual assaulters was less than 13 years old.3
One of every seven victims of sexual assault reported to law enforcement agencies were under age six.4
How Prevalent is this Problem?
As of April 1st, 2005, there were
-549,038 Sex Offenders
required to register in
the U.S.;
-2,671 in Idaho, and
-255 in Kootenai County.
_________________________________________
On any given day in 1994 there were approximately 234,000 offenders convicted of rape or sexual assault under the care, custody, or control of corrections agencies; nearly 60% of these sex offenders are under conditional supervision in the community.3
Is it True that most Victims of Child Molestation Know Their Attacker?
Yes.
Rarely were the offenders of young victims strangers. Strangers were the offender in just 3% of sexual assaults against victims under age 6 and 5% of the sexual assault of victimizations of youth ages 6 through 11.
- Sexual Assault of Young Children as
Reported to Law Enforcement,
7/00, NCJ 182990,U.S. Department of Justice1
_________________________________________
Acquaintance perpetrators are the most common abusers, constituting approximately 70-90% of all reported perpetrators.
- Finkelhor, D. 19941
_________________________________________
89% of child sexual assault cases involve persons known to the child, such as a caretaker or family acquaintance.
- Diana Russell Survey, 19781
_________________________________________
29% of child sexual abuse offenders are relatives, 60% are acquaintances, and only 11% are strangers.
- Diana Russell, The Secret Trauma, NY:Basic Books, 19861
_________________________________________
For the vast majority of child victimizers in State prison, the victim was someone they knew before the crime. 1/3 had committed their crime against their own child, about 1/2 had a relationship with the victim as a friend, acquaintance, or relative other than offspring, about 1 in 7 reported the victim to have been a stranger to them.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics Survey of State Prison Inmates, 19911
_________________________________________
"The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that only 10 percent of all sexual abuse cases involve total strangers. The other 90% of child victims know their offender. Almost half of the offenders are a family member." 2
Is it True that More Child Molesters
are White Males than any other Demographic?
Yes.
And we’re not sure why.
Nearly all the offenders in sexual assaults reported to law enforcement were male (96%).
- Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law Enforcement,
7/00, NCJ 182990,U.S. Department of Justice1
_________________________________________
All but 3% of offenders who committed violent crimes against children were male.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics Survey of State Prison Inmates, 19911
_________________________________________
…Nearly 70% of those serving time for violent crimes against children were white.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics Survey of State Prison Inmates, 19911
Yes.
About 60% of the male survivors sampled report at least one of their perpetrators to be female.
- Mendel, 19931
Is it True that Child Molesters Start Molesting Before They Reach Adulthood?
Yes.
40% of the offenders of victims under age 6 were themselves juveniles. A similar proportion (39%) of offenders of victims ages 6 through 11 were also juveniles. For older juvenile victims, the proportion of juvenile offenders dropped to 27%.
- Sexual Assault of Young Children as
Reported to Law Enforcement,
7/00, NCJ 182990,U.S. Department of Justice1
_________________________________________
Overall, 23% of sexual assault offenders were under 18.
- Sexual Assault of Young Children as
Reported to Law Enforcement,7/00,
NCJ 182990,U.S. Department of Justice1
_________________________________________
Many clinical settings currently are witnessing a dramatic increase in the number of adolescent offenders who have committed sexually aggressive acts against other children.
- Conte, Jon R., 19861
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The most serious and chronic offenders often show signs of antisocial behavior as early as the preschool years.
- (American Psychiatric Association, 1994)
(Reported in Juvenile Justice Bulletin:
Nov 1998 OJJDP: U.S. Department of Justice)1
Is it true that most Child Molesters
were Molested as children themselves?
Surprisingly, it now looks like the answer is "no."
Many studies and reports, based on the statements of convicted child molesters, have claimed that most of these predators were molested as children themselves. Subsequently, this has been widely believed to be true. However, take a look at this:
…many people are sexually abused but never become sexual predators themselves.
…One of the things recently there has been a study of sex offenders that initially that (sic) the percent of sex offenders that reported being sexually abused was quite high, in the range of 70 percent. And then they took the same group of individuals and used a polygraph and the numbers declined. In other words, it reached something in the range of 30 percent, which would indicate that the sex offenders for whatever reason, whether it was to gain sympathy or make excuses or whatever, said that they were sexually abused when they really weren't.
- Ron Sanchez, Ph.D., Supervising Psychologist,
Utah State Prison.
Sanchez works with convicted rapists.
These statements were made in an interview
for a PBS documentary:
"No Safe Place: Violence Against Women."
What portion of sex crimes
are committed against children?
2/3 of all prisoners convicted of rape or sexual assault had committed their crime against a child.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics Survey of State Prison Inmates, 19911
Where do these Assaults Take Place?
3/4 of the violent victimizations of children took place in either the victim's home or the offenders home.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics Survey of State Prison Inmates, 19911
71% of male offenders are under the age of 35.
- Dr. Ann Burges, Dr. Nicholas Groth, et al.
in a study of imprisoned offenders1
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3/4 of sexual predators are younger than 35.
-Profiles from the FBI Academy and the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children1
Are Child Molesters of Incredibly Low Intelligence, and Somehow Incapable of understanding
No.
About 80% (of child molesters) are of normal intelligence or above.
- Profiles from the FBI Academy and the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children1
No.
Prosecuting Attorneys Take Note:
Inmates who victimized children were less likely than other inmates to have a prior criminal record-nearly 1/3 of child victimizers had never been arrested prior to the current offense, compared to less than 20% of those who victimized adults.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics Survey of State Prison Inmates, 19911
Is it True that Child Molesters
Don’t Really Want to "Hurt" Children?
No.
50% of reported child molestations involve the use of physical force and child molesters produce as much visible physical injury as rapists-39% of victims.
- Dr. Gene Abel in a National Institute of Mental Health Study1
Do Child Molesters use Weapons?
About 14% of child victimizers carried a weapon during the violent crime, compared to nearly 1/2 of those who victimized adults.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics Survey of State Prison Inmates, 19911
Don’t the People Who Hurt Children Receive Tougher Sentences than Those Who Hurt Adults?
No. Actually, they receive lighter sentences.
About 10% of violent offenders with child victims received life or death sentences and the average prison term was 11 years, somewhat shorter average sentences than received by those with adult victims.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics Survey of State Prison Inmates, 19911
More than 1/2 of all convicted sex offenders are sent back to prison within a year. Within 2 years, 77.9% are back.
- California Department of Corrections1
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Recidivism rates range from 18-45%. The more violent the crime the more likelihood of repeating.
- Studies by the state of Washington1
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The behavior is highly repetitive, to the point of compulsion, rather than resulting from a lack of judgment.
- Dr. Ann Burges, Dr. Nicholas Groth, et al.
in a study of imprisoned offenders1
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An estimated 24% of those serving time for rape and 19% of those serving time for sexual assault had been on probation or parole at the time of the offense for which they were in State prison in 1991.3
How Many Children Does
the Average Child Molester Assault?
(We quoted this statement earlier, but it is worth repeating here.)
The typical offender is male, begins molesting by age 15, engages in a variety of deviant behavior, and molests an average of 117 youngsters, most of whom do not report the offense.
-Dr. Gene Abel in a National Institute of Mental Health Study1
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3 in 10 child victimizers reported that they had committed their crimes against multiple victims: they were more likely than those who victimized adults to have had multiple victims.
- Bureau of justice Statistics Survey of State Prison Inmates, 19911
How Many Cases of Child Molestation
Like rape, child molestation is one of the most underreported crimes: only 1-10% are ever disclosed.
- FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin1
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1 From YelloDyno
3 State of California; Justice Department; Office of the Attorney General:
"Megan’s Law – Facts about Sex offenders."
4 Childhelp USA, quoting Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data from 1991 to 1996.
Copyright 2006,
SMAC’M. All Rights Reserved.