New
Poll Shows One Third of Adults and a Quarter of Teens Know a
Child or Teen Victim of Sexual Abuse
WASHINGTON,
April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- One out of every three adults in the
United States -- and nearly one out of every four teenagers --
personally knows someone who was sexually abused as a child or
teenager, according to a new national survey released today by
the Center for Child Protection and Family Support.
"Our
poll found personal knowledge of child and teen sexual abuse in
America has become widespread," said Joyce N. Thomas,
president of the Center based in Washington, D.C. "It
is no longer a 'closet secret' whispered among a few,
unfortunate victims and their families.
"The
truly disturbing news, however, is not the high level of
personal awareness of child and teen sexual abuse in America --
but rather the increasing number of innocent victims we know it
now claims. We can't keep turning our heads away, hoping
this emotional and social blight on our young and our country is
going away on its own. The problem of child and teen
sexual abuse is pervasive -- and cries out for our serious
response to this gross violation of their human rights."
The
survey, conducted by International Communications Research
(ICR) of Media, Pa., was part of a national telephone study
to determine the prevalence of child sexual abuse in the United
States. The Center commissioned ICR to do the nationally
projectable study. Separate studies were conducted among
two groups: adults and teenagers. The sample size
for the adult research interviews was a minimum of 1,000
interviews, equally divided between men and women. The
sample size for the teenage research was 500 interviews with
teens between the ages of 12 to 17. A sample balancing
program was used to ensure that, when tabulated, the respective
samples are reflective of the national adult and teen
populations.
About
one out of three (35%) -- or more than a third -- of the adults
interviewed reported knowing someone who was the victim of
sexual abuse as a child or teenager. Nearly three-fifths
(59.1%) of those who knew a victim were female, and over
two-fifths (40.9%) were male. Almost two-fifths (39.9%) of
the adult females interviewed knew someone who was the victim of
sexual abuse as a child or a teenager, and nearly a third
(29.7%) of the adult males knew one.
The
study indicates that the higher the education, the more
respondents reported knowing someone who was sexually abused.
Also, more individuals with incomes of $75,000 and higher
reported knowing someone who was sexually abused (43.6%) than
those at lower income levels. Knowledge of incidences of
sexual abuse was nearly the same across all the ethnic groups
represented in the study. The margin of error is plus or
minus 3 percentage points in the adult survey and 4.5 percentage
points in the teen survey.
One
out of every four (24.7%) teen interviewed -- or nearly a fourth
-- reported knowing someone who was the victim of sexual abuse
as a child or teenager. Nearly three-fifths (59.7%) of the
respondents knowing a victim were female and slightly more than
two-fifths (40.3%) were males. A higher number of reports
came from teens in the ninth (26.8%) and tenth grades (23.1%)
than from other grades. For example, only 0.3% of those
who reported knowing a victim were in fifth grade. The
breakdown for areas of the country where the data indicates the
highest number of teens knowing a victim was: 23.2% from the
East North Central region (Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin,
and Indiana) and 30% from the South Atlantic region (Delaware,
Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, South Carolina, North
Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and District of Columbia).
"Our
country pays a dear price for the shameful abuse and neglect of
its children in the most privileged country in the history of
the world," Thomas pointed out. "We see the
emotional and social toll reflected in the break-up or decline
of our families and our institutions, in our rate of crime and
in our prisons, in the cost of our medical and mental health
care, and in the loss of productivity in our economy and in
workers' lives. America cannot afford to turn its back on
the young entrusted to its care, without risking closing the
door on its own future.
"We
all have the responsibility to protect our children against
abuse," she said. "Every child deserves a
childhood that is free from abuse and neglect."
The
Center for Child Protection and Family Support of Washington,
D.C. is a leader in the field of high-risk families, child
maltreatment, cultural competency, and youth violence
prevention. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit agency, the Center
has served children and families for more than 17 years in the
Washington metropolitan area, and nationally.
The
Center's mission is to ensure that all children -- but
particularly inner-city and disadvantaged children -- are given
the opportunity to mature and develop within a family free of
maltreatment, and a community that nurtures and protects them
from violence. Prevention, education, early intervention,
and mental health treatments are the focal point of the Center's
approach for working with child victims and their families.
More information can be found on the Center's new Web site
at www.stopchildabusenow.org.
SOURCE
Center for Child Protection and Family Support
CO:
Center for Child Protection and Family Support; International
Communications Research; ICR
ST:
District of Columbia
SU: SVY CHI NPT
Web site: http://www.stopchildabusenow.org
http://www.prnewswire.com
04/20/2004 12:00 EDT
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