CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Parents are more likely to blame or doubt a child victim of sexual abuse when the suspected perpetrator is an adolescent rather than an adult, according to a new study that examined child molestation cases in four states. The findings also suggest that, regardless of the age of the perpetrator, parental blame/doubt toward the victim significantly increases if the victim is an adolescent.
Co-written by scholars at the University of Illinois and the University of New Hampshire, the study is believed to be the first to examine whether parental response differs in accordance with the age of the perpetrator.
The findings are noteworthy because adolescents commit a significant number - more than a third, by one estimate - of the sex offenses against minors reported to police. Generally, adolescent offenders know their victims, exploiting family members in about 40 percent of cases.
Parental support - believing the child when he or she discloses the abuse, providing emotional support and taking protective actions - is critical to victims' adjustment afterward, said Ted Cross, a professor of social work at Illinois, who co-wrote the study with Lisa M. Jones and Wendy A. Walsh, who are professors of psychology and sociology, respectively, at the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
"Parental support has been shown to be an important predictor of actions that will be taken, including the filing of criminal charges and the removal of the child from the home," Cross said.
Data were collected from 10 communities in Alabama, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas, and included cases that were reported to police, child protective services or children's advocacy centers over a two-year period. The sample comprised cases of sexual and serious physical abuse perpetrated by suspects 12 years of age or older upon victims who ranged in age from 5-18.
The sample was restricted to victims 5 years of age or older because parental blame/doubt was measured using an eight-item questionnaire, completed during interviews with 161 parents, which assessed the adult's emotional reaction to their child's disclosure of the abuse. Possible parental responses ranged from believing the victim completely to wondering if the abuse really occurred, as well as feeling anger, blame or resentment toward the victim.
Adolescent suspects ranged in age from 12-17, with an average age of 14. The majority were less than six years older than their victims and more than half were family members, either siblings (33 percent) or other relatives (20 percent), usually cousins. About 48 percent of adolescent suspects were not family members but were people the victims knew.
Adult suspects ranged from 18-72 years in age, with an average age of 35. The majority were family members - biological parents (25 percent), other relatives (15 percent), stepparents (13 percent) or mothers' boyfriends (16 percent). The remaining 30 percent of suspects were other adults known by the victims.
Victim and offender characteristics - such as age, sex, relationship, whether the two lived together at the time of the abuse and characteristics about the offense such as whether penetration occurred and the child was physically hurt or injured during the incident - were collected as well to explore possible correlations to parental response.
Parental blame and doubt increased significantly in correlation with the victim's age, with 13- to 15-year-old victims less likely to receive parental support than younger children ages 5-9, the study found.
Victims' parents had significantly higher levels of blame and doubt when the suspects were adults than when the suspects were adolescents, even when the researchers controlled for other characteristics.
"Many parents simply may have difficulty accepting the concept that adolescents can be sex offenders," Walsh said. "This belief persists in society, despite evidence to the contrary. Most people think that sex offenders are going to be older strangers rather than kids whom the victims know and trust and are closer to their age."
When the suspect is an adolescent, especially one close to the victim's age, some parents may be more prone to discount the victim's allegations, assuming that the sexual act was consensual or that the victim could have done something to prevent or stop it.
Parental blame and doubt increased slightly when the victim and suspect were family members. However, the researchers were surprised to find that it was not associated with the severity of abuse - when penetration had occurred and when the child sustained physical injury, Walsh said.
Cases with adolescent suspects were more likely to involve male victims (32 percent), same-sex abuse (39 percent) and slightly younger victims, with an average age of 9.6 years versus 10.9 years for victims in cases with adult perpetrators.
The data also indicated that race/ethnicity correlated with a lack of parental support, with blame and doubt increasing significantly when the child was black non-Hispanic. However, the researchers were uncertain why that was the case and said additional studies with larger samples are needed to explore links between parental support and race/ethnicity.