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Baker, A.W. & Duncan, S.P.

Child Sexual Abuse: A Study of Prevalence in Great Britain

Child Abuse And Neglect, 9, 457-467 (1985)

From Rind et.al. 1998

Attributes of [] Studies Using National Probability Samples to Examine Psychological Correlates of Child Sexual Abuse

Study	Population of Interference	Data gathering^a	Definition Of CSA^b	Sample Size^c		CSA Prevalence^d		Response Rate
				Males	Females	Males	Females
Baker & Duncan (1985)	Great Britt. Ages 15+	FTF	<16 ("sexually mature"); C,NC	834	923	9%	14%	87%

In a second study conducted by Baker and Duncan in Great Britain, subjects were asked about CSA experiences and effects that occurred before the age of 16. The following distributions were found regarding self-perceived effects (see bottom of Table 2): for the males with CSA, 4% said their experience caused permanent damage; 33% said it was harmful at the time, but with no lasting effects; 57% said it had no effect; and 6% said it improved the quality of their life. The distribution for the females with CSA was: 13% reported permanent damage; 51% said it was harmful at the time, but with no lasting effects; 34% said it had no effect; and 2% said it improved the quality of their life. These results strongly contradict popular views that CSA typically scars its victims for life: only 4% of males and 13% of females thought the harm was permanent. As we can see (in the top part of Table 2), 37% of males felt harmed in some way, meaning that 63% did not; the percents were just the opposite for females, with 64% reporting at least some harm. Once again, we see a sex difference.

Table 2

Percentage of Male and Female Self-Reports of Negative Psychological Effects of Child Sexual Abuse in National Samples

Males Females
Study Time frame % N % N
Baker & Duncan (1985)^b then & since 37 79 64 119
a Data based on first unwanted sex, about two thirds of which occurred prior to age 18
b Data based on CSA under age 16
c Data based on sexual touching before puberty with older persons

Baker & Duncan's (1985) questions	Males (n=79)	Females (n=119)
Permanent damage	4%	13%
Harmful at the time, but no lasting effects	33%	51%
No effect	57%	34%
Improved quality of life	6%	2%

It is important to add that males and females may react differently to CSA because they tend to experience different kinds of CSA episodes. Baker and Duncan commented that girls in their national survey in Great Britain may have found their CSA experiences to be more damaging than boys did because they had more incestuous CSA and experienced CSA at younger ages.