Citation

Rudin MM, Zalewski C, Bodmer-Turner J. Child Abuse Negl. 1995; 19(8): 963-973.

Affiliation

Child Adolescent Sexual Abuse Resource Center (CASARC), San Francisco, CA 94110, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

7583755

Abstract

Characteristics of child sexual abuse victims were determined through a comparison of 87 victims of lone female perpetrators to 93 victims of lone male perpetrators according to age, gender, and relationship of perpetrator to the victim. Lone female perpetrators abused children 3.3 years younger (M = 6.0 years) than lone male perpetrators (M = 9.3 years). Both lone female and lone male perpetrators abused more girls (62%, 76%, respectively) than boys. Female perpetrators were more likely to be caretakers than male perpetrators, whereas male perpetrators were more likely to be strangers than female perpetrators. Lastly, lone female perpetrators, lone male perpetrators, and male/female coperpetrators did not differ regarding severity of abuse. Thus, contrary to popular assumption, abuse by female perpetrators was not less severe than abuse by male perpetrators.

Language: en