Facts and Statistics

In most U.S. states, the legal definition of child molestation is: an act of a person, adult, or child, who forces, coerces, or threatens a child to have any form of sexual contact, or to engage in any type of sexual activity at the perpetrator’s direction. Every thirty minutes, a child is the victim of abuse in Georgia.

Source: National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) – Project of the National Center of Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN): U.S Department of Health and Human Services, 1997.

According to the Child Maltreatment Report 2003 from the Children’s Bureau:

• There are an estimated 906,000 children determined to be victims of child abuse or neglect.
• Nationally, 10% of confirmed or substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect investigated by child protection services were sexual abuse cases.
• Children ages birth to 3 years had the highest rates of victimization for abuse and neglect
• According to the 2004 Department of Family and Children Services, Georgia report
• 101,563 reports of child abuse and neglect were made to Departments of Family and Children Services with 53,918 substantiated incidents of abuse/neglect.
• 6,984 incidents of sexual abuse were reported and 4,573 incidents substantiated
• Relatives are the most common perpetrators of sexual abuse
• Largest victim population for child abuse and neglect was between four to six years of age
• 5,211 Substantiated child abuse and neglect cases for Fulton County
• 2,121 Substantiated child abuse and neglect cases for DeKalb County

According to The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) 2002:

• An estimated 1,400 child fatalities in 2002 nationally.
• The very young children (ages 3 and younger) are the most frequent victims of child fatalities.
• That most fatalities from physical abuse are caused by fathers and other male caretakers while mothers are most often held responsible for deaths resulting from child neglect.

According to the National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-3, 1996):

• Nearly one-half of the sexually abused children were sexually abused by someone other than a parent or parent-substitute
• Just over one-fourth were sexually abused by a birth parent
• Girls are sexually abused three times more often than boys
• Children are consistently vulnerable to sexual abuse from age three on.
• Children from the lowest income families were 18 times more likely to be sexually abused
• Children of single parents had a 77-percent greater risk of being harmed by physical abuse
• 89 percent of the children were sexually abused by a male compared to only 12 percent by a female.

Molester Characteristics:

• One of the myths regarding child molesters is that they “look different” or behave differently from others in some way. Here are some statistics describing child molesters:
• 97% are male
• 91% are heterosexual
• 91% consider themselves to be religious
• 75% are married or formerly married
• 73% are Caucasian
• 65% earn a middle income or above
• 48% are college educated
• The molester is not a stranger. Over 91% of children are molested by someone they know.
• Stepfathers are 7 times more likely to abuse than biological fathers; however, abuse by a biological parent tends to be more severe. (A child who is abused by a biological parent is at higher risk of sustaining an injury from the abuse than those abused by a non-biological parent.)
• Contrary to popular belief, only about 30-35% of molesters were sexually abused as children. (Hanson & Slater, 1988)