What Is Distinctive about the Sexual Victimization of Female Adolescents? A Comparison with the Sexual Victimization of Children and Adults

ABSTRACT

This study examines the characteristics of the sexual victimization of adolescents and provides a comparison with the ones of children and adults. The sample includes 2,665 sexual abuse cases of female children, adolescents, and adults in France. Analyses revealed differential patterns in factors associated with the sexual victimization of adolescents. Findings suggest that the sexual victimization of adolescents may be located along a continuum in terms of sexuality, antisociality, and situational factors, between children and adult victimization. Implications for the prevention of the victimization of adolescents, clinical considerations for offenders, and avenues for future research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual abuse
• adolescent
• atypical sexuality
• antisociality
• situational factor

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Franca Cortoni for her insightful comments on the manuscript, as well as Mr. the Police Chief of the French Central Office for the Repression of Violences against Persons (Office Central de Répression des Violences aux Personnes) and Mr. the Central Director of the French Judicial Police (Direction Centrale de la Police Judiciaire).

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation [P400PS_190994].