Citation

Gordon M. J. Fam. Violence 1990; 5(4): 321-332.

Affiliation

Department of Sociology, University of Connecticut, 06268 Storrs, Connecticu

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00979068

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The data for this study were provided by a poll of 2627 adult Americans carried out by The Los Angeles Times in 1985. Five hundred and eighty five respondents (416 females and 169 males) reported having been victims of sexual abuse before they were 18 years of age. A portion of this subsample was used to systematically explore gender differences in the nature and context of abuse. Abusers where overwhelmingly male; however, differences were apparent among their victims. Males were more likely to report being victims of nonrelatives, with the abuse taking place outside of their home. Males were older than females at the time of first abuse and their abuser tended to be relatively close in age to them. Their abuse was more likely to be more severe than that of females but they were less likely to have reported it. Dichotomizing the sample into those abused by relatives and nonrelatives revealed that a number of differences in the profiles of male and female victims relate to the nature of their relationship to the abuser.