One significant conclusion among researchers is that there are no identifiable epidemiological markers that could exclude the possibility of child sexual abuse among a particular subgroup of children, despite the existence of obsolete social prejudices that presume the problem is rare in children of certain ages, genders, race, or socioeconomic background. Much of the literature has focused on the victimization of girls, although the discrepancy between the victimization of boys and girls is less than previously believed. The risk for sexual abuse rises in pre-adolescence, although the risk for very young children cannot be excluded. While the reported cases of child sexual abuse show a disproportionate representation of children from lower social classes, this is probably because identifying professionals feel more comfortable labeling abuse among disadvantaged families. Factors related to family structure and parenting have been found to have a significant, but small, association with the incidence of child sexual abuse. 18 references