Community characteristics and child sexual assault: Social disorganization and age
Introduction
Sexual offenses, especially those perpetrated against children, are among the most serious and most despised crimes in American society. Public and official attitudes and responses to such offenses have resulted in numerous criminal justice and social service policies designed to efficiently respond to, as well as to prevent, the assault of children and reduce recidivism among known offenders. The last two decades have witnessed the rapid development and growth of longer prison terms for sex offenders, requirements for sex offender registration, community notification of sex offenders’ addresses, and policies designed to prevent sexual assaults of children.
The proliferation of such practices are well intentioned, but may not be based on scientific evidence regarding either the limited efficacy of such practices (Sandler et al., 2008, Tewksbury and Jennings, 2010, Vásquez et al., 2008, Zgoba et al., 2008) or an accurate understanding about the dynamics of child sexual assault. While the scholarly evidence concerning the identification of characteristics of children at heightened risk of victimization is fairly well developed, it tends to focus on micro-level sources of known instances of sexual assault such as demographics and relationship/situational factors. Although some scholars (Paulsen, 2003, Zuravin, 1986, Zuravin, 1989) have considered community structures as they relate to the maltreatment and abuse of children in general, there is a lack of research that examines the more macro-level characteristics that may be related to differential rates of child sexual victimization.
If community-level characteristics have significant influences on rates of child sexual assault, both criminal justice officials and child welfare officials working to prevent victimizations can better design and target their efforts in pursuit of enhanced public safety. Knowing that particular types of communities are conducive to higher rates of child sexual assault is important not only for understanding which residents may be at greatest risk for victimization, but also for where investigative and prevention efforts can be most efficiently and effectively focused. To do this requires an understanding of both micro and macro level sources of child sexual assault victimization and which areas have the highest concentrations of child sexual assault and why. Examining macro determinants is at the heart of the current study.
Section snippets
Rates of child sexual assault
Researchers estimate that children comprise 66% of all known victims of sexual assault (Snyder, 2000). And, sexual abuse accounts for approximately 7% to 10% of all reports of child maltreatment in the U.S. (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2009). Despite the heinous nature of child sexual assault and a body of well-established detrimental consequences of sexual abuse (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2008, Browne and Finkelhor, 1986, Dube et al., 2005, Finkelhor
Data
We obtained datasets for incidents, victims, and offenders for homicide, aggravated assault, robbery, and sexual assault for the 2004-2006 calendar years from the Orlando Police Department (OPD) and Orange County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO). OPD data for each offence are maintained in three files; those for the OCSO are in a single file. The variable “case number” was present in all of the original datasets and was utilized as the common field to merge data from the separate files.
One problem with
Cases
There are 1172 cases of child sexual assault included in the analyses. Fully 86% of cases have female victims, 13% have male victims, and 2% have no victim sex recorded. Racially, 62% of victims are white, 35% are black, 2% are unknown, and .6% are “other” (e.g., Native American, Alaskan Native, Asian). The mean age of the victims was 11.56 with a median of 13 years old. Eight-six percent of incidents had single child victims, while 14% had multiple victims. With regard to the suspects (s), 94%
Discussion and conclusion
This study finds, quite conclusively, that although several concepts tied to social disorganization theory are strongly related to rates of child sexual assault, many are not. As one of the only studies to specifically asses correlations between community characteristics of locations and varying amounts of both preteen and teenaged sexual assault victimization, the present findings offer important theoretical and practical implications.
To elaborate, measures of violent crime provide at least a
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2020, HeliyonCitation Excerpt :There is an attempt by scholars in CSA scholarship to develop a comprehensive framework to determine causes of CSA. Mustaine et al. (2014) in their study on community characteristics and child sexual assault, identified that economic hardship, housing density and presence of a registered sex offender were positively associated with child sexual assault. These findings by Mustaine et al. (2014) resonate with some findings from UNICEF, Save the child & World Vision (2012) that suggests main causes of CSA in Botswana include rapid social change, poverty, HIV/AIDS, male-dominated social structures, cultural practices, transactional sex and weakening family structures.
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2020, HeliyonCitation Excerpt :This insufficient basic needs reported by children in this study has multiple realities. One of the realities discovered in Botswana and other settings is that children could engage in risky sexual behaviours in order to survive (Mathoma et al., 2006; Anderson et al., 2012; SADC, 2011, Underwood et al., 2011; Tsai et al., 2011; Mustaine et al., 2014; Dahl, 2015). Therefore, the need for basic needs reported by village children in this study could heighten their vulnerability to sexual abuse.
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2019, Child Abuse and NeglectCitation Excerpt :At a community level, Garbarino and Kostelny (1992) found that social disorganization and the lack of social coherence in a community exacerbated the effects of neighborhood socio-economic and demographic factors on maltreatment rates. The work of Mustaine et al. (2014) on social disorganization theory suggests that this may be true for sexual abuse as well as other types of maltreatment. Child sexual abuse is identified in our study by allegations made to and substantiated by the child protection agency.
County-level socioeconomic and crime risk factors for substantiated child abuse and neglect
2019, Child Abuse and Neglect