Disturbing Facts about Sexual Abuse

From research by economists J.J. Prescott and Jonah Rockoff, here are a few current statistics on sex offenses reported to the police:

1) 25 percent of victims are 10-14 years old; 23 percent are nine or younger.

2) 22.5 percent of the offenders are family members. Only 8 percent are strangers.

3) 25 percent of sex offenses reported to the police lead to an arrest.

And these are only the offenses reported to the police. Stranger sex offenses must be much more likely to be reported to the police than family abuse.

Using this data, I estimate that six out of every 1,000 10- to 14-year-old girls are victims of sex offenses which are reported to the police each year. The actual victimization rate is surely much higher.