Child sexual abuse in Germany: Changes between 1992 and 2011. Results of national representative surveys.

• In Event: International Issues of Violence

Abstract

Severe cases of child sexual abuse increasingly come to the attention of the public by mass media reports. This creates the impression in the general public that child sexual abuse is on the rise. Contrary to this international as well as national statistics show decreasing rates of registered cases of child sex abuse since the 1990s. However, according to results of the first national representative survey on child sexual abuse in Germany, carried out 1992, the vast majority of child sex abuse cases never were reported to the police. Valid estimates of changes in the prevalence of child sexual abuse thus should not be made using data on registered cases only. A second national representative survey on child sexual abuse and other forms of maltreatment was carried out 2011. This recent study is a replication and expansion of the earlier first national survey. Study design, questionnaire and definitions were identical. Therefore, data can be compared to analyze trends over a 20 years period. Methodology as well as findings on changes in prevalence rates and reporting behavior for different forms of child sexual abuse will be presented.

Authors

• Peter Gerhard Wetzels, University of Hamburg

• Lena Stadler, University of Hamburg