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Biomedical subjects

D Finkelhor

Publications and source records attributed to D Finkelhor.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Risk factors for and impact of online sexual solicitation of youth.

CONTEXT: Health care professionals, educators, and others are increasingly called upon to advise parents and policymakers about risks posed to children by Internet use. However, little scientific information exists on the experiences of children online. OBJECTIVE: To assess the risk factors surrounding online sexual solicitations of youth and distress due to solicitation. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Telephone survey (August 1999-February 2000) of a random sample of 1501 youth aged 10 through 17 years who were regular Internet users. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Demographic and behavioral characteristics associated with solicitation risk and distress due to solicitation. RESULTS: Nineteen percent of youth who used the Internet regularly were the targets of unwanted sexual solicitation in the last year. Girls (P<.001), older teens (P =.005), troubled youth (P =.004), frequent Internet users (P =.01), chat room participants (P<.001), and those who communicated online with strangers (P<.001) were at greater risk. Twenty-five percent of the solicited youth reported high levels of distress after solicitation incidents. Risk of distress was more common among the younger youth (P =.005), those who received aggressive solicitations (the solicitor attempted or made offline contact) (P =.001), and those who were solicited on a computer away from their home (P =.001). CONCLUSIONS: Many young people who use the Internet encounter unwanted sexual overtures. Health care professionals, educators, and parents should be prepared to educate youth about how to respond to online sexual solicitations, including encouraging youth to disclose and report such encounters and to talk about them.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Why is sexual abuse declining? A survey of state child protection administrators.

OBJECTIVES: Cases of substantiated sexual abuse have declined approximately 39% nationwide from 1992 to 1999, according to estimates from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). Despite the dramatic nature of the decline, little discussion of the trend has occurred at either the national or the state level. Aims of the research were to: (1) gather state-level information about possible sources of the sexual abuse decline, (2) identify child protection trends that might be contributing to the decline, and (3) assess the level of awareness of the decline in state child protection offices. METHODS: Telephone interviews were conducted with child protection administrators in 43 states. RESULTS: More than half of the officials in states with large declines were unaware of any discussion of the declines within their agency or in the public at large within their state. State officials cited a diverse array of possible causes for the decline, including: (1) increased evidentiary requirements to substantiate cases, (2) increased caseworker caution due to new legal rights for caregivers, and (3) increasing limitations on the types of cases that agencies accept for investigation. More than half also mentioned the effectiveness of prevention programs, increased prosecution, and public awareness campaigns, implying that a portion of the decline may result from a real decline in occurrence. CONCLUSIONS: Responses from child protection officials have inherent biases, but they are useful in generating hypotheses for further study in trying to account for the decline. The results suggest that further discussion and increased analysis of child maltreatment system data are important next steps.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2001

Police reporting and professional help seeking for child crime victims: a review.

Most crimes with child victims are not reported to police, nor do child victims access other professional victim services, despite evidence that these yield positive outcomes. This article develops a conceptual framework about the barriers to such access: (a) the reluctance to define the crime episodes or their consequences as serious, criminal, harmful, or warranting intervention; (b) the extra authorities, including parents and schools, who mediate between victims and police or services; (c) developmental issues, such as concerns about autonomy; (d) attitudinal and emotional obstacles; and (e) time and expense factors. This article suggests the need for initiatives to stimulate reporting and help seeking, such as more publicity about the seriousness of juvenile victimization, more justice-system involvement with schools, more child and family friendly police services, and an emphasis on attractive outcomes such as justice and empowerment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Factors in the underreporting of crimes against juveniles.

This analysis of 1995 to 1996 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) data finds substantial underreporting to police of violent and property crimes against youth (age 12 to 17) compared with the reporting of such crimes against adults. This underreporting is not explained by the crimes involved being less serious, being committed by juvenile perpetrators, or by any other aspect of the crimes for which NCVS information is available. Counting reports to nonpolice authorities (in lieu of police) equalizes the level of reporting for property crime but not for violent crime. Law enforcement should undertake a variety of policies to try to encourage the police reporting of juvenile crime victimization, including steps to emphasize the criminal seriousness of such offenses, to undermine the code of silence, to provide incentives to report, to make reporting easier, and to work with schools about policies concerning when to involve the police.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

The victimization of children: recommendations for assessment and instrument development.

The study and treatment of juvenile victimization would greatly benefit from instruments that are comprehensive, methodologically sound, and relevant to settings such as health and mental health clinics, criminal justice institutions, and child protection agencies. Toward these ends, this article makes 20 recommendations. Among other things, instruments should (1) allow victimization to be mapped onto conventional crime and child protection system categories; (2) adequately assess victimization by family and other nonstranger perpetrators; (3) ask about crimes specific to childhood, such as nonviolent sexual offenses and neglect; (4) allow for comparisons between juvenile and adult victimizations; (5) collect self-report data with children as young as age 7 years; (6) use simple, behaviorally specific language; (7) protect privacy during data collection; (8) attend to potential ethnic, class, and gender differences; and (9) prepare procedures to assist children in danger. Comprehensive and well-researched instrumentation could greatly advance the study and treatment of juvenile victimization.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1998

Identification of child maltreatment with the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales: development and psychometric data for a national sample of American parents.

OBJECTIVE: To create a parent-to-child version of the Conflict Tactics Scales, the CTSPC. METHOD: Description of the conceptual and methodological approaches used and psychometric data for a nationally representative sample of 1,000 U.S. children. RESULTS: (1) Improved Psychological Aggression and Physical Assault scales. (2) New Nonviolent Discipline scale, supplementary scale for Neglect, and supplemental questions on discipline methods and sexual abuse. (3) Reliability ranges from low to moderate. (4) Evidence of discriminant and construct validity. CONCLUSIONS: The CTSPC is better suited to measuring child maltreatment than the original CTS. It is brief (6 to 8 minutes for the core scales) and therefore practical for epidemiological research on child maltreatment and for clinical screening. Methodological issues inherent in parent self-report measures of child maltreatment are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Sexually abused children in a national survey of parents: methodological issues.

In a national survey of 1,000 parents, which primarily concerned disciplinary practices and violence toward their children, two questions were asked about whether the children had been sexually abused. This was to assess the feasibility of epidemiological research on contemporaneous sexual abuse using parental interviews rather than the usual adult retrospective approach. From these questions, rates of sexual abuse for children currently 0-17 were estimated at 1.9% in the last year and 5.7% ever. The cases making up these rates included a nearly equal number of boys and girls and no female victims between the ages of 9 and 12, a distribution different from those generally obtained by other epidemiological methods, but due possibly in this case to normal sampling variation. Cases were more likely to be disclosed for children whose parents had themselves been sexually abused, who were from lower income households, or who were living with only one biologic parent. Although some of the findings suggest caution in generalizing about child sexual abuse from survey samples of parents, the method is worthy of exploration if only to gain better epidemiologic data about parent knowledge, reaction, reporting, and coping strategies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Is youth victimization related to trauma symptoms and depression after controlling for prior symptoms and family relationships? A longitudinal, prospective study.

The common finding linking symptoms such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression with youth victimization (e.g., sexual abuse) might well be artifactual if preexisting psychopathology or disturbed family relationships create a common risk for both later victimization and later symptoms. This study used a longitudinal, prospective design to examine this issue. In a national random sample telephone survey, children 10 to 16 years old were interviewed and then reinterviewed approximately 15 months later about psychological problems, family relationships and victimization experiences that had occurred in the interim. Victimization in the interim was associated with PTSD-related symptoms and depression measured at Time 2, even after controlling for these symptoms and the quality of the parent-child relationship at Time 1. The association was particularly strong for sexual abuse, parental assault, and kidnapping experiences. However, these data also suggest that some of the apparent association found in cross-sectional studies between victimization and psychopathology may be due to prior psychopathology (but not parent-child relationship problems), which puts children at risk for both victimization and later symptoms.

Child↗
PubMed1996

Risk factors for youth victimization: beyond a lifestyles/routine activities theory approach.

Past efforts to understand the risks for youth victimization have primarily utilized concepts from lifestyle or routine activity theory, such as the increased exposure and reduced guardianship that are entailed when youth engage in risky or delinquent behavior. In this article, we argue that other personal characteristics put youth at risk, not through any lifestyle or routine activity mechanism, but by making certain youth more "congruent" with the needs, motives, or reactivities of potential offenders. Three specific types of such characteristics are those that increase the potential victim's target vulnerability (e.g., physical weakness or psychological distress), target gratifiability (e.g., female gender for the crime of sexual assault), or target antagonism (e.g., behaviors or ethnic or group identities that may spark hostility or resentment). Using data from a national youth survey, we test variables measuring such aspects of target congruence and show that they make a significant contribution over and above lifestyle variables alone in predicting nonfamily, sexual, and parental assault.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Nonsexual assaults to the genitals in the youth population.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the frequency with which youth suffer nonsexual assaults to the genitals and their context and consequences. DESIGN: Telephone survey with follow-up interview 1 year later. SETTING: General population of the United States living in households with telephones. PARTICIPANTS: Random sample of 1042 boys and 958 girls aged 10 through 16 years. RESULTS: A nonsexual assault to the genitals was experienced by 9.2% of the boys and 1.0% of the girls in the year prior to the initial interview and 9.1% of the boys and 2.2% of the girls in the year prior to the follow-up interview. Among the boys, about a quarter of the assaults involved some injury, but only one in 50 needed medical attention. The most common assailants were same-aged peers. The assaults occurred in a variety of contexts including gang attacks, peer fighting, bullying, and some situations in which girls retaliated against the genitals of harassing boys. Boy victims of nonsexual genital assault had significantly higher levels of posttraumatic and depression symptomatology than boys without such assaults. CONCLUSIONS: Nonsexual genital violence needs additional clinical and research attention. Youth should be educated about its possible consequences. Clinicians should ask about nonsexual genital violence when taking a history, particularly with youth who have experienced other kinds of assaults.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Victimization prevention programs: a national survey of children's exposure and reactions.

The National Youth Victimization Prevention Study interviewed a representative sample of 2,000 U.S. children and their caretakers about the children's experience with child abuse and victimization prevention programs. Two-thirds of the children reported being exposed to at least one program at some time, 37% within the last year. Programs that gave children a chance to practice, that prompted discussions with parents, and that included information on dealing with bullies were more likely to result in utilization of the program skills. Although satisfaction levels were generally high for all groups, girls, black children, and children from lower socioeconomic status families, as well as their parents, had more positive reactions and reported more skill utilization. Some children did report, and their parents confirmed, more worry about abuse and fear of adults. However, the children with increased worry and fear were also the children who themselves and their parents reported the most positive feelings about the programs and the most skill utilization. This suggests that the level of worry and fear induced by the programs was appropriate to the subject.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

The effectiveness of victimization prevention instruction: an evaluation of children's responses to actual threats and assaults.

This study examined whether instruction in school and at home about how to prevent victimization has any impact on children's behavior in situations of real victimization threat. Telephone interviews were conducted in 1992 with a nationally representative sample of 2,000 youths age 10 to 16 and their caretakers. More comprehensive school programs had mixed, small but overall positive effects. Children exposed to such school-based prevention programs performed better on a short test of knowledge about sexual victimization; when victimized or threatened were more likely to use the self-protection strategies recommended by prevention educators; were more likely to feel that they had been successful in protecting themselves; and were more likely to disclose to someone about the victimization attempts. They were not better able to limit the seriousness of the assaults and, in fact, they experienced more injuries in the course of sexual assaults. Comprehensive parental instruction also had positive effects on knowledge, the use of preferred self-protection strategies and the likelihood of disclosure. Children with comprehensive parental instruction were more likely to limit the seriousness of assaults.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Prior victimization: a risk factor for child sexual abuse and for PTSD-related symptomatology among sexually abused youth.

The experience of prior victimization (sexual and nonsexual) was found to increase children's risk for experiencing later child sexual abuse (CSA) in a national random sample of 2,000 American children aged 10-16 years. Prior victimization predicted subsequent CSA even when background variables (child's gender, race, age, geographic location, quality of relationship with parents, and relative level of violence in the home community) were controlled for. In addition, the prior victimization of a family member also predicted later CSA. Among children who experienced CSA, prior victimization increased the level of post-traumatic stress symptomatology, even after demographic factors and characteristics of the CSA episode (e.g., severity of the assault, severity of injury, fear of death or serious injury) were included in the model. These results suggest that prior victimization is a factor that needs to be addressed by educators who design CSA prevention interventions and by mental health professionals who counsel child victims of sexual abuse.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Psychosocial sequelae of violent victimization in a national youth sample.

In a national telephone sample of youths aged 10-16 years, over one third reported having been the victims of an assault. Victimized respondents displayed significantly more psychological and behavioral symptomatology than did nonvictimized respondents (more symptomatology related to posttraumatic stress disorder, more sadness, and more school difficulties), even after controlling for some other possible sources of distress. Sexual assault was associated with particularly high levels of symptomatology. However, victims of other forms of assault--nonfamily assaults involving weapons or physical injury (aggravated assaults), assaults by parents, violence to genitals, and attempted kidnappings--also evidenced levels of distress that were not statistically lower than those suffered by victims of sexual assault. The findings suggest that substantial mental health morbidity in the general child and adolescent population is associated with victimization.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Paternal caregiving and incest: test of a biosocial model.

The existence of a biosocial mechanism for inhibiting incest through early caretaking contact was explored in a comparison between incestuous fathers and a nonincestuous control sample. Low involvement in caretaking was found to be a risk factor for incest, even after controlling for other predisposing conditions. However, it appeared that caretaking has its effect by enhancing more general parental feelings and capacities, rather than by inhibiting a father's sexual interest in the daughter, as proposed in the original biosocial theory.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

The victimization of children: a developmental perspective.

A framework is presented for a new field called developmental victomology, and two major branches are described. One would analyze developmental changes that affect children's risk for victimization, particularly in three areas: children's suitability as targets, their ability to protect themselves, and the environments they inhabit. A second branch would focus on developmental processes that affect children's reactions to victimizations and in particular, developmental tasks and critical periods, the process of cognitive appraisal, and the forms of symptom expression.

Adolescent↗