Cycle of Sexual Abuse:
Research Inconclusive About Whether Child Victims
Become Adult Abusers
(Letter Report, 09/13/96, GAO/GGD-96-178).
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.
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 nonvictims to be
arrested for sex offenses.
---------------------------
Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM:
GGD-96-178
TITLE:
Cycle of Sexual Abuse: Research Inconclusive About Whether
Child Victims Become Adult Abusers
DATE:
09/13/96
SUBJECT:
Child abuse
Sexual abuse
Behavioral sciences research
Criminals
Sex crimes
Adults
Arrests
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Cover
================================================================
COVER
Report to the Chairman,
Subcommittee on Crime, Committee on the
Judiciary, House of
Representatives
September 1996
CYCLE OF SEXUAL ABUSE -
RESEARCH
INCONCLUSIVE ABOUT WHETHER
CHILD
VICTIMS BECOME ADULT ABUSERS
GAO/GGD-96-178
Cycle of Sexual Abuse
Research Results
(183607)
Abbreviations
===============================================================
ABBREV
Letter
===============================================================
LETTER
B-272972
September 13, 1996
The Honorable Bill
McCollum
Chairman, Subcommittee on
Crime
Committee on the Judiciary
House of Representatives
Dear Mr. Chairman:
This is our third and
final report responding to your request that we
review and synthesize the
current state of research knowledge on ways
to prevent sex crimes
against children. Our first report,
issued on
June 21, 1996, summarized
reviews of the research literature on the
effectiveness of treatment
programs in reducing the recidivism of sex
offenders.\1 Our second
report, issued on July 26, 1996, summarized
reviews of the research
literature on the effectiveness of education
programs designed to help
children avoid becoming victims of sexual
abuse.\2 This report
summarizes the results of, and discusses the
methodologies used in, the
studies that have been done on the cycle
of sexual abuse--that is,
on the likelihood that individuals who were
victims of sexual abuse as
children will become sexual abusers of
children in adulthood.
This report does not
address a follow-on question that you raised
concerning ways to prevent
sexually abused children from becoming
adult sexual offenders
against children, because the existence of a
cycle of sexual abuse was
not established by the research studies we
reviewed.
--------------------
\1 Sex Offender
Treatment: Research Results Inconclusive
About What
Works to Reduce Recidivism
(GAO/GGD-96-137, June 21, 1996).
\2 Preventing Child Sexual
Abuse: Research Inconclusive About
Effectiveness of Child
Education Programs (GAO/GGD-96-156, July 26,
1996).
BACKGROUND
------------------------------------------------------------
Letter :1
Sexual abuse can have
negative consequences for children during the
time of abuse as well as
later in life, according to several recent
research reviews.\3
Initial effects reportedly have included fear,
anxiety, depression,
anger, aggression, and sexually inappropriate
behavior in at least some
portion of the victim population.
Long-lasting consequences
reportedly have included depression,
self-destructive behavior,
anxiety, feelings of isolation and stigma,
poor self-esteem,
difficulty in trusting others, a tendency toward
revictimization, substance
abuse, and sexual maladjustment.
In addition, researchers
have noted that there is widespread belief
that there is a
"cycle of sexual abuse," such that sexual
victimization as a child
may contribute to perpetration of sexual
abuse as an adult. Such a pattern is consistent with social
learning
theories--which posit that
children learn those behaviors that are
modeled for them--and also
with psychodynamic theories--which suggest
that abusing others may
help victimized individuals to overcome
childhood trauma. Critics have argued that empirical support for
the
cycle of sexual abuse is
weak, and that parents are unduly frightened
into thinking that little
can be done to mitigate the long-term
effects of sexual
abuse. There remain many unanswered
questions
about the risk posed by
early sexual victimization, as well as about
the conditions and
experiences that might increase this risk (such as
number of victimization
experiences, age of the victim at the time of
the abuse, and whether the
abuse was perpetrated by a family member).
There are also questions about
factors that may prevent victimized
children from becoming
adult perpetrators (such as support from
siblings and parents or
positive relationships with other authority
figures). Answers to such questions would be useful in
developing
both prevention strategies
and therapeutic interventions.
Studying the relationship
between early sexual victimization and
later perpetration of
sexual abuse is methodologically difficult.
If
researchers take a
retrospective approach, and ask adult sex
offenders whether they
experienced childhood sexual abuse, there are
problems of selecting a
representative sample of offenders, finding
an appropriate comparison
group of adults who have not committed sex
offenses but are similar
to the study group in other respects,
minimizing errors that
arise when recalling traumatic events from the
distant past, and dealing
with the possibility that offenders will
purposely overreport
childhood abuse to gain sympathy or underreport
abuse to avoid imputations
of guilt. A prospective
approach--selecting a
sample of children who have been sexually
abused and following them
into adulthood to see whether they become
sexual abusers--overcomes
some of the problems of the retrospective
approach, but it is a
costly and time-consuming solution. In
addition, researchers
choosing the prospective approach still face
the challenge of
disentangling the effects of sexual abuse from the
effects of other possible
problems and stress-related factors in the
backgrounds of these
children (e.g., poverty, unemployment, parental
alcohol abuse, or other
inadequate social and family functioning).
This requires the
selection of appropriate comparison groups of
children who have not been
sexually abused and children who have
faced other forms of
maltreatment, as well as the careful measurement
of a variety of other
explanatory factors.
--------------------
\3 See J. H.
Beitchman et al., "A Review of the Long-Term Effects
of Child Sexual
Abuse," Child Abuse and Neglect, Vol.
XVI (1992),
pp. 101-118; A.
Browne and D. Finkelhor,
"Impact of Child Sexual
Abuse: A Review of the Research," Psychological
Bulletin, Vol.
XCIX, No. 1 (1986), pp.
66-77; and D. Finkelhor,
"Early and
Long-Term Effects of Child
Sexual Abuse: An Update,"
Professional
Psychology: Research and Practice, Vol XXI, No. 5 (1990), pp.
325-330.
RESULTS IN BRIEF
------------------------------------------------------------
Letter :2
We identified 25 studies
that provided quantitative information
relevant to the question
of whether persons who were sexually abused
as children were at
heightened risk of becoming sexual abusers of
children in
adulthood. Of these studies, 23 were
retrospective--that
is, they began with a
sample of known adult sex offenders of children
and sought to determine
whether they were sexually abused themselves
during childhood. Only two studies were prospective. These began
with samples of sexually
victimized children and tracked them into
adulthood to determine how
many became sex offenders.
A number of the
retrospective studies found that a substantial
percentage of adult sex
offenders of children said they had been
sexually abused as
children. However, a majority of the
studies
found that most offenders
said they had not been sexually abused
during childhood. These studies varied in terms of their
estimates
of the percentages of such
offenders who had been abused, from zero
to 79 percent, partly
because of differences in the types of
offenders studied and in
how childhood sexual abuse was defined and
measured. In general, because they had several
methodological
shortcomings, these
studies offered insufficient evidence that being
sexually abused as a child
led directly to the victim's becoming an
adult sex offender. The two prospective studies employed analytic
methods that were better
suited to establishing such a link than were
the retrospective
studies. Respectively, about 7 percent
and 26
percent of sexually abused
children in these studies were found to be
sex offenders as
adults. However, the various design and
measurement
problems of the
prospective studies precluded the drawing of
definitive conclusions
from them as well.
Nevertheless, overall, the
retrospective studies, prospective
studies, and research
reviews indicated that the experience of
childhood sexual
victimization is quite likely neither a necessary
nor a sufficient cause of
adult sexual offending. The two
prospective studies
concluded that the majority of victims of sexual
abuse during childhood did
not become sex offenders as adults.
Therefore, childhood
sexual victimization would not necessarily lead
to adult sexual
offending. In addition, the majority of
retrospective studies
concluded that most adult sex offenders against
children did not report
that they were sexually victimized as
children. Therefore, childhood sexual victimization
would probably
not be sufficient to
explain adult sexual offending. While
some
studies indicated that
sexual victimization in childhood may increase
the risk that victims will
become sexual offenders as adults, other
studies found that many
other conditions and experiences might also
be associated with an
increased risk. For example, one
prospective
study we reviewed found
that children who were neglected were even
more likely than children
who were sexually abused to commit sex
offenses as adults.
SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
------------------------------------------------------------
Letter :3
We collected, reviewed,
and analyzed information from available
published and unpublished
research on the cycle of sexual abuse.
Identifying the relevant
literature involved a multistep process.
Initially, we identified
experts in the sex offense research field by
contacting the Department
of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention and
Office of Victim Assistance, the National
Institute of Mental
Health's Violence and Traumatic Stress Branch,
the American Psychological
Association, and academicians selected
because of their expertise
in the area. These contacts helped
identify experts in the
field, who in turn helped identify other
experts. We also conducted computerized searches of
several on-line
databases, including ERIC
(the Education Resources Information
Center), NCJRS (the
National Criminal Justice Reference Service),
PsycINFO,\4 Dissertation
Abstracts, and the National Clearinghouse on
Child Abuse.
We identified 40 articles
on the cycle of sexual abuse issued between
1965 and 1996. Four of these reviewed the literature in the
area; of
these, two were published
in 1988, one was published in 1990, and one
was published in
1991. Of the remaining articles, 23
presented
findings from
retrospective research studies, which began with a
sample of known adult sex
offenders of children and sought to
determine (by asking the
offenders) whether they were sexually abused
during childhood. Another four presented findings from two
prospective research
studies, which began with samples of sexually
victimized children and
tracked them into adulthood to determine how
many became sex
offenders. Of the original 40 articles,
we excluded
5 because they presented
findings only, or primarily, on adolescent
sex offenders against
children, and an additional 4 because we were
unable to obtain them.
For the studies in our
review, we recorded the quantitative results,
summarized the
methodologies used, and summarized the authors'
conclusions about the
cycle of sexual abuse. Each study was
reviewed
by two social scientists
with specialized doctoral training in
evaluation research
methodology. Conclusions in this report
are
based on our assessment of
the evidence presented in these studies.
We sent the list of
research articles to two experts, both of whom
have done extensive
research in the field, to confirm the
comprehensiveness of our
list of articles. In addition, as a
final
check, we conducted a
second search of computerized on-line databases
in March 1996 to ensure
that no new research articles or reviews had
been published since our
original search in October 1995.
We sent a draft copy of
our report for comment to the two experts
previously consulted, as
well as to one additional expert, to ensure
that we had presented the
information about the research studies
accurately.\5 Their
technical comments were incorporated where
appropriate. We did not send a draft to any agency or
organization
because we did not obtain
information from such organizations for use
in this study. We did our work between October 1995 and
August 1996
in accordance with
generally accepted government auditing standards.
--------------------
\4 A database of the
American Psychological Association covering the
literature in psychology
and the behavioral sciences.
\5 The two experts who
reviewed the comprehensiveness of our list of
articles were Dr. R.
Karl Hanson, Senior Research Officer in
Corrections Research at
the Department of the Solicitor General of
Canada, and Dr. Cathy Spatz Widom, Professor of Criminal
Justice and
Psychology at the State
University of New York at Albany. The
third
expert consulted was
Dr. Robert A. Prentky, Director of Clinical
and Forensic Services at
the Joseph J. Peters Institute in
Philadelphia.
RESULTS INCONCLUSIVE ABOUT THE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDHOOD
SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION AND ADULT
SEXUAL OFFENDING AGAINST
CHILDREN
------------------------------------------------------------
Letter :4
There was no consensus
among the studies we reviewed that being
sexually abused as a child
led directly to the victim's becoming an
adult sexual abuser of
children. However, some studies did
conclude
that it might increase the
risk that victims would commit sexual
abuse later. A majority of the retrospective studies noted
that most
sex offenders had not been
sexually abused as children, and the two
prospective studies showed
that the majority of victims of sexual
abuse during childhood did
not become sex offenders as adults. The
4
review articles we
obtained, which collectively covered roughly
two-thirds of the 25
studies we reviewed, concluded that the evidence
from these studies was
insufficient to establish that being sexually
abused as a child is
either a necessary or a sufficient condition for
the victim's becoming a
sexual abuser as an adult.
RETROSPECTIVE STUDIES VARIED
IN GROUPS STUDIED,
DEFINITIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE
USED, AND RESULTS OBTAINED
----------------------------------------------------------
Letter :4.1
We reviewed 23
retrospective studies. Appendix I
provides additional
information on these
studies.\6 All but one of the retrospective
studies focused on adult
male sex offenders, and in most studies the
offenders sampled were
imprisoned or in some type of treatment
program. However, these studies varied considerably in
the types of
child sexual abusers
studied, whether control or comparison groups
were used, and if so, the
types of individuals in these groups.\7
The retrospective studies
also varied considerably in their findings
and conclusions. The percent of adult sex offenders against
children
identified as being
sexually abused as children themselves ranged
from zero to 79
percent. This variation partially reflects
differences across studies
in how childhood sexual abuse was defined,
as well as other
differences in study methodology.\8 This variation
may also reflect the
differences in the types of child sex offenders
studied. For example, both Hanson and Slater (1988)
and Garland and
Dougher (1988) concluded
from their reviews of retrospective studies
that offenders who
selected male children as victims were more likely
to have been sexually
abused themselves than were offenders against
female children.
A few of the studies found
that sex offenders of children were more
likely to have been
sexually abused as children than were members of
control groups composed of
noninstitutionalized nonoffenders.
However, many studies
found that, when compared with other types of
sex offenders (e.g.,
rapists or exhibitionists) and other types of
nonsexual offenders (i.e.,
men incarcerated for nonsexual crimes),
adult sex offenders of
children were not necessarily more likely to
have been sexually abused
as children.
According to several
researchers, the relationship between childhood
sexual victimization and
adult perpetration of sexual offenses
against children is
complex and requires measurement and analysis of
a host of factors. For example, it has been postulated that
adult
sexual offending is not
simply a result of the experience of
childhood sexual
victimization, but also of other factors such as age
at onset of the abuse,
nature of the abuse, stability of the
caregiver, and/or physical
abuse.\9 Studies that collect data on such
additional factors may add
to our understanding of what types of
sexual abuse, perpetrated
under what conditions against what types of
child victims, are
associated with what types of adult sexual
offending against what
types of victims under what types of
conditions. However, while such retrospective studies can
help
explore factors possibly
related to adult sexual offending, they
cannot establish the
importance of these factors in predicting adult
sexual offending. The reason for this is discussed in the
following
section.
--------------------
\6 R. K.
Hanson and S. Slater (1988) and
R. K.
Hanson (1991)
reviewed 14 of the 23
retrospective studies covered in this report,
and 5 others. R.
J. Garland and M. J.
Dougher (1988) reviewed 7
of these 23 studies, and 2
others. L. M.
Williams and D.
Finkelhor (1990) reviewed
3 of these 23 studies, and 3 others.
(See
bibliography for full
citations.)
\7 Some studies looked at
child sex offenders defined quite broadly,
while others looked at
specific types of offenders (e.g., incestuous
fathers, homosexual
pedophiles, or heterosexual pedophiles).
Some
studies did not use
control or comparison groups. Others
compared
sex offenders to men
incarcerated or in treatment for nonsexual
offenses, to men
clinically depressed, to college students who dated
minimally, or to law
enforcement officers, among others.
Seven of
the 23 studies compared
sex offenders to a control group of
noninstitutionalized men
drawn from the general population.
\8 Some studies simply
asked study group members whether they had
been sexually abused as
children, and left it to the individuals
themselves to determine
what constituted sexual abuse. Other
studies
asked study group members
whether they had been involved sexually as
children, or before age 13
or age 16, with a person 5 or more years
older than
themselves. Studies involving incest
offenders sometimes
asked offenders whether
they had been involved in incestuous
relationships as
children. However, these relationships
may not have
involved older adults or
may not have been coercive in nature.
Further, sexual abuse
victimization experiences were not always
limited to acts involving
physical contact. For example, in one
study, childhood sexual victimization
included being solicited by
adult males or females
through words, gestures, or some other sexual
approach.
\9 See, for example,
R. A.
Prentky and R. A. Knight, "Age of
Onset of Sexual
Assault: Criminal and Life History
Correlates," in
Sexual Aggression: Issues in Etiology, Assessment, and
Treatment,
eds. G.
C. N. Hall, R.
Hirschman, J. R. Graham, and M. S.
Zaragoza (Washington,
D.C.: Taylor and Francis, 1993),
pp. 43-62;
and R. A.
Prentky et al., "Developmental Antecedents of Sexual
Aggression,"
Development and Psychopathology, Vol. I
(1989), pp.
153-169.
RETROSPECTIVE STUDIES HAD
SEVERAL SHORTCOMINGS
----------------------------------------------------------
Letter :4.2
The retrospective studies
we reviewed had several shortcomings that
precluded our drawing any
firm conclusions about whether there is a
cycle of sexual
abuse. First, the studies focused on
known sex
offenders of children
(i.e., offenders who have been detected,
arrested, or convicted, or
who had been referred or had presented
themselves for treatment),
and these offenders may not be typical or
representative of all sex
offenders against children. Second,
self-reports of childhood
sexual abuse obtained from known sex
offenders are of
questionable validity. Known offenders
may be
motivated to overreport
histories of abuse to gain sympathy or to
excuse their own
offenses.\10 Third, where comparison or control
groups were used, attempts
to match group members to sex offenders of
children on factors
possibly related to being sexually abused or
abusive were typically
limited; few of the studies attempted to
control for such factors
statistically.
Finally, one of the major
shortcomings of these retrospective studies
is that they cannot reveal
how likely it is that a person who has
been sexually abused as a
child will become a sexual abuser in
adulthood. For example, even if 100 percent of sexual
abusers of
children were sexually
abused as children, this would not necessarily
mean that sexual abuse
causes abused children to become abusers
themselves. It may be that only a small percentage of
sexually
abused children become sex
offenders against children. Determining
how likely victims of
childhood sexual abuse are to become adult sex
offenders requires that a
sample of sexually abused children be
followed forward in time,
rather than the histories of sex offenders
be traced backward.
--------------------
\10 One research study
suggested that some sex offenders may claim to
have been victims of child
sexual abuse when they were not. See:
Jan Hindman,
"Research Disputes and Assumptions about Child
Molesters," National
District Attorney Association Bulletin, Vol.
VII, No. 4 (1988), pp.
1-3. Hindman studied convicted
adult child
molesters treated at an
Oregon clinic between 1980 and 1988.
Offenders were required to
write a detailed sexual history, including
information on whether
they were abused as children. Since
1982,
offenders have also been
told that they will be subject to polygraph
testing, that their
written autobiography must conform with the
polygraph test, and that
they will be sent back to jail if they do
not pass the test. A higher percentage of offenders who wrote
their
sexual histories before
the polygraph requirement was instituted in
1982 claimed that they had
been sexually victimized as children (67
percent) than of those who
were told that their sexual histories
would have to conform with
the polygraph test (29 percent).
PROSPECTIVE STUDIES USED
BETTER METHODOLOGIES, BUT
RESULTS WERE INCONCLUSIVE
----------------------------------------------------------
Letter :4.3
Our review of the
literature identified two research studies
(described in four
articles) that have used a prospective approach in
examining the cycle of
sexual abuse. One of these studies is
part of
a larger study of the
cycle of violence.\11
Widom is the primary
researcher in the larger study, which is still
ongoing. It involves a cohort of 908 substantiated
cases of child
abuse (physical and/or
sexual) or neglect processed through the
courts between 1967 and
1971.\12 These abuse/neglect cases were
restricted to children who
were 11 years of age or younger at the
time of the abuse or
neglect incident. They included 153
sexually
abused children, 160
physically abused children, and 697 neglected
children.\13 This
prospective study also includes a control group of
667 individuals who had no
record of abuse or neglect and who were
either born in the same
hospitals or attended the same elementary
schools as the abused
children. The control and study group
members
were matched on sex, age,
race, and approximate family socioeconomic
status.
Local, state, and federal
official arrest records containing
information recorded up to
June 1994 were used to determine how many
of the study and control
group members were arrested for sex
offenses. Table 1 shows results pertaining to sex
offenses from the
most recent analyses based
on this larger study.\14 The study did not
distinguish whether the
sex offense was perpetrated against a child
or an adult.\15
Table 1
Results From the Research
of Widom and
Colleagues on the Cycle of
Sexual Abuse
Adult
arres Odds Odds Odds Odds
ts ratio\a
Percent ratio\a Percent
ratio\a Percent ratio\a
Percent
----- -------
------- ------- -------
------- ------- ----------
-------
Any 1.4
6.5% 1.4 11.0%
2.1 13.1% Not
6.0%
sex
applicable
crim
e\b
Prost 3.7*
3.9% 0.9 1.4%
5.0* 3.6% Not
0.6%
itut applicable
ion
Rape 1.9
4.2% 2.4 4.7%
1.8 3.6% Not
2.1%
or
applicable
sodo
my\c
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1: When criminal history checks were conducted
in 1994, fewer
than 1 percent of the
individuals in the sample were under 25 years
of age.
Note 2: An asterisk (*) denotes statistical
significance.
\a Odds ratios reflect the
differences between groups in the odds or
likelihood of becoming a
sex offender. For example, an odds ratio
of
1.4 indicates that
sexually abused children are nearly 1-1/2 times as
likely as children in the
control group to become adult sex
offenders. Odds ratios are based on logistic regression
analysis,
with all three types of
abuse in the equation (comparisons are with
controls). These equations also control for age, sex,
and race.
\b Sex crimes include
prostitution, incest, child molestation, rape,
sodomy, assault and
battery with intent to gratify, peeping, public
indecency, criminal
deviant conduct, and contributing to the
delinquency of a minor.
\c Percentages and odds
ratios are for males only.
Source: Data provided by C.S. Widom, 1996.
Compared to the control
group, a higher percentage of those who had
been sexually abused,
physically abused, or neglected as children
were arrested as adults
for any sex crime, for prostitution, and
(among males) for rape or
sodomy. To determine how different the
study groups were from the
control group, Widom statistically
controlled for such
differences between the groups as age, race, and
sex; calculated odds
ratios; and performed statistical tests.
The
results indicated that the
differences between the sexually abused
group and the control
group in the odds of arrest for any sex crime
or for rape or sodomy
separately were not statistically significant.
Sexually abused children
were significantly more likely to have been
arrested for prostitution,
however. Twenty-three to 27 years later,
sexually abused children
were nearly four times more likely to have
been arrested for
prostitution. On the other hand, members
of the
childhood neglect study
group were significantly more likely than
members of the control
group to have been arrested for any sex crime
or for prostitution.
Because it could allow
researchers to discern the likelihood of
victims becoming abusers,
the prospective approach is
methodologically superior
to the retrospective approach. Widom's
study, however, has
several limitations. First, published
work from
the study has so far
relied solely on official arrest data, which may
fail to identify some
offenders (those who avoid detection or
arrest).\16 Second, the
study groups of victimized children were
identified by using
records of substantiated cases of abuse or
neglect that were
processed through the state courts. Such
cases may
represent only the most
severe instances of abuse and may not be
generalizable to all
children who have been abused or neglected.\17
Finally, the number of
sexually abused males in the abused/neglected
sample was small (a total
of 24). Statistical comparisons based on
small numbers of cases
should be interpreted with caution, since
small sample sizes may not
yield reliable estimates.
We located one other study
that used a prospective design and
followed sexually
victimized children into early adulthood.
This
study sampled 147 boys
under the age of 14 who were seen in the
emergency room of an urban
hospital because of sexual abuse between
1971 and 1975.\18 The
researchers also collected data on a comparison
sample of boys of the same
race and roughly the same age who were
seen in the same emergency
room at roughly the same time for reasons
other than sexual
abuse. In the period 1992 to 1994,
official
juvenile and adult arrest
records for the entire victim and
comparison sample were
collected, and the researchers attempted to
locate and interview as
many of the men as possible.\19 Fifty of the
147 boys in the victim
sample, and 56 of the 147 boys in the
comparison sample, were
interviewed. They were asked to
self-report
instances of
sex-offending, and were also asked a number of other
questions about their
family of origin, sexual history, history of
sexual victimization,
psychological functioning, drug and alcohol
use, and criminal
behavior.\20
As shown in table 2, the
study found little difference between the
victim and comparison
samples in the percentages that were arrested
for, or that
self-reported, sex offenses. According
to the
researchers, one
explanation for this finding is that the victim and
comparison samples are not
as different as originally intended with
respect to their having
been victims of child sexual abuse. For
instance, in the
comparison group, 40 percent of the 56 men
interviewed reported that
they had themselves been sexually abused.
Furthermore, 55 percent of
the men in the victim sample did not
recall, or at least did
not report to interviewers, that they had
been sexually abused. When the researchers reanalyzed the data and
compared all victims (from
both the victim sample and the comparison
sample) with the remaining
nonvictimized members of the comparison
group, they did not find a
significant difference between the two
groups in the likelihood
of becoming a sex offender. These
findings
must also be interpreted
with caution, however, because no-difference
findings are sometimes
attributable to comparing small samples rather
than to a real absence of
difference between groups.
Table 2
Results From the Research of
Williams
and Colleagues on the Cycle of
Sexual
Abuse
All sexual
abuse Nonvictims
"Official"
"Official"
victims in
victim comparison (both
comparison
sample sample
samples) sample
Outcome variable (N = 50) (N = 56)
(N = 69) (N = 33)
---------------------- ----------
---------- ---------- ----------
Arrested for sex 14% 13% 16% 6%
offense\a
Self-reported sex 14 14 13 15
offense\b
Any sex offense\c 26 20 24 18
----------------------------------------------------------------------
\a Includes any arrest for
a sex offense as a juvenile or as an
adult. Sex offenses included rape, involuntary
deviate sexual
intercourse, sexual
assault, indecent assault, indecent exposure, and
incest.
\b Includes all
individuals who self-reported having committed a sex
offense, whether they were
arrested for the offense or not. Study
group members were asked
to report on any initiation or occurrence of
sexual contact with
children under the age of 12 and any sexual
contact with adolescents
or adults when physical force, threats of
force, or the coercion of
adult or supervisory authority was used to
achieve the sexual
contact.
\c Includes all
individuals who were arrested for a sex offense and
those who were not
arrested but who self-reported sex offenses.
Source: L.
M. Williams et al., 1995.
The generalizability of
these findings may be limited since the
sample of sexually abused
boys (and the matched comparison group) is
neither a random sample
nor a sample that is representative of the
general population of
children at risk of such abuse. Over 80
percent of the boys
sampled were African-American, and a
disproportionate number of
the men who were interviewed were from
poor families and had
criminal records. About one-third of the
interviewed men who were
sexually abused as boys, and about one-fifth
of all of the men
interviewed, were incarcerated at the time of
interview.
The Williams et al. study is instructive in that it points to a
number of difficulties
involved in conducting prospective studies of
the relationship between
childhood victimization and adult offending.
These difficulties include
(1) the need to determine whether members
of comparison groups were
victims of sexual abuse, and (2) the need
to employ more than a
single outcome measure of offending. Of
15 men
who self-reported any sex
offense, only 5 had an arrest record for a
sex offense; and of 14 men
who had been arrested for a sex offense,
only 5 self-reported a
sex-offending behavior.
--------------------
\11 On the cycle of sexual
abuse, see C. S. Widom and M.
A. Ames,
1994; C. S.
Widom, 1995; and C. S. Widom, 1996.
On the cycle of
violence generally, see
M. G.
Maxfield and Cathy Spatz Widom, "The
Cycle of Violence: Revisited Six Years Later," Archives of
Pediatrics and Adolescent
Medicine (April, 1996); Cathy Spatz Widom,
The Cycle of
Violence: Research in Brief (Washington,
D.C.: U.S.
Department of Justice,
National Institute of Justice, October 1992);
Cathy Spatz Widom,
"Child Abuse, Neglect, and Adult Behavior:
Research Design and
Findings on Criminality, Violence, and Child
Abuse," American
Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol. LIX
(1989), pp.
355-367; Cathy Spatz
Widom, "The Cycle of Violence," Science, Vol.
CCXLIV (1989), pp. 160-166; and Cathy Spatz Widom, "Does
Violence
Beget Violence?: A Critical Examination of the
Literature,"
Psychological Bulletin,
Vol. CVI (1989), pp. 3-28.
\12 The study has relied
on the official records of agencies that
handled these cases. Detailed information about the abuse and/or
neglect incident and
family composition and characteristics was
obtained from the files of
the juvenile court and probation
department, the authority
responsible for cases of abused, neglected,
or dependent and
delinquent children. The records of the
sexual
abuse cases were obtained
from the juvenile court and from the adult
criminal court of a
metropolitan area in the Midwest. If
there was
evidence in the records
that the charges of sexual abuse had been
investigated and found to
be true, the case was coded as involving
sexual abuse.
\13 Some individuals in
each of these groups experienced more than
one type of maltreatment. Thus, the numbers add up to more than 908
individuals.
\14 C. S.
Widom, 1996; C. S. Widom, personal communication.
\15 To strengthen the
study, Widom is extending data collection in a
number of ways. Future analyses will include participant
self-report
data, which will allow
corroboration of the results from official
arrest data and
potentially provide more precise information on the
nature of the sex offenses
committed (i.e., whether they involve
child or minor victims,
etc.).
\16 We noted in footnote
15 that Widom is undertaking new analyses
that will make use of
self-report data on commission of sex offenses
to supplement official
arrest data.
\17 Abuse and/or neglect
cases that are substantiated at the court
level may not be representative
of all cases because over half of
child maltreatment reports
are not substantiated by social services
investigators, and the
vast majority of cases substantiated by local
or county departments of
social services never reach the court level.
(See J. Leiter, K.
A. Myers, and M. Zingraff, "Substantiated and
Unsubstantiated Cases of
Child Maltreatment: Do Their
Consequences
Differ?" Social Work
Research, Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (June 1994), pp.
67-82; and M. T.
Zingraff et al., "Child Maltreatment and Youthful
Problem Behavior,"
Criminology, Vol. XXXI, No. 2 (May 1993), pp.
173-202.) In addition,
Widom states that the cases included in her
study were processed
before the child abuse reporting laws were
passed, and many cases of
sexual abuse were not reported. Some
researchers have suggested
using all substantiated reports of abuse
and neglect (not just
those that reach the court level), or including
unsubstantiated reports,
in research on the consequences of abuse and
neglect. However, Widom has warned that using
unsubstantiated
reports might introduce
bias because these reports leave open the
question of whether abuse
or neglect actually occurred and are likely
to be biased toward the
less serious end of the continuum. (See
C.S.
Widom, "Sampling Bias
and Implications for Child Abuse Research,"
American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry, Vol. LVIII (1988), pp.
260-270.) Furthermore, if
prospective studies find little support for
the cycle of sex abuse
among the most severe cases--those that have
been substantiated at the
court level--it is not likely that strong
support for such a
relationship will be found using less severe
cases.
\18 L. M.
Williams et al., 1995.
\19 The researchers
checked official arrest records from the city's
juvenile court, its adult
probation department, and the National
Criminal Information
Center. Sex offenses included rape,
involuntary
deviate sexual
intercourse, sexual assault, indecent assault,
indecent exposure, and
incest. It appears that arrest records
were
examined for all members
of the victim and comparison sample.
However, Williams et
al. only present arrest information for
sample
members who were located
and interviewed.
\20 In an effort to
protect men who did not remember childhood abuse
that had occurred or might
not want others to know about it, the
researchers did not reveal
the fact of childhood victimization to men
who did not bring it up on
their own. Study group members were told
that they had been
selected for a follow-up study of men who received
emergency room services in
the hospital in the early 1970s.
CONCLUSIONS
------------------------------------------------------------
Letter :5
A number of studies have
been done on the cycle of sexual abuse, many
of which were reviewed in
this report. Most of the studies were
retrospective in design;
that is, they began with a sample of known
sex offenders of children
and sought to determine whether they were
sexually abused during childhood. The chief limitation of the
retrospective studies is
that studying a known group of sexual
offenders cannot provide
any direct information about the extent to
which children who are
sexually abused become sexual offender as
adults. The two studies we reviewed that were
prospective in design
attempted to overcome this
limitation by identifying samples of
sexually victimized
children and tracking them into adulthood to
determine how many became
sex offenders. These studies also had
limitations, which made it
difficult to reach any definitive
conclusions about the
cycle of sexual abuse. However, in spite
of
their limitations,
overall, the retrospective studies, prospective
studies, and research
reviews did indicate that the experience of
childhood sexual
victimization is quite likely neither a necessary
nor a sufficient cause of
adult sexual offending. Further research
would be necessary to
determine what kinds of experiences magnify the
likelihood that sexually
victimized children will become adult sexual
offenders against children
and, alternatively, what kinds of
experiences help prevent
victimized children from becoming adult
sexual offenders against
children.
----------------------------------------------------------
Letter :5.1
We are sending copies of
this report to the Ranking Minority Member
of the House Subcommittee
on Crime and the Chairman and Ranking
Minority Member of the
Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
Copies
will also be made
available to others upon request.
The major contributors to
this report are listed in appendix II.
Please call me at (202)
512-8777 if you have any questions about this
report.
Sincerely yours,
Laurie E. Ekstrand
Associate Director,
Administration
of Justice Issues
RETROSPECTIVE STUDIES OF
ADULT SEX
OFFENDERS OF CHILDREN
===========================================================
Appendix I
Study Percent Comparison Percent
Study group(s)\a