The current prevalence of child sexual abuse world-wide: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Date
2012
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Journal of Public Health
Abstract
Description
Objectives Systematic reviews on prevalence estimates ofchild sexual abuse (CSA) worldwide included studies withadult participants referring on a period of abuse of about50 years. Therefore we aimed to describe the currentprevalence of CSA, taking into account geographicalregion, type of abuse, level of country development andresearch methods.Methods We included studies published between 2002and 2009 that reported CSA in children below 18 years.We performed a random effects meta-analysis and analyzedmoderator variables by meta-regression.Results Fifty-five studies from 24 countries were included.According to four predefined types of sexual abuse,prevalence estimates ranged from 8 to 31 % for girls and 3to 17 % for boys. Nine girls and 3 boys out of 100 arevictims of forced intercourse. Heterogeneity between primarystudies was high in all analyses.Conclusions Our results based on most recent data confirmresults from previous reviews with adults. Surveys inchildren offer most recent estimates of CSA. Reducingheterogeneity between studies might be possible by standardized measures to make data more meaningful ininternational comparisons.
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Keywords
International Resources, Abuse-sexual, Statistics