Child Sexual Abuse and Risk of Revictimization: Impact of Child Demographics, Sexual Abuse Characteristics, and Psychiatric Disorders

Abstract

Approximately half of child sexual abuse (CSA) victims report sexual revictimization later in life; however, there is limited rigorous evidence concerning factors contributing to sexual and nonsexual forms of revictimization. This article investigates the relationships between CSA and a range of revictimization experiences. It also examines the role of other individual-level factors (demographics, CSA characteristics, psychiatric disorders) in the risk of revictimization. The study compares data from a prospective-longitudinal study of 2,759 Australian children (<17 years old) alleged to have experienced contact–CSA between 1964 and 1995, and a comparison group matched on sex and age. In each case, CSA was deemed likely to have occurred according to expert forensic medical opinion. Abused children and comparisons were followed to age 35 years on average, and their lifetime official crime victimization histories and public mental health service records were extracted from statewide population-level administrative databases. Relative to comparisons, CSA victims experienced significantly higher rates of revictimization, with marked elevations in odds for interpersonal revictimization (i.e., sexual assault, physical assault, threats of violence, and stalking). The CSA–physical assault relationship was moderated by sex, with a stronger association for female victims. Among CSA victims, victim sex, age at index abuse, and several psychiatric diagnostic categories were independently associated with revictimization risk, with different patterns of vulnerability emerging depending on the nature of revictimization. Overall, CSA victims are vulnerable to a range of revictimization experiences later in life. Findings have implications for the identification of particular groups of sexually abused children at heightened risk for revictimization and the role mental health services may play in mitigating risk.

Trauma and Psychosis: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Perspectives of People with Psychosis

“…These ndings stress the need to move away from what is currently considered traumatic within the diagnostic classi cations systems and adopt a wider and more ideographic understanding of what constitutes a traumatic experience. While there is extensive quantitative evidence on the potential links between trauma and psychosis, including re-victimisation [45], our ndings indicate that the views of people with psychosis are sometimes, although not always, congruent with these research ndings. Consistently with studies that found that revictimization increases the likelihood of having psychotic experiences [46], our results suggest that feeling constantly scared as a consequence of trauma, or feeling continuously on the edge of a mental breakdown, led participants to a point where they were so worn down that they could not cope with anything anymore.…”

Sexual Violence Against Adolescents in a Brazilian State: an Analysis of Reported Cases

“…In a study that analyzed the recurrence of reported cases of violence, it was possible to note that there was a recurrence of sexual violence or negligence, even after previous reports of physical and sexual violence, suggesting that in some cases reporting is not enough to change the victim's environment may not prevent revictimization [40]. A systematic review revealed that, revictimization is associated with greater suffering, presence of psychiatric disorders, di culty in interpersonal relationships and coping, self-blame, shame, and revictimization in adult life [41][42][43][44].…”

Association of depression, pain, resilience, social support with post‐traumatic stress in sexual abuse: A quantile regression approach

“…For the data analyses, STATA 13.0 (StataCorp, LLC, USA) was used to conduct descriptive statistics analysis, MLR, and QR analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the participants' age, gender, marital status, education, and occupation (Bae, Kang, Chang, Han, & Lee, 2018; Chiu et al, 2013; Li, Chu, & Lai, 2020; Miragoli et al, 2019; Strang, 2020; Papalia et al, 2020; Quayle, 2016; Sprang et al, 2020), as well as depression, pain, resilience, social support, and PTS. The demographic information and characteristics of the participants were entered into the regression model.…”

“…The sexual abuse of female children is reported to occur approximately 10% more frequently than that of male children, and 12.6% more frequently in female adults than in male adults (Chiu et al, 2013). Importantly, victims of child sexual abuse experience significantly higher rates of revictimization than those who have not experienced sexual abuse (Papalia, Mann, & Ogloff, 2020). This emphasizes the importance of considering revictimization cases in addition to childhood and adulthood cases.…”