Chapter Four Prevalence: How often does it happen? was a relatively short chapter. Dr. Van Dam cites numerous studies that essentially say, we’re not sure how prevalent it is. One thing we know for sure, based on the number of victims we know, it’s a lot, and the dark figure is high.
In criminology, the dark figure is the difference between the reported figures, and the actual figures. Child molestation is clearly under-reported, for many reasons. This is troubling when one of the major themes of the book is clarity. Policy decisions should be based on the numbers. If the dark figure is high, the impact of a policy on the problem would be unknown.
Dr. Van Dam starts Chapter Four by saying that twenty years ago, most psychology programs made no mention of child molestation. This book was published in 2001, so that makes it that 43 years ago, no mention of child molestation was found in psychology programs.
In 1955, a study found the incident of incest to be one per million in English-speaking countries. By 1984, studies were showing that approximately one in four women and one out of six to ten men had been sexually abused during their childhood. So, by 1985, one-third of women, and anywhere from 11% to 47% of men were molested doing childhood.
Dr. Van Dam briefly addressed a controversy in the field, false memories. This is where victims regain access to repressed memories through therapy. Sometimes confessions are obtained through questionable means. All of this causes confusion with the numbers, leading to the afore-mentioned dark figures.
For most victims, the child sexual abuse begins before the age of sixteen, with 48% of the victims being younger than age twelve. Some studies show 50% of the victims were under the age of six.
The number of child sex offenders looks to have a larger dark figure than the number of victims. Many victims are abused by more than one person, further confusing the numbers. In 1999, the U.S. Department of Justice estimated one child molester per square mile, although it is unsure how they arrived at this figure. Offenders do not readily admit what they’ve done, victims don’t always disclose what has happened, and some allegations may be false.
When child sex offenders are guaranteed confidentiality, we might get better numbers. In one such study of 232 child molesters reported “55,250 attempted molestations and 38,727 completed molestations” (Van Dam, Carla. Identifying Child Molesters (p. 77). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.) That’s 106 completed molestations, and 111 attempted molestations per offender. A study in 1986 reported even higher numbers, averaging 470 molestations each.
Studies of college age males indicate that 21-35% of the male population did not think that some sex with children is a problem, and can even imagine, in some circumstances, of making it happen. In another study, “21 percent of male undergraduates reported sexual attraction to children, 9 percent fantasized sex with a child, 5 percent masturbated to fantasies of sex with children, and 7 percent indicated the likelihood of actual sexual involvement with a child if there were no deleterious consequences.” (Van Dam, Carla. Identifying Child Molesters (p. 79). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.)
Looking at some modern numbers, data was compiled by 52 child sex abuse hotlines in 48 countries in a study conducted published by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in 2015. In this study, “80 percent of responding hotlines remarked that they were seeing an increase in the use of social networking for child exploitation – either as a forum for grooming or as a source of self-generated, sexually explicit images of children.”
In the UK, social media was the most-used means of grooming children, at 49%, followed by instant messaging and chat. The largest group of victims were 13 – 14 year olds at 35 percent; 11-12 year olds made up the next largest group at 22 percent. One-fourth of social networking users age 8-11, and one third of users age 12-15, communicate with someone only known to them through the Internet.
The majority of reported child victims were girls (78%) while 13% were boys. The largest category of reported victims were older girls, at 48%. Of the 5,917 offenders named in the reports; the majority were male (82%) while only 9% were female. Of the total reported offenders, 98% were individuals seemingly unknown to the children in real life while only 2% were likely known.
The results showed that offenders seemed to want “sexually explicit images of children (60%); to meet and have sexual contact with children (32%); to engage in sexual conversation/role-play with children online (8%) and; to acquire some type of financial goal (2%).”
NCMEC reports that, in 2020, over 21.7 million reports were made to the Cyber Tipline.
Dr. Van Dam‘s concerns over the dark figures should be kept in mind as we go through the rest of her book. However, it is clear that child sexual predators are a very real problem.
NEWS DESK
– Kidnapped Texas teen rescued by Good Samaritans in California after waving ‘help me’ sign
– North Carolina man, 69, accused of groping teen on flight
– Brandon Man Sentenced to Over 16 Years in Prison on Child Pornography Charges
– St. Louis County Sex Offender Sentenced to 10 Years for New Child Pornography Case
– Missouri Woman Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for the Sexual Exploitation of Children
Meditations of a Bald, Fat Guy 