Cycle of Sexual Abuse: Research Inconclusive About Whether Child Victims
Become Adult Abusers (Letter Report, 09/13/96, GAO/GGD-96-178).

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed research studies
regarding the cycle of sexual abuse, focusing on the likelihood that
individuals who are victims of sexual abuse as children will become
sexual abusers of children in adulthood.

GAO found that: (1) there was no consensus among the 23 retrospective
and 2 prospective studies reviewed that childhood sexual abuse led
directly to the victim becoming an adult sexual abuser; (2) the
retrospective studies, which sought to determine whether a sample of
known sex offenders had been sexually abused as children, differed
considerably in the types of offenders studied, use of control or
comparison groups, and definition and reporting of childhood sexual
abuse; (3) although some of the retrospective studies concluded that
childhood sexual abuse may increase the risk that victims will commit
sexual abuse later, most of the studies noted that the majority of sex
offenders had not been sexually abused as children; (4) the prospective
studies, which tracked sexually abused children into adulthood to
determine how many became sex offenders, studied sample populations that
may not be representative of the entire population of childhood sexual
abuse victims; and (5) the prospective studies found that victims of
childhood sexual abuse were not more likely than nonvictims to be
arrested for sex offenses.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  GGD-96-178
     TITLE:  Cycle of Sexual Abuse: Research Inconclusive About Whether 
             Child Victims Become Adult Abusers
      DATE:  09/13/96
   SUBJECT:  Child abuse
             Sexual abuse
             Behavioral sciences research
             Criminals
             Sex crimes
             Adults
             Arrests

             
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Cover
================================================================ COVER


Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Crime, Committee on the
Judiciary, House of Representatives

September 1996

CYCLE OF SEXUAL ABUSE - RESEARCH
INCONCLUSIVE ABOUT WHETHER CHILD
VICTIMS BECOME ADULT ABUSERS

GAO/GGD-96-178

Cycle of Sexual Abuse Research Results

(183607)


Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV


Letter
=============================================================== LETTER


B-272972

September 13, 1996

The Honorable Bill McCollum
Chairman, Subcommittee on Crime
Committee on the Judiciary
House of Representatives

Dear Mr.  Chairman: 

This is our third and final report responding to your request that we
review and synthesize the current state of research knowledge on ways
to prevent sex crimes against children.  Our first report, issued on
June 21, 1996, summarized reviews of the research literature on the
effectiveness of treatment programs in reducing the recidivism of sex
offenders.\1 Our second report, issued on July 26, 1996, summarized
reviews of the research literature on the effectiveness of education
programs designed to help children avoid becoming victims of sexual
abuse.\2 This report summarizes the results of, and discusses the
methodologies used in, the studies that have been done on the cycle
of sexual abuse--that is, on the likelihood that individuals who were
victims of sexual abuse as children will become sexual abusers of
children in adulthood. 

This report does not address a follow-on question that you raised
concerning ways to prevent sexually abused children from becoming
adult sexual offenders against children, because the existence of a
cycle of sexual abuse was not established by the research studies we
reviewed. 


--------------------
\1 Sex Offender Treatment:  Research Results Inconclusive About What
Works to Reduce Recidivism (GAO/GGD-96-137, June 21, 1996). 

\2 Preventing Child Sexual Abuse:  Research Inconclusive About
Effectiveness of Child Education Programs (GAO/GGD-96-156, July 26,
1996). 


   BACKGROUND
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :1

Sexual abuse can have negative consequences for children during the
time of abuse as well as later in life, according to several recent
research reviews.\3 Initial effects reportedly have included fear,
anxiety, depression, anger, aggression, and sexually inappropriate
behavior in at least some portion of the victim population. 
Long-lasting consequences reportedly have included depression,
self-destructive behavior, anxiety, feelings of isolation and stigma,
poor self-esteem, difficulty in trusting others, a tendency toward
revictimization, substance abuse, and sexual maladjustment. 

In addition, researchers have noted that there is widespread belief
that there is a "cycle of sexual abuse," such that sexual
victimization as a child may contribute to perpetration of sexual
abuse as an adult.  Such a pattern is consistent with social learning
theories--which posit that children learn those behaviors that are
modeled for them--and also with psychodynamic theories--which suggest
that abusing others may help victimized individuals to overcome
childhood trauma.  Critics have argued that empirical support for the
cycle of sexual abuse is weak, and that parents are unduly frightened
into thinking that little can be done to mitigate the long-term
effects of sexual abuse.  There remain many unanswered questions
about the risk posed by early sexual victimization, as well as about
the conditions and experiences that might increase this risk (such as
number of victimization experiences, age of the victim at the time of
the abuse, and whether the abuse was perpetrated by a family member). 
There are also questions about factors that may prevent victimized
children from becoming adult perpetrators (such as support from
siblings and parents or positive relationships with other authority
figures).  Answers to such questions would be useful in developing
both prevention strategies and therapeutic interventions. 

Studying the relationship between early sexual victimization and
later perpetration of sexual abuse is methodologically difficult.  If
researchers take a retrospective approach, and ask adult sex
offenders whether they experienced childhood sexual abuse, there are
problems of selecting a representative sample of offenders, finding
an appropriate comparison group of adults who have not committed sex
offenses but are similar to the study group in other respects,
minimizing errors that arise when recalling traumatic events from the
distant past, and dealing with the possibility that offenders will
purposely overreport childhood abuse to gain sympathy or underreport
abuse to avoid imputations of guilt.  A prospective
approach--selecting a sample of children who have been sexually
abused and following them into adulthood to see whether they become
sexual abusers--overcomes some of the problems of the retrospective
approach, but it is a costly and time-consuming solution.  In
addition, researchers choosing the prospective approach still face
the challenge of disentangling the effects of sexual abuse from the
effects of other possible problems and stress-related factors in the
backgrounds of these children (e.g., poverty, unemployment, parental
alcohol abuse, or other inadequate social and family functioning). 
This requires the selection of appropriate comparison groups of
children who have not been sexually abused and children who have
faced other forms of maltreatment, as well as the careful measurement
of a variety of other explanatory factors. 


--------------------
\3 See J.  H.  Beitchman et al., "A Review of the Long-Term Effects
of Child Sexual Abuse," Child Abuse and Neglect, Vol.  XVI (1992),
pp.  101-118; A.  Browne and D.  Finkelhor, "Impact of Child Sexual
Abuse:  A Review of the Research," Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 
XCIX, No.  1 (1986), pp.  66-77; and D.  Finkelhor, "Early and
Long-Term Effects of Child Sexual Abuse:  An Update," Professional
Psychology:  Research and Practice, Vol XXI, No.  5 (1990), pp. 
325-330. 


   RESULTS IN BRIEF
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :2

We identified 25 studies that provided quantitative information
relevant to the question of whether persons who were sexually abused
as children were at heightened risk of becoming sexual abusers of
children in adulthood.  Of these studies, 23 were retrospective--that
is, they began with a sample of known adult sex offenders of children
and sought to determine whether they were sexually abused themselves
during childhood.  Only two studies were prospective.  These began
with samples of sexually victimized children and tracked them into
adulthood to determine how many became sex offenders. 

A number of the retrospective studies found that a substantial
percentage of adult sex offenders of children said they had been
sexually abused as children.  However, a majority of the studies
found that most offenders said they had not been sexually abused
during childhood.  These studies varied in terms of their estimates
of the percentages of such offenders who had been abused, from zero
to 79 percent, partly because of differences in the types of
offenders studied and in how childhood sexual abuse was defined and
measured.  In general, because they had several methodological
shortcomings, these studies offered insufficient evidence that being
sexually abused as a child led directly to the victim's becoming an
adult sex offender.  The two prospective studies employed analytic
methods that were better suited to establishing such a link than were
the retrospective studies.  Respectively, about 7 percent and 26
percent of sexually abused children in these studies were found to be
sex offenders as adults.  However, the various design and measurement
problems of the prospective studies precluded the drawing of
definitive conclusions from them as well. 

Nevertheless, overall, the retrospective studies, prospective
studies, and research reviews indicated that the experience of
childhood sexual victimization is quite likely neither a necessary
nor a sufficient cause of adult sexual offending.  The two
prospective studies concluded that the majority of victims of sexual
abuse during childhood did not become sex offenders as adults. 
Therefore, childhood sexual victimization would not necessarily lead
to adult sexual offending.  In addition, the majority of
retrospective studies concluded that most adult sex offenders against
children did not report that they were sexually victimized as
children.  Therefore, childhood sexual victimization would probably
not be sufficient to explain adult sexual offending.  While some
studies indicated that sexual victimization in childhood may increase
the risk that victims will become sexual offenders as adults, other
studies found that many other conditions and experiences might also
be associated with an increased risk.  For example, one prospective
study we reviewed found that children who were neglected were even
more likely than children who were sexually abused to commit sex
offenses as adults. 


   SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :3

We collected, reviewed, and analyzed information from available
published and unpublished research on the cycle of sexual abuse. 
Identifying the relevant literature involved a multistep process. 
Initially, we identified experts in the sex offense research field by
contacting the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention and Office of Victim Assistance, the National
Institute of Mental Health's Violence and Traumatic Stress Branch,
the American Psychological Association, and academicians selected
because of their expertise in the area.  These contacts helped
identify experts in the field, who in turn helped identify other
experts.  We also conducted computerized searches of several on-line
databases, including ERIC (the Education Resources Information
Center), NCJRS (the National Criminal Justice Reference Service),
PsycINFO,\4 Dissertation Abstracts, and the National Clearinghouse on
Child Abuse. 

We identified 40 articles on the cycle of sexual abuse issued between
1965 and 1996.  Four of these reviewed the literature in the area; of
these, two were published in 1988, one was published in 1990, and one
was published in 1991.  Of the remaining articles, 23 presented
findings from retrospective research studies, which began with a
sample of known adult sex offenders of children and sought to
determine (by asking the offenders) whether they were sexually abused
during childhood.  Another four presented findings from two
prospective research studies, which began with samples of sexually
victimized children and tracked them into adulthood to determine how
many became sex offenders.  Of the original 40 articles, we excluded
5 because they presented findings only, or primarily, on adolescent
sex offenders against children, and an additional 4 because we were
unable to obtain them. 

For the studies in our review, we recorded the quantitative results,
summarized the methodologies used, and summarized the authors'
conclusions about the cycle of sexual abuse.  Each study was reviewed
by two social scientists with specialized doctoral training in
evaluation research methodology.  Conclusions in this report are
based on our assessment of the evidence presented in these studies. 

We sent the list of research articles to two experts, both of whom
have done extensive research in the field, to confirm the
comprehensiveness of our list of articles.  In addition, as a final
check, we conducted a second search of computerized on-line databases
in March 1996 to ensure that no new research articles or reviews had
been published since our original search in October 1995. 

We sent a draft copy of our report for comment to the two experts
previously consulted, as well as to one additional expert, to ensure
that we had presented the information about the research studies
accurately.\5 Their technical comments were incorporated where
appropriate.  We did not send a draft to any agency or organization
because we did not obtain information from such organizations for use
in this study.  We did our work between October 1995 and August 1996
in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 


--------------------
\4 A database of the American Psychological Association covering the
literature in psychology and the behavioral sciences. 

\5 The two experts who reviewed the comprehensiveness of our list of
articles were Dr.  R.  Karl Hanson, Senior Research Officer in
Corrections Research at the Department of the Solicitor General of
Canada, and Dr.  Cathy Spatz Widom, Professor of Criminal Justice and
Psychology at the State University of New York at Albany.  The third
expert consulted was Dr.  Robert A.  Prentky, Director of Clinical
and Forensic Services at the Joseph J.  Peters Institute in
Philadelphia. 


   RESULTS INCONCLUSIVE ABOUT THE
   RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDHOOD
   SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION AND ADULT
   SEXUAL OFFENDING AGAINST
   CHILDREN
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :4

There was no consensus among the studies we reviewed that being
sexually abused as a child led directly to the victim's becoming an
adult sexual abuser of children.  However, some studies did conclude
that it might increase the risk that victims would commit sexual
abuse later.  A majority of the retrospective studies noted that most
sex offenders had not been sexually abused as children, and the two
prospective studies showed that the majority of victims of sexual
abuse during childhood did not become sex offenders as adults.  The 4
review articles we obtained, which collectively covered roughly
two-thirds of the 25 studies we reviewed, concluded that the evidence
from these studies was insufficient to establish that being sexually
abused as a child is either a necessary or a sufficient condition for
the victim's becoming a sexual abuser as an adult. 


      RETROSPECTIVE STUDIES VARIED
      IN GROUPS STUDIED,
      DEFINITIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE
      USED, AND RESULTS OBTAINED
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :4.1

We reviewed 23 retrospective studies.  Appendix I provides additional
information on these studies.\6 All but one of the retrospective
studies focused on adult male sex offenders, and in most studies the
offenders sampled were imprisoned or in some type of treatment
program.  However, these studies varied considerably in the types of
child sexual abusers studied, whether control or comparison groups
were used, and if so, the types of individuals in these groups.\7

The retrospective studies also varied considerably in their findings
and conclusions.  The percent of adult sex offenders against children
identified as being sexually abused as children themselves ranged
from zero to 79 percent.  This variation partially reflects
differences across studies in how childhood sexual abuse was defined,
as well as other differences in study methodology.\8 This variation
may also reflect the differences in the types of child sex offenders
studied.  For example, both Hanson and Slater (1988) and Garland and
Dougher (1988) concluded from their reviews of retrospective studies
that offenders who selected male children as victims were more likely
to have been sexually abused themselves than were offenders against
female children. 

A few of the studies found that sex offenders of children were more
likely to have been sexually abused as children than were members of
control groups composed of noninstitutionalized nonoffenders. 
However, many studies found that, when compared with other types of
sex offenders (e.g., rapists or exhibitionists) and other types of
nonsexual offenders (i.e., men incarcerated for nonsexual crimes),
adult sex offenders of children were not necessarily more likely to
have been sexually abused as children. 

According to several researchers, the relationship between childhood
sexual victimization and adult perpetration of sexual offenses
against children is complex and requires measurement and analysis of
a host of factors.  For example, it has been postulated that adult
sexual offending is not simply a result of the experience of
childhood sexual victimization, but also of other factors such as age
at onset of the abuse, nature of the abuse, stability of the
caregiver, and/or physical abuse.\9 Studies that collect data on such
additional factors may add to our understanding of what types of
sexual abuse, perpetrated under what conditions against what types of
child victims, are associated with what types of adult sexual
offending against what types of victims under what types of
conditions.  However, while such retrospective studies can help
explore factors possibly related to adult sexual offending, they
cannot establish the importance of these factors in predicting adult
sexual offending.  The reason for this is discussed in the following
section. 


--------------------
\6 R.  K.  Hanson and S.  Slater (1988) and R.  K.  Hanson (1991)
reviewed 14 of the 23 retrospective studies covered in this report,
and 5 others.  R.  J.  Garland and M.  J.  Dougher (1988) reviewed 7
of these 23 studies, and 2 others.  L.  M.  Williams and D. 
Finkelhor (1990) reviewed 3 of these 23 studies, and 3 others.  (See
bibliography for full citations.)

\7 Some studies looked at child sex offenders defined quite broadly,
while others looked at specific types of offenders (e.g., incestuous
fathers, homosexual pedophiles, or heterosexual pedophiles).  Some
studies did not use control or comparison groups.  Others compared
sex offenders to men incarcerated or in treatment for nonsexual
offenses, to men clinically depressed, to college students who dated
minimally, or to law enforcement officers, among others.  Seven of
the 23 studies compared sex offenders to a control group of
noninstitutionalized men drawn from the general population. 

\8 Some studies simply asked study group members whether they had
been sexually abused as children, and left it to the individuals
themselves to determine what constituted sexual abuse.  Other studies
asked study group members whether they had been involved sexually as
children, or before age 13 or age 16, with a person 5 or more years
older than themselves.  Studies involving incest offenders sometimes
asked offenders whether they had been involved in incestuous
relationships as children.  However, these relationships may not have
involved older adults or may not have been coercive in nature. 
Further, sexual abuse victimization experiences were not always
limited to acts involving physical contact.  For example, in one
study, childhood sexual victimization included being solicited by
adult males or females through words, gestures, or some other sexual
approach. 

\9 See, for example, R.  A.  Prentky and R.  A.  Knight, "Age of
Onset of Sexual Assault:  Criminal and Life History Correlates," in
Sexual Aggression:  Issues in Etiology, Assessment, and Treatment,
eds.  G.  C.  N.  Hall, R.  Hirschman, J.  R.  Graham, and M.  S. 
Zaragoza (Washington, D.C.:  Taylor and Francis, 1993), pp.  43-62;
and R.  A.  Prentky et al., "Developmental Antecedents of Sexual
Aggression," Development and Psychopathology, Vol.  I (1989), pp. 
153-169. 


      RETROSPECTIVE STUDIES HAD
      SEVERAL SHORTCOMINGS
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :4.2

The retrospective studies we reviewed had several shortcomings that
precluded our drawing any firm conclusions about whether there is a
cycle of sexual abuse.  First, the studies focused on known sex
offenders of children (i.e., offenders who have been detected,
arrested, or convicted, or who had been referred or had presented
themselves for treatment), and these offenders may not be typical or
representative of all sex offenders against children.  Second,
self-reports of childhood sexual abuse obtained from known sex
offenders are of questionable validity.  Known offenders may be
motivated to overreport histories of abuse to gain sympathy or to
excuse their own offenses.\10 Third, where comparison or control
groups were used, attempts to match group members to sex offenders of
children on factors possibly related to being sexually abused or
abusive were typically limited; few of the studies attempted to
control for such factors statistically. 

Finally, one of the major shortcomings of these retrospective studies
is that they cannot reveal how likely it is that a person who has
been sexually abused as a child will become a sexual abuser in
adulthood.  For example, even if 100 percent of sexual abusers of
children were sexually abused as children, this would not necessarily
mean that sexual abuse causes abused children to become abusers
themselves.  It may be that only a small percentage of sexually
abused children become sex offenders against children.  Determining
how likely victims of childhood sexual abuse are to become adult sex
offenders requires that a sample of sexually abused children be
followed forward in time, rather than the histories of sex offenders
be traced backward. 


--------------------
\10 One research study suggested that some sex offenders may claim to
have been victims of child sexual abuse when they were not.  See: 
Jan Hindman, "Research Disputes and Assumptions about Child
Molesters," National District Attorney Association Bulletin, Vol. 
VII, No.  4 (1988), pp.  1-3.  Hindman studied convicted adult child
molesters treated at an Oregon clinic between 1980 and 1988. 
Offenders were required to write a detailed sexual history, including
information on whether they were abused as children.  Since 1982,
offenders have also been told that they will be subject to polygraph
testing, that their written autobiography must conform with the
polygraph test, and that they will be sent back to jail if they do
not pass the test.  A higher percentage of offenders who wrote their
sexual histories before the polygraph requirement was instituted in
1982 claimed that they had been sexually victimized as children (67
percent) than of those who were told that their sexual histories
would have to conform with the polygraph test (29 percent). 


      PROSPECTIVE STUDIES USED
      BETTER METHODOLOGIES, BUT
      RESULTS WERE INCONCLUSIVE
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :4.3

Our review of the literature identified two research studies
(described in four articles) that have used a prospective approach in
examining the cycle of sexual abuse.  One of these studies is part of
a larger study of the cycle of violence.\11

Widom is the primary researcher in the larger study, which is still
ongoing.  It involves a cohort of 908 substantiated cases of child
abuse (physical and/or sexual) or neglect processed through the
courts between 1967 and 1971.\12 These abuse/neglect cases were
restricted to children who were 11 years of age or younger at the
time of the abuse or neglect incident.  They included 153 sexually
abused children, 160 physically abused children, and 697 neglected
children.\13 This prospective study also includes a control group of
667 individuals who had no record of abuse or neglect and who were
either born in the same hospitals or attended the same elementary
schools as the abused children.  The control and study group members
were matched on sex, age, race, and approximate family socioeconomic
status. 

Local, state, and federal official arrest records containing
information recorded up to June 1994 were used to determine how many
of the study and control group members were arrested for sex
offenses.  Table 1 shows results pertaining to sex offenses from the
most recent analyses based on this larger study.\14 The study did not
distinguish whether the sex offense was perpetrated against a child
or an adult.\15



                                     Table 1
                     
                      Results From the Research of Widom and
                     Colleagues on the Cycle of Sexual Abuse


Adult
arres     Odds              Odds              Odds           Odds
ts     ratio\a  Percent  ratio\a  Percent  ratio\a  Percent  ratio\a     Percent
-----  -------  -------  -------  -------  -------  -------  ----------  -------
Any        1.4     6.5%      1.4    11.0%      2.1    13.1%  Not            6.0%
 sex                                                          applicable
 crim
 e\b
Prost     3.7*     3.9%      0.9     1.4%     5.0*     3.6%  Not            0.6%
 itut                                                         applicable
 ion
Rape       1.9     4.2%      2.4     4.7%      1.8     3.6%  Not            2.1%
 or                                                           applicable
 sodo
 my\c
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1:  When criminal history checks were conducted in 1994, fewer
than 1 percent of the individuals in the sample were under 25 years
of age. 

Note 2:  An asterisk (*) denotes statistical significance. 

\a Odds ratios reflect the differences between groups in the odds or
likelihood of becoming a sex offender.  For example, an odds ratio of
1.4 indicates that sexually abused children are nearly 1-1/2 times as
likely as children in the control group to become adult sex
offenders.  Odds ratios are based on logistic regression analysis,
with all three types of abuse in the equation (comparisons are with
controls).  These equations also control for age, sex, and race. 

\b Sex crimes include prostitution, incest, child molestation, rape,
sodomy, assault and battery with intent to gratify, peeping, public
indecency, criminal deviant conduct, and contributing to the
delinquency of a minor. 

\c Percentages and odds ratios are for males only. 

Source:  Data provided by C.S.  Widom, 1996. 

Compared to the control group, a higher percentage of those who had
been sexually abused, physically abused, or neglected as children
were arrested as adults for any sex crime, for prostitution, and
(among males) for rape or sodomy.  To determine how different the
study groups were from the control group, Widom statistically
controlled for such differences between the groups as age, race, and
sex; calculated odds ratios; and performed statistical tests.  The
results indicated that the differences between the sexually abused
group and the control group in the odds of arrest for any sex crime
or for rape or sodomy separately were not statistically significant. 
Sexually abused children were significantly more likely to have been
arrested for prostitution, however.  Twenty-three to 27 years later,
sexually abused children were nearly four times more likely to have
been arrested for prostitution.  On the other hand, members of the
childhood neglect study group were significantly more likely than
members of the control group to have been arrested for any sex crime
or for prostitution. 

Because it could allow researchers to discern the likelihood of
victims becoming abusers, the prospective approach is
methodologically superior to the retrospective approach.  Widom's
study, however, has several limitations.  First, published work from
the study has so far relied solely on official arrest data, which may
fail to identify some offenders (those who avoid detection or
arrest).\16 Second, the study groups of victimized children were
identified by using records of substantiated cases of abuse or
neglect that were processed through the state courts.  Such cases may
represent only the most severe instances of abuse and may not be
generalizable to all children who have been abused or neglected.\17
Finally, the number of sexually abused males in the abused/neglected
sample was small (a total of 24).  Statistical comparisons based on
small numbers of cases should be interpreted with caution, since
small sample sizes may not yield reliable estimates. 

We located one other study that used a prospective design and
followed sexually victimized children into early adulthood.  This
study sampled 147 boys under the age of 14 who were seen in the
emergency room of an urban hospital because of sexual abuse between
1971 and 1975.\18 The researchers also collected data on a comparison
sample of boys of the same race and roughly the same age who were
seen in the same emergency room at roughly the same time for reasons
other than sexual abuse.  In the period 1992 to 1994, official
juvenile and adult arrest records for the entire victim and
comparison sample were collected, and the researchers attempted to
locate and interview as many of the men as possible.\19 Fifty of the
147 boys in the victim sample, and 56 of the 147 boys in the
comparison sample, were interviewed.  They were asked to self-report
instances of sex-offending, and were also asked a number of other
questions about their family of origin, sexual history, history of
sexual victimization, psychological functioning, drug and alcohol
use, and criminal behavior.\20

As shown in table 2, the study found little difference between the
victim and comparison samples in the percentages that were arrested
for, or that self-reported, sex offenses.  According to the
researchers, one explanation for this finding is that the victim and
comparison samples are not as different as originally intended with
respect to their having been victims of child sexual abuse.  For
instance, in the comparison group, 40 percent of the 56 men
interviewed reported that they had themselves been sexually abused. 
Furthermore, 55 percent of the men in the victim sample did not
recall, or at least did not report to interviewers, that they had
been sexually abused.  When the researchers reanalyzed the data and
compared all victims (from both the victim sample and the comparison
sample) with the remaining nonvictimized members of the comparison
group, they did not find a significant difference between the two
groups in the likelihood of becoming a sex offender.  These findings
must also be interpreted with caution, however, because no-difference
findings are sometimes attributable to comparing small samples rather
than to a real absence of difference between groups. 



                                Table 2
                
                 Results From the Research of Williams
                 and Colleagues on the Cycle of Sexual
                                 Abuse

                                                All sexual
                                                     abuse  Nonvictims
                        "Official"  "Official"     victims          in
                            victim  comparison       (both  comparison
                            sample      sample    samples)      sample
Outcome variable          (N = 50)    (N = 56)    (N = 69)    (N = 33)
----------------------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------
Arrested for sex               14%         13%         16%          6%
 offense\a
Self-reported sex               14          14          13          15
 offense\b
Any sex offense\c               26          20          24          18
----------------------------------------------------------------------
\a Includes any arrest for a sex offense as a juvenile or as an
adult.  Sex offenses included rape, involuntary deviate sexual
intercourse, sexual assault, indecent assault, indecent exposure, and
incest. 

\b Includes all individuals who self-reported having committed a sex
offense, whether they were arrested for the offense or not.  Study
group members were asked to report on any initiation or occurrence of
sexual contact with children under the age of 12 and any sexual
contact with adolescents or adults when physical force, threats of
force, or the coercion of adult or supervisory authority was used to
achieve the sexual contact. 

\c Includes all individuals who were arrested for a sex offense and
those who were not arrested but who self-reported sex offenses. 

Source:  L.  M.  Williams et al., 1995. 

The generalizability of these findings may be limited since the
sample of sexually abused boys (and the matched comparison group) is
neither a random sample nor a sample that is representative of the
general population of children at risk of such abuse.  Over 80
percent of the boys sampled were African-American, and a
disproportionate number of the men who were interviewed were from
poor families and had criminal records.  About one-third of the
interviewed men who were sexually abused as boys, and about one-fifth
of all of the men interviewed, were incarcerated at the time of
interview. 

The Williams et al.  study is instructive in that it points to a
number of difficulties involved in conducting prospective studies of
the relationship between childhood victimization and adult offending. 
These difficulties include (1) the need to determine whether members
of comparison groups were victims of sexual abuse, and (2) the need
to employ more than a single outcome measure of offending.  Of 15 men
who self-reported any sex offense, only 5 had an arrest record for a
sex offense; and of 14 men who had been arrested for a sex offense,
only 5 self-reported a sex-offending behavior. 


--------------------
\11 On the cycle of sexual abuse, see C.  S.  Widom and M.  A.  Ames,
1994; C.  S.  Widom, 1995; and C.  S.  Widom, 1996.  On the cycle of
violence generally, see M.  G.  Maxfield and Cathy Spatz Widom, "The
Cycle of Violence:  Revisited Six Years Later," Archives of
Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (April, 1996); Cathy Spatz Widom,
The Cycle of Violence:  Research in Brief (Washington, D.C.:  U.S. 
Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, October 1992);
Cathy Spatz Widom, "Child Abuse, Neglect, and Adult Behavior: 
Research Design and Findings on Criminality, Violence, and Child
Abuse," American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol.  LIX (1989), pp. 
355-367; Cathy Spatz Widom, "The Cycle of Violence," Science, Vol. 
CCXLIV (1989), pp.  160-166; and Cathy Spatz Widom, "Does Violence
Beget Violence?:  A Critical Examination of the Literature,"
Psychological Bulletin, Vol.  CVI (1989), pp.  3-28. 

\12 The study has relied on the official records of agencies that
handled these cases.  Detailed information about the abuse and/or
neglect incident and family composition and characteristics was
obtained from the files of the juvenile court and probation
department, the authority responsible for cases of abused, neglected,
or dependent and delinquent children.  The records of the sexual
abuse cases were obtained from the juvenile court and from the adult
criminal court of a metropolitan area in the Midwest.  If there was
evidence in the records that the charges of sexual abuse had been
investigated and found to be true, the case was coded as involving
sexual abuse. 

\13 Some individuals in each of these groups experienced more than
one type of maltreatment.  Thus, the numbers add up to more than 908
individuals. 

\14 C.  S.  Widom, 1996; C.  S.  Widom, personal communication. 

\15 To strengthen the study, Widom is extending data collection in a
number of ways.  Future analyses will include participant self-report
data, which will allow corroboration of the results from official
arrest data and potentially provide more precise information on the
nature of the sex offenses committed (i.e., whether they involve
child or minor victims, etc.). 

\16 We noted in footnote 15 that Widom is undertaking new analyses
that will make use of self-report data on commission of sex offenses
to supplement official arrest data. 

\17 Abuse and/or neglect cases that are substantiated at the court
level may not be representative of all cases because over half of
child maltreatment reports are not substantiated by social services
investigators, and the vast majority of cases substantiated by local
or county departments of social services never reach the court level. 
(See J.  Leiter, K.  A.  Myers, and M.  Zingraff, "Substantiated and
Unsubstantiated Cases of Child Maltreatment:  Do Their Consequences
Differ?" Social Work Research, Vol.  XVIII, No.  2 (June 1994), pp. 
67-82; and M.  T.  Zingraff et al., "Child Maltreatment and Youthful
Problem Behavior," Criminology, Vol.  XXXI, No.  2 (May 1993), pp. 
173-202.) In addition, Widom states that the cases included in her
study were processed before the child abuse reporting laws were
passed, and many cases of sexual abuse were not reported.  Some
researchers have suggested using all substantiated reports of abuse
and neglect (not just those that reach the court level), or including
unsubstantiated reports, in research on the consequences of abuse and
neglect.  However, Widom has warned that using unsubstantiated
reports might introduce bias because these reports leave open the
question of whether abuse or neglect actually occurred and are likely
to be biased toward the less serious end of the continuum.  (See C.S. 
Widom, "Sampling Bias and Implications for Child Abuse Research,"
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol.  LVIII (1988), pp. 
260-270.) Furthermore, if prospective studies find little support for
the cycle of sex abuse among the most severe cases--those that have
been substantiated at the court level--it is not likely that strong
support for such a relationship will be found using less severe
cases. 

\18 L.  M.  Williams et al., 1995. 

\19 The researchers checked official arrest records from the city's
juvenile court, its adult probation department, and the National
Criminal Information Center.  Sex offenses included rape, involuntary
deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, indecent assault,
indecent exposure, and incest.  It appears that arrest records were
examined for all members of the victim and comparison sample. 
However, Williams et al.  only present arrest information for sample
members who were located and interviewed. 

\20 In an effort to protect men who did not remember childhood abuse
that had occurred or might not want others to know about it, the
researchers did not reveal the fact of childhood victimization to men
who did not bring it up on their own.  Study group members were told
that they had been selected for a follow-up study of men who received
emergency room services in the hospital in the early 1970s. 


   CONCLUSIONS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :5

A number of studies have been done on the cycle of sexual abuse, many
of which were reviewed in this report.  Most of the studies were
retrospective in design; that is, they began with a sample of known
sex offenders of children and sought to determine whether they were
sexually abused during childhood.  The chief limitation of the
retrospective studies is that studying a known group of sexual
offenders cannot provide any direct information about the extent to
which children who are sexually abused become sexual offender as
adults.  The two studies we reviewed that were prospective in design
attempted to overcome this limitation by identifying samples of
sexually victimized children and tracking them into adulthood to
determine how many became sex offenders.  These studies also had
limitations, which made it difficult to reach any definitive
conclusions about the cycle of sexual abuse.  However, in spite of
their limitations, overall, the retrospective studies, prospective
studies, and research reviews did indicate that the experience of
childhood sexual victimization is quite likely neither a necessary
nor a sufficient cause of adult sexual offending.  Further research
would be necessary to determine what kinds of experiences magnify the
likelihood that sexually victimized children will become adult sexual
offenders against children and, alternatively, what kinds of
experiences help prevent victimized children from becoming adult
sexual offenders against children. 


---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :5.1

We are sending copies of this report to the Ranking Minority Member
of the House Subcommittee on Crime and the Chairman and Ranking
Minority Member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.  Copies
will also be made available to others upon request. 


The major contributors to this report are listed in appendix II. 
Please call me at (202) 512-8777 if you have any questions about this
report. 

Sincerely yours,

Laurie E.  Ekstrand
Associate Director, Administration
 of Justice Issues


RETROSPECTIVE STUDIES OF ADULT SEX
OFFENDERS OF CHILDREN
=========================================================== Appendix I

                    Study                         Percent   Comparison                      Percent
Study               group(s)\a                    abused\b  group(s)\c                      abused\b                Comments
------------------  ----------------------------  --------  --------------------------  --  ----------------------  -----------------------------------
Alford et al.,      50 imprisoned child sex       35%       None                            Not applicable          This study reports the percentages
1988                offenders                     50                                                                of two groups of child sex
                    14 child sex offenders                                                                          offenders who reported, in clinical
                    admitted to a psychiatric                                                                       interviews, having been involved
                    hospital                                                                                        sexually, as a child, with a person
                                                                                                                    5 or more years older than
                                                                                                                    themselves. The authors offer no
                                                                                                                    definitive conclusions about
                                                                                                                    whether being abused leads to
                                                                                                                    becoming an abuser, but do note
                                                                                                                    that the sex offenders commonly
                                                                                                                    were victims, and that the abuse
                                                                                                                    was commonly done by women.

Baker, 1985         20 incestuous fathers         45        20 nonincestuous fathers        5%                      This study compares incestuous
                                                                                                                    fathers recruited through Parents
                                                                                                                    United,\d and a group of
                                                                                                                    nonincestuous fathers in therapy
                                                                                                                    for reasons other than sexual
                                                                                                                    abuse. The primary focus of the
                                                                                                                    study involves whether incestuous
                                                                                                                    fathers differ from nonincestuous
                                                                                                                    fathers in terms of parental
                                                                                                                    rejection, adult nurturance, and
                                                                                                                    the perception of adult females as
                                                                                                                    sexually threatening. As regards
                                                                                                                    the history of abuse, incestuous
                                                                                                                    fathers were found to be more
                                                                                                                    likely than nonincestuous fathers
                                                                                                                    to have been involved in incestuous
                                                                                                                    relationships in their own
                                                                                                                    childhoods, although in some cases
                                                                                                                    the father initiated that
                                                                                                                    relationship. No other information
                                                                                                                    on history of abuse is offered.

Ballard et al.,     383 incest offenders          54        None                            Not applicable          This study looks at differences
1990\e              classified into two                                                                             between incest offenders in
                    institutional (a,b) and two                                                                     institutional settings and
                    community-based (c,d)                                                                           community-based settings on a
                    settings:                     65                                                                number of characteristics, and is
                                                  61                                                                primarily concerned with the levels
                    (a) 63 in prison              50                                                                of social skills in the different
                    (b) 41 in mental health       49                                                                groups. Sizable percentages of all
                    facilities                                                                                      groups are shown to have been
                    (c) 240 in Parents United\d                                                                     sexually abused as children,
                    (d) 39 in private practice                                                                      although no comparison group is
                                                                                                                    employed and no general conclusions
                                                                                                                    about the cycle of sexual abuse are
                                                                                                                    offered.

Bard et al., 1987   68 child molesters            57        107 rapists                     23                      These results were offered as part
                                                                                                                    of a larger study that examined
                                                                                                                    differences between rapists and
                                                                                                                    child molesters on a number of
                                                                                                                    dimensions. Study and comparison
                                                                                                                    samples were drawn from patients in
                                                                                                                    the Massachusetts Treatment Center
                                                                                                                    for Sexually Dangerous Persons. No
                                                                                                                    firm conclusions were drawn about
                                                                                                                    the cycle of sexual abuse.

Bennett, 1985       34 incestuous fathers or      38%       18 nonincestuous fathers        6%                      This unpublished dissertation
                    father-surrogates                                                                               compared incestuous fathers
                                                                                                                    participating in a treatment
                                                                                                                    program with a "normal"
                                                                                                                    nonincestuous comparison group of
                                                                                                                    fathers on childhood and adolescent
                                                                                                                    experience of sexual abuse and on
                                                                                                                    five aspects of cognitive style.
                                                                                                                    Ten of 26 (38 percent) incestuous
                                                                                                                    fathers for whom data were
                                                                                                                    available reported experiencing
                                                                                                                    sexual abuse as children or
                                                                                                                    adolescents, compared to one of 18
                                                                                                                    (6 percent) nonincestuous fathers.
                                                                                                                    The author concluded that sexual
                                                                                                                    victimization may predispose men to
                                                                                                                    sexual abuse in adulthood, but that
                                                                                                                    victimization is neither a
                                                                                                                    necessary nor a sufficient
                                                                                                                    condition for becoming an offender.

Condy et al., 1987  92 convicted child            37        65 convicted rapists            57                      This study reports the percentages
                    molesters                               55 inmates convicted of         47                      of male inmates convicted of
                                                            nonsexual crimes                16                      different offenses, as well as of
                                                            359 college men                                         the college men, who reported
                                                                                                                    having been sexually involved,
                                                                                                                    before the age of 16, with a woman
                                                                                                                    or girl who was at least 5 years
                                                                                                                    older and at least 16 years of age.
                                                                                                                    Sexual involvement was higher for
                                                                                                                    all of the inmate groups than for
                                                                                                                    the group of college men, although
                                                                                                                    it is noted that only a small
                                                                                                                    minority of cases involved force,
                                                                                                                    and that in a large proportion of
                                                                                                                    the cases males initiated the
                                                                                                                    activity.

Dhawan and          16 incarcerated child         50        29 incarcerated rapists         62                      This study obtained data from child
Marshall, 1996      molesters                               20 incarcerated nonsexual       20                      molesters, rapists, and nonsexual
                                                            offenders                                               offenders serving time in two
                                                                                                                    medium-security penitentiaries. The
                                                                                                                    three groups self-reported whether
                                                                                                                    they had ever been sexually abused,
                                                                                                                    whether the abuse involved bodily
                                                                                                                    contact or not (noncontact abuse
                                                                                                                    included solicitations and
                                                                                                                    exhibitionism), whether the
                                                                                                                    perpetrator was a family member or
                                                                                                                    stranger, and how upsetting it was.
                                                                                                                    The authors found that the two
                                                                                                                    groups of sex offenders were more
                                                                                                                    likely to have been abused than
                                                                                                                    were the nonsexual offenders, and
                                                                                                                    concluded that sexual abuse,
                                                                                                                    coupled with other family
                                                                                                                    background characteristics (i.e.,
                                                                                                                    poorer relations, less support,
                                                                                                                    more physical abuse) may be
                                                                                                                    importantly related to becoming a
                                                                                                                    sex offender.

Dutton and Hart,    Incarcerated men grouped as             Incarcerated men, grouped                               As part of a broader study of the
1992                follows:                                as follows:                                             impact of various types of
                                                  22                                        4                       childhood abuse and neglect on
                    (a) 107 sexual violence/      30        (c) 239 physical violence/      12                      violent and aggressive behavior in
                    strangers                               strangers                       13                      adulthood, data were provided on
                    (b) 52 sexual violence/                 (d) 123 physical violence/                              the history of sexual abuse among
                    family                                  family                                                  incarcerated males, classified
                                                            (e) 77 no violence                                      according to whether they had
                                                                                                                    committed acts of physical or
                                                                                                                    sexual violence directed towards
                                                                                                                    strangers or family members.
                                                                                                                    Prisoners who had committed sexual
                                                                                                                    acts of violence were more likely
                                                                                                                    to have been the victims of
                                                                                                                    childhood sexual abuse than were
                                                                                                                    other prisoners. In this study, it
                                                                                                                    is not clear how many of the
                                                                                                                    perpetrators of sex crimes were
                                                                                                                    child molesters.

Faller, 1989        154 sexually abusive          27%       154 mothers of sexual           50%                     This study examined whether
                    fathers, stepfathers, or                abuse victims                                           offenders in intrafamilial sexual
                    live-in boyfriends                                                                              abuse cases referred to the
                                                                                                                    Michigan Interdisciplinary Project
                                                                                                                    on Child Abuse and Neglect, and the
                                                                                                                    mothers of the victims of the
                                                                                                                    offender's abuse, had any history
                                                                                                                    of sexual abuse in the families of
                                                                                                                    origin. Data on sexual abuse
                                                                                                                    history were available for 116 of
                                                                                                                    the 154 offenders, and for 130 of
                                                                                                                    the 154 mothers. Of the offenders,
                                                                                                                    53 percent had experienced sexual
                                                                                                                    abuse in their families of origin,
                                                                                                                    and 27 percent had been the direct
                                                                                                                    victims of such abuse. The
                                                                                                                    corresponding percentages for the
                                                                                                                    mothers were 58 percent and 50
                                                                                                                    percent, respectively.

Frisbie, 1969       311 child molesters           24        None                            Not applicable          As part of a larger study of sex
                                                                                                                    offenders in the state of
                                                                                                                    California, interviews were
                                                                                                                    conducted with 311 subjects who had
                                                                                                                    sexually abused minors under age
                                                                                                                    14. Lacking a comparison group, no
                                                                                                                    firm conclusions were offered about
                                                                                                                    the cycle of sexual abuse, but the
                                                                                                                    study reports that predominately
                                                                                                                    heterosexual child molesters were
                                                                                                                    less likely to have been abused as
                                                                                                                    children than predominately
                                                                                                                    homosexual ones (15 percent versus
                                                                                                                    66 percent).

Gaffney et al.,     33 pedophiles\f               27        21 nonpedophilic                14                      Subjects of this study were
1984                                                        paraphiliacs\g                  Not reported            inpatients at Johns Hopkins
                                                            33 depressed                                            Biosexual Psychohormonal Clinic.
                                                            nonparaphiliacs                                         Pedophiliacs were found to be more
                                                                                                                    likely than others to have
                                                                                                                    pedophiliac family members,
                                                                                                                    although they did not differ
                                                                                                                    significantly from other
                                                                                                                    paraphiliacs in terms of having
                                                                                                                    been abused as children. No
                                                                                                                    information on childhood abuse was
                                                                                                                    presented for those in the
                                                                                                                    comparison group.

Gebhard et al.,     Includes 8 nonmutually                  Includes 8 nonmutually                                  This early and broad study of
1965                exclusive groups of sex                 exclusive groups of sex                                 different types of sex offenders
                    offenders:                              offenders, one group of                                 provides data on prepubertal
                                                  10 (F)    nonsexual offenders, and                                heterosexual and homosexual
                    199 heterosexual offenders    24 (M)    one group of men who were                               activity on 14 types of sex
                    vs. children                  16 (F)    not incarcerated:               9 (F) 21 (M)            offenders (most of whom were
                    174 heterosexual offenders    14 (M)                                    10 (F) 23 (M)           incarcerated at the time of the
                    vs. minors                    11 (F)    217 heterosexual offenders      0 (F) 13 (M)            study), on incarcerated nonsexual
                    25 heterosexual aggressors    16 (M)    vs. adults                      4 (F) 33 (M)            offenders, and on a rather
                    vs. children                  4 (F) 30  140 heterosexual                3 (F) 24 (M)            haphazardly drawn comparison group
                    27 heterosexual aggressors    (M)       aggressors vs. adults           12 (F) 17 (M)           of nonincarcerated men. Such
                    vs. minors                    8 (F) 19  25 incest offenders vs.         10 (F) 31 (M)           activity is not strictly limited to
                    56 incest offenders vs.       (M)       adults                          3 (F) 8 (M)             experiences of abuse; it includes
                    children                      6 (F) 13  199 homosexual offenders                                not only physical contact, but also
                    66 incest offenders vs.       (M)       vs. adults                                              being solicited by adult males or
                    minors                        8 (F) 32  56 peepers                                              females by words, gestures, or
                    96 homosexual offenders vs.   (M)       135 exhibitionists                                      other sexual approach. All of the
                    children                      6 (F) 35  888 incarcerated nonsexual                              subjects in the study were men, and
                    136 homosexual offenders vs.  (M)       offenders                                               the numbers to the left indicate
                    minors                                  477 nonincarcerated men                                 the percentages whose prepubertal
                                                                                                                    sexual contact involved adult
                                                                                                                    females (F) and males (M). The
                                                                                                                    study found there was more contact
                                                                                                                    with adult males than adult females
                                                                                                                    for all but one of these various
                                                                                                                    groups, and while sex offenders
                                                                                                                    were not always more likely than
                                                                                                                    incarcerated nonsexual offenders to
                                                                                                                    have been involved sexually, as
                                                                                                                    children, with adults, all groups
                                                                                                                    showed greater homosexual
                                                                                                                    involvement than the
                                                                                                                    nonincarcerated comparison group.

Greenberg et al.,   135 pedophilic child          42%       None                            Not applicable          This study compared histories of
1993                molesters\f                   44                                                                childhood sexual victimization
                    43 hebephilic child                                                                             among pedophilic and hebephilic
                    molesters\h                                                                                     child molesters. The former differ
                                                                                                                    from the latter on the basis of
                                                                                                                    molesting younger children (i.e.,
                                                                                                                    12 or under). Similar percentages
                                                                                                                    of the two groups, drawn from
                                                                                                                    patients seen at a sexual behaviors
                                                                                                                    clinic, reported a history of
                                                                                                                    having sexual contact with an adult
                                                                                                                    while under the age of 13. Among
                                                                                                                    hebephiles, homosexuals were more
                                                                                                                    likely than heterosexuals to report
                                                                                                                    such contact, but no difference by
                                                                                                                    sexual orientation was found among
                                                                                                                    pedophiles.

Groff and Hubble,   16 incestuous fathers and 26  5         None                            Not applicable          The only information provided on
1984                incestuous stepfathers                                                                          the cycle of sexual abuse in this
                                                                                                                    study, which finds few differences
                                                                                                                    between fathers and stepfathers
                                                                                                                    convicted of incest, is that, in
                                                                                                                    the two groups combined, only 2 of
                                                                                                                    the 42 subjects had been abused as
                                                                                                                    children.

Groth, 1979         178 child molesters           31        170 rapists                     29%                     This study reports the percentages
                                                            62 law enforcement              3                       of subjects in each group that
                                                            officers                                                experienced sexual trauma as
                                                                                                                    children, which can include
                                                                                                                    witnessing sexual activity. The
                                                                                                                    percentages of child molesters and
                                                                                                                    rapists reported to have been the
                                                                                                                    victims of forcible sexual assault
                                                                                                                    as children were 22 percent and 5
                                                                                                                    percent, respectively. Sexual
                                                                                                                    assaults of the comparison group of
                                                                                                                    law enforcement officers were not
                                                                                                                    reported. While this group is of
                                                                                                                    questionable comparability to the
                                                                                                                    offenders, and the information on
                                                                                                                    victimization experiences was
                                                                                                                    collected differently for them, the
                                                                                                                    authors conclude that there is a
                                                                                                                    link between being abused and
                                                                                                                    becoming an offender.

Kirkland and        10 incestuous fathers         10        12 individuals matched on       Not reported            In this study, which focuses
Bauer, 1982                                                 various characteristics                                 primarily on whether incestuous
                                                                                                                    fathers differ from a matched
                                                                                                                    comparison group in terms of
                                                                                                                    personality disorders, 1 of the 10
                                                                                                                    incestuous fathers reported a
                                                                                                                    history of incest in his own
                                                                                                                    childhood. No comparable
                                                                                                                    information was given for the
                                                                                                                    comparison group, and no additional
                                                                                                                    information on victimization was
                                                                                                                    offered for either group.

Langevin and Lang,  29 heterosexual               21-24     160 sexually anomalous          21-29                   This study reports the percentages
1985.               pedophiles\f                  14-19     men\i                           15-19                   in each group who, at age 12 or
                    22 homosexual pedophiles\f              54 individuals matched on                               younger, had "sex play" with boys
                                                            various characteristics                                 or girls who were 4 or 5 years
                                                                                                                    older, or with men or women. The
                                                                                                                    ranges in percents result from
                                                                                                                    possible overlap; i.e., 21 percent
                                                                                                                    of the heterosexual pedophiles had
                                                                                                                    sex with older girls or women, and
                                                                                                                    3 percent had sex with older boys,
                                                                                                                    so between 21 and 24 percent had
                                                                                                                    sex with older boys or girls or
                                                                                                                    with men or women. While it is not
                                                                                                                    known whether any of this sex play
                                                                                                                    was coercive, the authors conclude
                                                                                                                    that sexual abuse, by itself, does
                                                                                                                    not account for why people later
                                                                                                                    become pedophiles.

Lee, 1982           39 sexually abusive fathers,  0%        39 physically abusive           0%                      This unpublished dissertation
                    stepfathers, or surrogate               fathers, stepfathers, or                                describes differences between a
                    fathers                                 surrogate fathers                                       sample of fathers and stepfathers
                                                                                                                    who had sexually abused their
                                                                                                                    daughters and stepdaughters, and
                                                                                                                    fathers, stepfathers, and surrogate
                                                                                                                    fathers who had physically abused
                                                                                                                    their sons or daughters. In these
                                                                                                                    small samples, few differences
                                                                                                                    between groups were found. No
                                                                                                                    subjects in either group reported
                                                                                                                    having been sexually abused as
                                                                                                                    children.

McCarty,            26 mothers who were incest    76        None                            Not applicable          This study's primary focus is on
1986                offenders                                                                                       differences between incestuous
                                                                                                                    mothers who were independent
                                                                                                                    offenders, co-offenders (with a
                                                                                                                    male accomplice), and accomplices,
                                                                                                                    in terms of such characteristics as
                                                                                                                    intelligence, employment, marital
                                                                                                                    history, drug use, and emotional
                                                                                                                    disturbance. Childhood information
                                                                                                                    was available for 17 of these
                                                                                                                    mothers, and 13 (76 percent)
                                                                                                                    reported childhood sexual
                                                                                                                    victimization.

Overholser and      12 convicted child            58        12 convicted rapists            25                      This study was primarily concerned
Beck, 1989          molesters                                                                                       with how well behavioral and life
                                                            36 men who were either          6                       history data could be used to
                                                            nonsexual offenders or                                  classify (or distinguish) different
                                                            nonoffenders:                                           groups of offenders and
                                                                                                                    nonoffenders. The authors report,
                                                            (a) 12 inmates convicted                                independent of the classification
                                                            of nonsexual offenses                                   analyses, that the two groups of
                                                            (b) 12 low socioeconomic                                sex offenders were more likely than
                                                            status volunteers                                       the three groups of nonsexual
                                                            (c) 12 college students                                 offenders and nonoffenders to have
                                                            with minimal dating                                     been sexually abused as children
                                                            experience                                              (i.e., forced to engage in coercive
                                                                                                                    sexual activity before the age of
                                                                                                                    13). The 6 percent reported for the
                                                                                                                    nonsexual offenders and
                                                                                                                    nonoffenders is for all three
                                                                                                                    groups combined; percentages were
                                                                                                                    not reported for each of these
                                                                                                                    groups separately.

Seghorn et al.,     54 child molesters            57        97 rapists                      23                      This study compared child molesters
1987                                                                                                                and rapists residing in the
                                                                                                                    Massachusetts Treatment Center for
                                                                                                                    Sexually Dangerous Persons in 1982,
                                                                                                                    and found the former more likely to
                                                                                                                    have been victims of sexual assault
                                                                                                                    as children. It concludes that
                                                                                                                    sexual abuse results from the
                                                                                                                    global pathology of families of the
                                                                                                                    abused, and that sexual
                                                                                                                    victimization as a child is more
                                                                                                                    contributory to becoming a child
                                                                                                                    molester than a rapist.

Tingle et al.,      43 child molesters            56        21 rapists                      38                      This descriptive study of convicted
1986                                                                                                                rapists and child molesters who
                                                                                                                    were seen at a Florida treatment
                                                                                                                    center reports characteristics that
                                                                                                                    distinguish the two groups; i.e.,
                                                                                                                    rapists were more aggressive and
                                                                                                                    violent in their childhoods. The
                                                                                                                    authors did not find, however,
                                                                                                                    significant differences between the
                                                                                                                    groups in their histories of sexual
                                                                                                                    abuse.

Williams and        55 incestuous fathers in the  64%       53 nonincestuous fathers        21%                     This preliminary, descriptive
Finkelhor, 1992     Navy                          79        in the Navy                     41                      analysis compared incestuous and
                    63 civilian incestuous                  63 civilian nonincestuous                               nonincestuous fathers from U.S.
                    fathers                                 fathers                                                 Navy and civilian samples, the
                                                                                                                    fathers having been matched on age,
                                                                                                                    age of daughter, education, and
                                                                                                                    occupation. In both samples,
                                                                                                                    incestuous fathers were more likely
                                                                                                                    than nonincestuous fathers to have
                                                                                                                    reported being sexually abused as
                                                                                                                    children, although the report does
                                                                                                                    not make clear what types of
                                                                                                                    victimization experiences were
                                                                                                                    elicited by interviews with the
                                                                                                                    subject. The authors conclude that
                                                                                                                    sexual victimization is related to
                                                                                                                    incestuous abuse of daughters.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:  F = female; M = male. 

\a Study groups included individuals who had perpetrated sexual abuse
against children. 

\b The percent abused represents the percentage of the study groups
or the comparison groups who were sexually abused as children.  The
studies varied in how they defined and measured sexual abuse.  (See
report text and comments in the last column of this table.)

\c Comparison groups included individuals who had perpetrated sexual
crimes against adults (e.g., rapists), individuals who had committed
nonsexual crimes, or nonoffenders who might or might not be matched
with the study group. 

\d Parents United is a support group that emphasizes and promotes the
reunification of the incest family. 

\e Study included both male and female offenders. 

\f Pedophiles (or pedophilic child molesters, or pedophiliacs) are
sexual deviants whose preferred sexual objects are children. 

\g Paraphiliacs (or nonpedophilic paraphiliacs) are sexual deviants
whose deviant behavior does not involve children.  In this study,
they included primarily exhibitionists and sadists. 

\h As defined in this study, hebephiles (or hebephilic child
molesters) were child molesters who admitted to coerced sexual
activity with extrafamilial children between the ages of 13 and 16. 

\i As defined in this study, sexually anomalous men were sex
offenders who were nonpedophilic and preferred mature partners. 


MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS REPORT
========================================================== Appendix II

GENERAL GOVERNMENT DIVISION,
WASHINGTON, D.C. 

Evi L.  Rezmovic, Assistant Director, Administration of Justice
Issues
Douglas Sloane, Evaluator-in-Charge
David Alexander, Senior Social Science Analyst
Barry Seltser, Supervisory Social Science Analyst

LOS ANGELES FIELD OFFICE

Tom Jessor, Senior Evaluator


RESEARCH ARTICLES USED IN THIS
REVIEW
=========================================================== Appendix 0

RESEARCH REVIEWS

Garland, Randall J., and Michael J.  Dougher.  "The Abused/Abuser
Hypothesis of Child Sexual Abuse:  A Critical Review of Theory and
Research." Adult Human Sexual Behavior With Children and Adolescents: 
Biosocial Dimensions, ed.  J.R.  Feierman (New York:  Aldine de
Gruyter, 1988), pp.  488-509. 

Hanson, R.  Karl.  "Characteristics of Sex Offenders Who Were
Sexually Abused as Children." Sex Offenders and Their Victims, ed. 
R.  Langevin (Oakville, Ontario:  Juniper Press, 1991), pp.  77-85. 

Hanson, R.  Karl, and S.  Slater.  "Sexual Victimization in the
History of Child Sexual Abusers:  A Review." Annals of Sex Research,
Vol.  I (1988), pp.  485-499. 

Williams, Linda Meyer, and David Finkelhor.  "The Characteristics of
Incestuous Fathers:  A Review of Recent Studies." In The Handbook of
Sexual Assault:  Issues, Theories, and Treatment of the Offender,
eds.  W.  L.  Marshall, D.  R.  Laws, and H.  E.  Barbaree (New York: 
Plenum Press, 1990), pp.  231-255. 

RETROSPECTIVE APPROACH

Alford, Jane, Mary Grey, and C.  James Kasper.  "Child Molesters: 
Areas for Further Research." Corrective and Social Psychiatry and
Journal of Behavior Technology Methods and Therapy, Vol.  XXXIV
(1988), pp.  1-5. 

Baker, D.  Father-Daughter Incest:  A Study of the Father.  San
Diego:  California School of Professional Psychology, 1985. 
Dissertation Abstracts International, 46, 951B. 

Ballard, D.  T., et al.  "A Comparative Profile of the Incest
Perpetrator:  Background Characteristics, Abuse History, and Use of
Social Skills." In The Incest Perpetrator:  A Family Member No One
Wants to Treat, ed.  A.  L.  Horton et al.  (Newbury Park, CA:  Sage,
1990), pp.  43-64. 

Bard, Leonard A., et al.  "A Descriptive Study of Rapists and Child
Molesters:  Developmental, Clinical, and Criminal Characteristics."
Behavioral Sciences and the Law, Vol.  V, No.  2 (1987), pp. 
203-220. 

Bennett, S.  R.  Cognitive Style of Incestuous Fathers.  Lubbock,
Texas:  Texas Tech University, 1985.  Dissertation Abstracts
International, 47, 778B. 

Condy, Sylvia.  R., et al.  "Parameters of Sexual Contact of Boys
With Women." Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol.  XVI (1987), pp. 
379-394. 

Dhawan, Sonia, and W.  L.  Marshall.  "Sexual Abuse Histories of
Sexual Offenders." Sexual Abuse:  A Journal of Research and
Treatment, Vol.  VIII, No.  1 (1996), pp.  7-15. 

Dutton, D.G., and S.D.  Hart.  "Evidence for Long-term, Specific
Effects of Childhood Abuse and Neglect on Criminal Behavior in Men. 
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative
Criminology, Vol.  XVI, No.  2 (1992), pp.  129-137. 

Faller, Kathleen Coulborn.  "Why Sexual Abuse?  An Exploration of the
Intergenerational Hypothesis." Child Abuse and Neglect, Vol.  XIII,
No.  4 (1989), pp.  543-548. 

Frisbie, Louise V.  Another Look at Sex Offenders in California. 
Sacramento:  California Department of Mental Hygiene, Mental Health
Research Monograph No.  12, 1969. 

Gaffney, Gary.  R., Shelly F.  Lurie, and Fred S.  Berlin.  "Is There
Familial Transmission of Pedophilia?" Journal of Nervous and Mental
Diseases, Vol.  CLXXII (1984), pp.  546-548. 

Gebhard, P.  H., et al.  Sex Offenders:  An Analysis of Types.  New
York:  Harper and Row, 1965. 

Greenberg, David M., John M.  W.  Bradford, and Susan Curry.  "A
Comparison of Sexual Victimization in the Childhoods of Pedophiles
and Hebephiles." Journal of Forensic Sciences, Vol.  XXXVIII, No.  2
(March 1993), pp.  432-436. 

Groff, M.  G., and L.  M.  Hubble.  "A Comparison of Father-Daughter
and Stepfather- Stepdaughter Incest." Criminal Justice and Behavior,
Vol.  XI (1984), pp.  461-475. 

Groth, A.  Nicholas.  "Sexual Trauma in the Life Histories of Rapists
and Child Molesters." Victimology:  An International Journal, Vol. 
IV, No.  1 (1979), pp.  10-16. 

Kirkland, Karen D., and Chris A.  Bauer.  "MMPI Traits of Incestuous
Fathers." Journal of Clinical Psychology, Vol.  XXXVIII, No.  3
(1982), pp.  645-649. 

Langevin, R., and R.  A.  Lang.  "Psychological Treatment of
Pedophiles." Behavioral Sciences and the Law, Vol.  III, No.  4
(1985), pp.  403-419. 

Lee, R.  N.  "Analysis of the Characteristics of Incestuous Fathers."
Dissertation Abstracts International, Vol.  XLIII, No.  2343B (1982). 
University Microfilms No.  DA8227677. 

McCarty, Loretta M.  "Mother-Child Incest:  Characteristics of the
Offender." Child Welfare, Vol.  LXV, No.  5 (September/October 1986),
pp.  447-458. 

Overholser, James C., and Steven J.  Beck.  "The Classification of
Rapists and Child Molesters." Journal of Offender Counseling,
Services and Rehabilitation, Vol.  XIV, No.  2 (1989), pp.  169-179. 

Seghorn, Theoharis K., Robert A.  Prentky, and Richard Boucher. 
"Childhood Sexual Abuse in the Lives of Sexually Aggressive
Offenders." Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry, Vol.  XXVI (1987), pp.  262-267. 

Tingle, David, et al.  "Childhood and Adolescent Characteristics of
Pedophiles and Rapists." International Journal of Law and Psychiatry,
Vol.  IX (1986), pp.  103-116. 

Williams, Linda Meyer, and David Finkelhor.  The Characteristics of
Incestuous Fathers.  Durham, New Hampshire:  University of New
Hampshire, 1992. 

PROSPECTIVE APPROACH

Widom, Cathy Spatz.  "Childhood Sexual Abuse and Its Criminal
Consequences." Society, Vol.  XXXIII, No.  4 (May/June 1996), pp. 
47-53. 

Widom, Cathy Spatz.  Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse--Later
Criminal Consequences:  Research in Brief.  Washington, D.C.:  U.S. 
Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, March 1995. 

Widom, Cathy Spatz, and M.  Ashley Ames.  "Criminal Consequences of
Childhood Sexual Victimization." Child Abuse and Neglect, Vol. 
XVIII, No.  4 (1994), pp.  303-318. 

Williams, Linda Meyer, et al.  Juvenile and Adult Offending Behavior
and Other Outcomes in a Cohort of Sexually Abused Boys:  20 Years
Later.  Philadelphia:  Joseph J.  Peters Institute, 1995. 

*** End of document. ***