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Victimization to Perpetrator?
by Niki Delson
There is widespread belief that child sexual victimization leads
to sex offending. Often referred to as “The Cycle of Sexual
Abuse” this myth is perpetuated in the media, in the courts,
and throughout child welfare literature. Does research support his
belief? The following comes from the United States General Accounting
Office - A synopsis of the Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee
on Crime, Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives.
“Cycle of Sexual Abuse: Research Inconclusive About Whether
Child Victims Become Adult Abusers”.
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed research studies
regarding the cycle of sexual abuse, focusing on the likelihood
that individuals who are victims of sexual abuse as children will
become sexual abusers of children in adulthood. The GAO found that:
(1) there was no consensus among the 23 retrospective
and 2 prospective studies reviewed, that childhood sexual abuse
led directly to the victim becoming an adult sexual abuser;
(2) the retrospective studies, which sought to determine whether
a sample of known sex offenders had been sexually abused as children,
differed considerably in the types of offenders studied, use of
control or comparison groups, and definition and reporting of childhood
sexual abuse;
(3) although some of the retrospective studies concluded that childhood
sexual abuse may increase the risk that victims will commit sexual
abuse later, most of the studies noted that the majority of sex
offenders had not been sexually abused as children;
(4) the prospective studies, which tracked sexually abused children
into adulthood to determine how many became sex offenders, studied
sample populations that may not be representative of the entire
population of childhood sexual abuse victims; and
(5) the prospective studies found that victims of childhood sexual
abuse were not more likely than non- victims to be arrested for
sex offenses.
See GAO/GGD-96-178 |
