Cycle of child sexual abuse: links between being a victim and becoming a perpetrator.
BACKGROUND
There is widespread belief in a 'cycle' of child sexual abuse, but little empirical evidence for this belief.


OBJECTIVE
To identify perpetrators of such abuse who had been victims of paedophilia and/or incest, in order to: ascertain whether subjects who had been victims become perpetrators of such abuse; compare characteristics of those who had and had not been victims; and review psychodynamic ideas thought to underlie the behaviour of perpetrators.


METHODS
Retrospective clinical case note review of 843 subjects attending a specialist forensic psychotherapy centre.


RESULTS
Among 747 males the risk of being a perpetrator was positively correlated with reported sexual abuse victim experiences. The overall rate of having been a victim was 35% for perpetrators and 11% for non-perpetrators. Of the 96 females, 43% had been victims but only one was a perpetrator. A high percentage of male subjects abused in childhood by a female relative became perpetrators. Having been a victim was a strong predictor of becoming a perpetrator, as was an index of parental loss in childhood.


CONCLUSIONS
The data support the notion of a victim-to-victimiser cycle in a minority of male perpetrators but not among the female victims studied. Sexual abuse by a female in childhood may be a risk factor for a cycle of abuse in males.
Glasser
M
M
Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and University College, London, UK.
Kolvin
I
I
Campbell
D
D
Glasser
A
A
Leitch
I
I
Farrelly
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology*; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors