Child Sexual Abuse

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Child Sexual Abuse

In the United States, approximately 1 out of every 4 girls and 1 out of every 6 boys is sexually abused.a Seventy to 73% of child sexual abusers report experiencing sexual abuse in their own childhood.e Approximately 60% of sexual abusers are known to the child but are not family members, such as family friends, babysitters, or neighbors.c Approximately 30% of sexual abusers are family members, such as fathers, mothers, brothers, uncles, or cousins.d It is estimated that less than half of all sexual assaults on children are reported to the police.g According to the APA, women are the abusers in about 14% of cases reported among boys and 6% of cases reported among girls.g A man in Melbourne, Australia, raped his daughter every day for 30 years from the 1970s until 2007. He fathered her four children, all who had severe birth defects.  An Austrian man, Josef Fritz, kept his daughter imprisoned in a basement for 24 years and fathered seven children with her.b The World Health Organization reports that 150 million girls and 73 million boys under 18 experienced forced sexual intercourse and other forms of sexual violence globally in 2002.p While the murder rate for minors is twice as high in low-income countries than in higher income countries, sexual abuse in the home is found in all countries. In many industrialized countries, as many as 36% of women and 20% of men said they have been the victim of sexual abuse as children, mostly within the family circle.p According to WHO, 1.8 million children are involved in pornography and prostitution. Over 1.2 million children have been trafficked.p Males, especially children, are less likely to disclose abuse than females