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Sexual Abuse History Among Adult Sex Offenders and Non-Sex Offenders: A Meta-Analysis

NCJ Number
227143
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 33 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2009 Pages: 179-192
Author(s)
Ashley F. Jespersen; Martin L. Lalumiere
Date Published
March 2009
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study compared the abuse histories of adult sex offenders with the abuse histories of adult non-sex offenders.
Abstract
Results indicate that sex offenders were more likely to have been sexually abused than non-sex offenders, but were not more likely to have been physically abused. A history of sexual abuse was significantly more prevalent among adult sex offenders than among adult non-sex offenders, but sex offenders did not significantly differ from other offenders on their histories of physical abuse or emotional abuse/neglect. This pattern of results, however, obscures an important difference across subgroups of sex offenders: offenders against adults were less likely to have been sexually abused than offenders against children, but more likely to have been physically abused. These results with adult samples are consistent with previous findings in which adolescent sex offenders had a higher prevalence of sexual abuse history than adolescent non-sex offenders, and the group difference for sexual abuse history was much larger than for physical abuse or neglect. Common explanations for the sexually abused/sexual abuser associations are provided. Also presented are alternative interpretations of the association between sexual abuse history and sexual offending, such as self-report biases and the role of third variables. Tables, figure, and references