The prevalence of child sexual abuse with online sexual abuse added

Finkelhor, D., Turner, H., & Colburn, D. (2024). The prevalence of child sexual abuse with online sexual abuse added. Child Abuse & Neglect, 149, 106634.

Adding online sexual abuse to generic child sexual abuse raised the overall CSA prevalence rate in this national sample from 13.5% to 21.7%. The rate for females increased from 19.8% to 31.6% and for males from 6.2% to 10.8%.

 The largest OCSA contribution to the overall combined increase were the offenses involving non-consensual image sharing. 

 The inclusion of the online sexual abuse exposures also increased the ability to identify the survivors with the highest levels of current psychological distress.

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