title: Child perpetrators--children who molest other children: preliminary findings.
abstract: While the seriousness of sexual abuse by adolescents is finally beginning to receive adequate attention from the professional community, the existence of child perpetrators is largely dismissed and denied. Forty-seven boys between the ages of 4 and 13 are described who have molested children younger than themselves. Coercion was involved in all of the cases included in this study. These children had been treated in a program especially designed for child perpetrators at Children's Institute International in Los Angeles. Prior to their own sexually abusive behaviors, 49% of these boys had been sexually abused and 19% physically abused. The children all knew the people who victimized them. These male child perpetrators all knew the children they molested. In 47% of the cases the sexual abuse was of a sibling. The average number of victims of these children was 2.1 with a range of 1 to 7. The mean age at the time of perpetration was 8 years, 9 months. The mean age of the victims of these children was 6 years, 9 months. There was a history of sexual and physical abuse in the majority of the families of these children, as well as a history of substance abuse. This population is compared to adolescent perpetrators.
authors.affiliation: Children's Institute International, Los Angeles, CA 90005.
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology*; D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D007179:Incest; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012307:Risk Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D014754:Violence