Characteristics and precipitant factors associated with sexual abuse

Abstract

A documentary review about investigations published between 1995and the year 2005 was made, oriented to measuring characteristicsof sexual abuse taking the following categories as reference: familiar factors, social and demographic factors, characteristics of the sexual abuse, behaviour of the parents and history of the mothers. A sample of 8,187 people of different ages was analyzed in 16 studies. There was an increase in the number of publications in the last three years (37%), fi nding the United States as the country where more publications are realized related to the included variables (69%). The average age of the sexual abuse was 7.9 for a minimal value of 4.9 and maximum of 11.5; the duration in years was 4.28 and the percentage of abuse was between 10.4% and 29.4% withan average of 20.14% in investigations made in population studies.In relation to the perpetrator-victim tie, it was found that 62.16 % of the cases the perpetrator was a family member; of these, 30.27%was the biological father. It is concluded that sexual abuse is nota problem that obeys to only one cause nor possesses only onecharacteristic. The variables that were more associated with sexualabuse were: 1. Chaotic familiar structure; where difficulties appear in the interpersonal relations, 2. Presence of violent or marital conflict, 3. Behaviours of the parents inclined towards alcohol or drug abuse, and in minor presence, 4. History of sexual abuse in the mothers of victims of abuse. Signifi cant affi liations were not in the social and demographic variables as socio-economic level, educational level of the parents, type of house or the presence of unemployment of any of the parents