Child Sexual Abuse: Statistics, Trends, and Case Outcomes

This article was contributed by Richard Oldroyd. The research conducted was for a statewide task force on child sexual abuse and was conducted by Kelly Tauteoli, Research Intern, and Richard Oldroyd, Ph.D., Director of Research, Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice; and Robert Lewis, Ph.D., Director of Research, Utah Department of Human Services.

Child abuse, particularly child sexual abuse, is rapidly becoming a major national concern. Surveys conducted in the United States and Canada in recent years confirm that large numbers of children, both male and female, are involved (See When the Victim is a Child: Issues for Judges and Prosecutors, U.S. Department of Justice, 1985 for several citations). Such abuse is in sharp conflict with the values of our society. Other general findings suggest that a high proportion of criminals were sexually molested as children and that victims of sexual molestation have a tendency to become perpetrators.

In 1974 the United States Congress passed the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Act. Awareness in Utah was substantially heightened in the early 1980's as a series of children were reported missing and later were found to have been brutally murdered after they had been sexually abused. In 1983 the Utah legislature passed mandatory reporting laws and mandatory sentencing laws that many felt were the most punitive in the nation. Since then there have been major initiatives regarding child sexual abuse in every legislative session. There has also been some backlash, particularly among people who purport to have been falsely accused of child sexual abuse, and from the courts and Board of Pardons whose discretion has been removed and given to the prosecutor.

In 1989 the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice and the Division of Family Services recognized a need to increase the coordination between the various agencies and concerned parties. A 30-member statewide task force on child sexual abuse was formed to encourage joint planning, communication, and coordination among the many people and agencies attempting to respond to child sexual abuse. The following is a brief summary of research provided as a resource to that task force.

One of the first things that had to be determined was, to what extent is the incidence of child sexual abuse increasing or decreasing in Utah? The Division of Family Services is the agency with the responsibility to investigate child abuse and neglect reports. Information gathered by the Division is stored in the Central Register for Child Abuse and Neglect and used to document the incidence of child abuse in the state. The following information is taken from the 1990 Annual Report of the Central Register for Child Abuse and Neglect and describes victims of sexual abuse and their offenders as well as how offenders are handled in the system. The central registry is now used only as an in-house management information system.

The number of allegations of child sexual abuse substantiated each year by the Division of Family Services increased steadily through the 80's. At least part of this rise in reporting is plausibly a result of increased willingness to report. Nevertheless, the increases are dramatic (see Fig. 1).

Figure 1

Victim Characteristics.
The victims of sexual abuse reported to the Division in 1988 were typically female (75%). Nearly half (47%) of the victims were between the ages of six and eleven. Thirty percent were 12 years old and over, and 24 percent were 5 years old and under. Of the reported victims of sexual abuse, 22 percent previously had been victims of sexual abuse substantiated by the Division.

Offender Characteristics.
In 39 percent of the cases the perpetrator was not related to the victim. Of those perpetrators related to the victims, 15 percent were fathers and 14 percent were siblings. Also noteworthy was that stepfathers and uncles each represented 9 percent of the total number of cases.

Nearly half (42 percent) of the perpetrators were 19 years old or under, with the largest group (33%) being between the ages of 12 and 19. The next largest category were the perpetrators in their thirties (22 percent), followed by those in their twenties (16 percent).

How offenders are processed in the system.
Utah law states that people who have reason to believe that child sexual abuse has occurred have a legal obligation to report to either law enforcement or the Department of Family Services. After receiving a report, the Division of Family Services is required to make an investigation in an attempt to determine whether or not abuse occurred. Essentially, substantiation consists of finding evidence to indicate that child sexual abuse had actually taken place. During 1989, forty percent of the reports in Salt Lake County were substantiated. The major purpose of the investigation is to make determinations of what, if any, actions are needed to protect the child.

If child protective services substantiates a report, the case will typically be referred to a law enforcement agency. Law enforcement officials have the responsibility to investigate the case, looking for evidence that could be used in court proceedings to accuse and criminally prosecute the perpetrator of the abuse. In this undertaking the law enforcement investigator works closely with a prosecuting attorney. If the perpetrator is a juvenile the case will be evaluated for juvenile court. To gain a criminal conviction of an adult, the prosecutor must prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" both criminal intent and criminal action. The relevant law enforcement agency for each randomly selected case was contacted either by visit or by phone to gather information regarding the disposition and disposition dates of the case by law enforcement and prosecution.

Child sexual abuse cases are difficult cases for prosecutors. Sound physical evidence is frequently not available. If the perpetrator is a relative, the prospect of a child's testimony resulting in a conviction and lengthy prison term often creates difficulty for families in coping. The court system and process are not designed for children and are frequently very traumatic for them. Other things being equal, the child is often at a disadvantage because of age, experience, and emotional maturity. From the prosecutor's perspective child sexual abuse cases are time consuming. As a result of these issues, many prosecutors want an "open and shut case" before proceeding with child sexual abuse prosecution.

Research conducted for the task force included contacting prosecutors offices by visit and telephone to gain additional information and obtain disposition information. The information regarding the decision not to proceed with prosecution was particularly interesting. As a result of the quality of the case and the risk of mandatory minimum prison terms, some offenders were willing to plead guilty to a charge that did not require a minimum mandatory sentence. Since a guilty plea guarantees a conviction and cannot be appealed, the plea bargain saves a difficult trial for everyone. Prosecutors plea bargained most cases in which charges were filed.

A major goal of the study undertaken by the task force was to document the case flow of 100 randomly selected substantiated cases of reported child sexual abuse. A substantiated case is one where a protective service worker has investigated the case and feels that there is reason to believe that child sexual abuse has actually taken place.

Methodology.
The State Department of Human Services maintains a Register of Reported Child Abuse Cases which have been substantiated. From this register 50 cases were randomly selected from reports entered between July 1, 1986 and June 30, 1987 and another 50 cases were randomly selected during the following year. Data about these referrals were obtained from the Registry, including characteristics of persons involved and case disposition data. In the five cases where multiple perpetrators were identified, one of the perpetrators was selected at random to be the person followed. Additional data were tabulated concerning these referrals from closed files maintained by the Department of Human Services.

After identifying the 100 substantiated cases from the automated Child Abuse Registry kept by the Department of Social Services, an attempt was made to gather information from the file folder kept on each case in the individual offices of protective services. Three files could not be found. Of the remaining 97, 59 perpetrators were adults and 38 were juveniles. The results are portrayed in Figure 2.

Figure 2

Tracking the Case Process for Adult Perpetrators.
Of the 59 adult perpetrators for whom the files could be found, 56 were referred to law enforcement for formal investigation to attempt to gather sufficient information to justify prosecution of the case. Thirty-five of the cases were rejected by the prosecutor. The most frequent reason for rejection (13 cases) was that the prosecutor was unable to establish the elements of the crime. In eight additional cases the victim or victim's family refused to cooperate in the charges. The prosecutor rejected the case for unspecified reasons in seven cases and records were not available in three more. Three additional cases were referred to other states and a diversion agreement was executed in another.

The fact that nearly two thirds of the substantiated cases referred to law enforcement were not prosecuted may be a cause for concern. Questions that should be addressed include: Can more of the cases be successfully prosecuted? To what extent are other actions taken to address the problem of offenders remaining free in society? What is being done to protect children in these cases? Is prosecution the best approach to deal with the problems these offenders present?

Prosecutors were very effective in getting convictions in the 20 cases where they pursued prosecution. Seventeen defendants pled guilty, two were found guilty in trials, and only one was acquitted.

The expectation based on the minimum mandatory sentence law is that all or most of the sentenced perpetrators would go to prison for the typical term of 10 years. Figure 2 shows that only five of the 19 convicted offenders were initially sentenced to prison, fourteen were placed on probation, and one was sentenced to the state mental hospital. Typically, this deviation from the minimum mandatory sentence occurred as the result of plea bargains to lesser offenses that did not carry the minimum mandatory term.

The fact that most convicted child sex abusers are not being sentenced to prison and are not receiving minimum mandatory terms raises many questions. Does the minimum mandatory term encourage plea bargaining and thereby increase the number of convictions? To what extent do the offenders who are granted probation recidivate? How effective are treatment programs for these types of offenders (both in prison and in the community)? How much difference is there in the time served in prison between offenders who are sentenced to minimum mandatory terms and those sentenced to indeterminate terms?

Tracking the Case Process for Juvenile Offenders.
Of the 38 substantiated cases where the suspected perpetrator was a juvenile, eight of the cases were not referred to law enforcement for investigation and in three other cases the file could not be found. Of the 27 cases referred to law enforcement, 8 were rejected by law enforcement and the prosecutors. Of the eighteen cases considered by the juvenile court, five were dismissed, ten youthful offenders were placed on probation, one was referred to youth corrections, one was placed at the state mental hospital, and one was given a custody change.

Conclusions.
According to the studies cited in When the Victim is a Child: Issues for Judges and Prosecutors, child sexual abuse is self reported by approximately one fourth of all female children in our society based on survey data. Much of this abuse is never reported. In Utah less than half of the cases reported to protective services are substantiated. Of 100 randomly selected substantiated cases, approximately 60 percent of the perpetrators were adults and 40 percent juveniles. The designed statutory response anticipates that offenders who sexually abuse children serve a minimum mandatory prison term of 10 years. Since only about two percent of the cases where child sexual abuse is reported result in imprisonment, it seems important for policy makers to look at what is actually occurring and determine what, if any changes, should be made.