RE: Male vs Female Abuse towards children

["Julie Steen" <jsteen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In regards to statistics on sexual abuse, the way the question is asked is
very important.  When research participants are asked if they were ever
sexually abused, the prevalence number will be different than if the
participants are asked about sexual contact they had as a child with an
adult.  This is due to the many different definitions people have for the
term sexual abuse.

In regards to the L.A. Times Poll Survey analyzed in Finkelhor et al (1990),
the authors discuss the problems with the wording of the questions.  The
surveyors used the phrase, "having any experience you would now consider
sexual abuse-like someone trying or succeeding in having any kind of sexual
intercourse with you, or anything like that."  This phrasing might (and
probably did) prevent some of those people who were molested from saying
they were sexually abused.  If female perpetrators are more likely to commit
acts other than intercourse, the rate the study yields for childhood history
of sexual abuse would likely be biased toward more male perpetrator reports
and fewer female perpetrator reports.

Some other studies have been conducted that simply asked about sexual
contact.  These studies yielded considerably high rates of female
perpetrated acts against male children.  It may be that the social
stereotypes that we have about women being gentler and men begin more
violent may bias the way we consider abuse.  Adult survivors of sexual
abuse, who sometimes doubt themselves about who is to blame for the abuse,
may have a harder time laying blame with female perpetrators of sexual abuse
and hence may not use the term "sexual abuse" when talking about their own
experiences.

Below are some citations regarding prevalence with a variety of samples.
Some of these identify the gender of the perpetrator.

Fondacaro, K., Holt, J., & Powell, T.  (1999).  Psychological impact of
childhood sexual abuse on male inmates:  The importance of perception.
Child Abuse & Neglect, 23 (4), 361-369.

Fritz, G. S., Stoll, K., & Wagner, N. N. (1981).  A comparison of males and
females who were sexually molested as children.  Journal of Sex & Marital
Therapy, 7 (1), 54-59.

Fromuth, M. E. & Burkhart, B. R. (1989).  Long-term psychological correlates
of childhood sexual abuse in two samples of college men.  Child Abuse &
Neglect, 13, 533-542.

Hunter, J. (1991).  A comparison of the psychosocial maladjustment of adult
males and females sexually molested as children.  Journal of Interpersonal
Violence, 6 (2), 205-217.


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu
[mailto:owner-CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu]On Behalf Of
Becky Bolen
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2000 4:19 PM
To: Child Maltreatment Researchers
Subject: RE: Male vs Female Abuse towards children


Actually, I just looked at this data for child sexual abuse. I used those
random community, state, or national prevalence studies that categorized
child sexual abuse by both relation and gender of the offender.  I compared
their aggregated information to the NCANDS done in 1998. Here is an excerpt
that addresses this:

The third NIS conducted in 1993 found that 87% of abuse committed by
parents involved a male and 28% involved a female (Sedlak & Broadhurst,
1996). This finding implies that 13% of all abuse was perpetrated solely by
mothers and that another 15% of all abuse involved both a mother and
father. In the most recent national incident study done through the NCANDS
in 1998, 51% of child sexual abuse cases identified by child protective
services were committed by parents (U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, 2000c). In more than half of these cases, mothers were charged as
the sole offender (4% of all abuse) or as co-offenders (23% of all abuse).
Yet in her random community prevalence study of 930 women, Russell (1983)
found that only one respondent was abused by her mother, whereas 44
respondents were abused by their fathers. Thus, only 2% of all parental
abuse was committed by mothers (or 0.2% of all abuse). Further, no mothers
were reported as offenders in Wyatt's (1985) or Saunders et al.'s (1999)
studies or the Los Angeles Times Poll survey (Finkelhor, Hotaling, Lewis, &
Smith, 1990). Of the 7812 respondents across these combined studies, 1971
incidents of abuse were reported. Of these, 163 were cases of paternal
abuse and one was a case of maternal abuse. Thus, the prevalence of
maternal abuse for the combined samples was 0.01%. Further, mothers
accounted for only 0.6% of all parental abuse and 0.05% of all abuse. Given
the random nature of these retrospective studies and their community- or
nation-wide focus, it is difficult to believe that the much larger
percentage of abusive mothers in the NIS-3 (28%) and the NCANDS (27%) does
not imply some type of bias.

This excerpt is taken from: Bolen, R. M. (in press). Child sexual abuse:
Its scope and our failure. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

Becky Bolen


At 12:59 PM 12/5/00 -0700, you wrote:

>I'd also caution that you keep in mind the following potential caveat with
>any analysis of administrative data on the subject: Is there any bias in
the
>reporting of child maltreatment that would skew perceptions of the identity
>of perpetrators? In other words, are women more likely than men to be
>reported even though the incidence of female vs. male perpetration may be
>closer to equal? Further, to what extent do perceptions of gender roles
>influence one's reporting of child maltreatment? I'm not sure of the
answers
>to the above, but perhaps another member of the listserv could address
that.
>
>Dana Hollinshead, M.P.A., M.A.
>-----Original Message-----
>From: lfontes@mail.javanet.com [mailto:lfontes@mail.javanet.com]
>Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2000 12:36 PM
>To: Child Maltreatment Researchers
>Subject: Re: Male vs Female Abuse towards children
>
>
>In this discussion of male versus female abuse of children, Let's not
forget
>sexual abuse, inducing terror (through abusing the other parent) and child
>abandonment (having no or only sporadic contact with a child might be
>considered a form of indirect neglect)
>Lisa fontes, Ph.D.
>
>
>
>Original Message:
>-----------------
>From: Joseph A Vorrasi jav9@cornell.edu
>Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2000 13:03:07 -0500
>Subject: Re: Male vs Female Abuse towards children
>
>
>Jeannine,
>
>
>National surveys indicate that, relative to fathers, mothers use more
>physical aggression against children.  This trend can be partially
>explained by the simple fact that, on average, mothers have a greater
>*opportunity* to abuse their children, given the propensity for children
>to spend more time with their mothers than with their fathers.  The
>statistics you seek, along with a discussion of them, can be found in the
>following book:
>
>
>Straus, M. A., & Gelles, R. J. (Eds.). (1990). <underline>Physical
>violence in American families: Risk factors and adaptations to violence
>in 8,145 families</underline>. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
>
>
>Good luck,
>
>
>Joe Vorrasi
>
>
>
>At 11:23 AM 12/5/00 -0500, jeannine turchiano wrote:
>
> >In all of the research I have been doing I cannot find any statistics on
>who does more of the child abusing in the US is it women or men?? Do you
>have any stats of perhaps you can direct me to a website that would have
>this information.
>
> >
>
> >Thank you very much- Jeannine
>
> >
>
> >
>
>
>
>
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Becky Bolen, Ph.D.
School of Social Work
264 Bay State Road
Boston University
Boston, MA  02215
bbolen@bu.edu
617-353-3925