ATLANTA — Current data on sexually abusive adolescents who molest others are consistent with those of previous studies, which showed that they tend to have been molested before the age of 9 years, two researchers said at a meeting of the National Adolescent Perpetration Network.
Among girls who were abused and became abusers, a common characteristic is that they were abused by a woman, reported Dr. Gene G. Abel and Nora Harlow of the Child Molestation Research & Prevention Institute, Atlanta.
Perhaps one of the most important findings of the latest investigation for males who have been abused and become abusers is that they report knowing almost nothing about sex before their molestation, Ms. Harlow said at the conference.
That finding suggests that early sex education might have an impact on reducing sex offenses, she said.
The research presented by Dr. Abel and Ms. Harlow was an investigation of more than 10,000 adolescents who took the Abel Assessment for Sexual Interest for Boys and Girls, a test designed by Dr. Abel, a past president of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. The test, administered at more than 500 sites, can be administered for a variety of reasons, including self-referral.
Of the more than 10,000 adolescents in the study, 5,678 had sexually abused younger children. Analysis of the 2,811 boys in the study who had been child victims of sexual abuse revealed that 2,034 had abused others. Among the 390 sexually abused adolescent females, 187 had abused others.
Because the research had been put together only recently before the conference, Dr. Abel said, the researchers did not have much information on the characteristics of the sexually abused adolescents who had not abused anyone, such as why they had taken the test. However, the researchers did present the molestation factors that were significantly associated with becoming an abuser and their rank of importance.
Some of those attending the conference were bothered by the lack of detail.
“I think a lot of it probably is useful,” but it is difficult to judge without information on who constituted the comparison group and little information on the strength of association, said Michael H. Miner, Ph.D., a psychologist with the Center for Sexual Health at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in an interview.
Ms. Harlow said many of the factors identified by their analysis seemed to reflect that it was the “inner experience” of the molestation that appeared to be a determining factor. For example, those who had abused others tended to still be tormented by the experience, had experienced sexual arousal, and, for the males at least, had tended to be molested by someone they looked up to, she noted.
Dr. Abel said it is not surprising that the children reported experiencing arousal, because abusers generally want the child to be compliant and to believe that the child is enjoying the experience. As a result, the abusers work hard to stimulate the child.
Among the other survey findings:
▸ The number of times the child was molested correlated significantly with the number of victims they abused. Among the male abusers who were not molested themselves, the average number of victims they had was three, but it was eight for those who had been molested 50 times or more. The pattern was the same for females.
▸ The data from 16,000 adult males who also have taken the test show that 70% of adult men who molest boys score as being heterosexual on the Kinsey Scale. That is the exact percentage of men in the general population who score as heterosexual on the Kinsey Scale, Dr. Abel said.
▸ Of the adolescent boys who were abused, 55% were abused by an older boy, 40% by a man, 27% by an older girl, and 14% by a woman.
Of the adolescent females who were abused, 66% were abused by a man, 63% by an older boy, 20% by an older girl, and 13% by a woman.
Common Patterns Among Abusers
For males, 10 factors were found to have a significant association with abuse of others. They are, in order by P value:
I was less than 9 years old when sexually abused.
I knew nothing about sex before I was sexually abused.
I wish the molestation did not bother me so much.
I was abused by my idol.
Sometimes I got a strong sexual feeling between my legs when I was being sexually abused.
I was touched by a boy more than 3 years older than me.