U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics

Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to 
Law Enforcement: Victim, Incident, and offender
Characteristics

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By Howard N. Snyder, Ph.D.
National Center for Juvenile Justice

July 2000, NCJ 182990

A Statistical Report
using data from the National
Incident-Based Reporting System

This work was supported in part by a grant from
the American Statistical Association with funds
provided by the U.S. Department of Justice,
Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the technical support given to this
effort by the Criminal Justice Information Services Division of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the financial support
provided by a grant from the American Statistical Association.

Contents

Introduction

The data  

Findings
Age of the victims of sexual assault  
Gender of sexual assault victims
Other offenses in sexual assault incidents 
Other victims in sexual assault incidents
Location of sexual assault
Weapons in sexual assault
Time of day of sexual assault
Gender and age of offenders in sexual assault
Victim-offender relationships in sexual assault
Offender profiling
Probability of arrest and clearance
Correlates of the probability of arrest

Summary and conclusions

NIBRS definitions of forcible sex offenses

Appendix A 

Bibliography

Introduction

To law enforcement and the public, sexual assaults, and
especially the sexual assaults of young children, are a major
social concern.  Caretakers worry about such attacks when their
children are out of sight.  Law enforcement, child protective
services, and legislatures work to reduce the incidence of these
crimes.  However, while a few highly publicized incidents are
engraved in the public's consciousness, there is little
empirically-based information on these crimes.  Until recently,
law enforcement and policymakers had few hard facts on which to
base their response to these crimes, their victims, and their
offenders.

The only existing national data collection effort that explored
the incidence of sexual assault ignored crimes against young
victims.  The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
estimated there were 197,000 incidents of forcible rape and
110,000 incidents of other sexual assault in the United States
in 1996 involving victims ages 12 or above (Ringel, 1997). 
Victims reported that a third (31%) of these sexual assaults (or
94,000 victimizations) were reported to law enforcement
agencies.  However, for 1996, the Uniform Crime Reporting
Program (UCR) estimated that there were 96,000 forcible rapes
alone reported to law enforcement agencies (FBI, 1997).  The UCR
does not capture reported crime information on other sexual
assaults such as forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object,
and forcible fondling.  However, it can be assumed from their
relative volume in the NCVS that tens of thousands of sexual
assaults other than forcible rape came to the attention of law
enforcement in 1996.  The large difference between the NCVS and
the UCR estimates may reflect differences in the two data
collection methods; or, if both estimates are valid, they
indicate that many victims of sexual assault are youth under age 12.  

Beyond their volume, little is known about the victims, their
offenders, and other characteristics of these crimes.  However,
the UCR's relatively new National Incident-Based Reporting
System (NIBRS) has the potential to yield detailed descriptions
of sexual assaults reported by participating law enforcement
agencies.  NIBRS captures a wide range of information on each
incident of sexual assault reported to law enforcement.  This
information includes demographic information on all victims; the
levels of victim injury; victims' perceptions of offenders'
ages, gender, race, and Hispanic ethnicity; and the
victim-offender relationships.  NIBRS also collects information
on all offenses involved in the incident; the types of weapons
used; the locations of the incident, the dates and times of the
incident; the demographics of arrestees (if any); and the
methods of clearance, such as  arrest or victim refusal to
cooperate with the investigation.  To some, the value of the
NIBRS data is limited by the small and non-scientific sample of
contributing law enforcement agencies.  From 1991 through 1996
the sample of reporting agencies increased; however, even the
reporting agencies in the 1996 sample were responsible for less
than 10% of the U.S. population.  While there is no way to
assess the national representativeness of the sample, the number
of sexual assault victimizations in the NIBRS sample is very
large.  Therefore, accepting the inherent qualifications
associated with any analysis of NIBRS data, the sheer number of
reports and the detailed information available on each crime
provides researchers and policymakers with a unique opportunity
to study the sexual assaults of young children.

The data

The 1991 through 1996 NIBRS master files contain reports from
law enforcement agencies in 12 States: Alabama, Colorado, Idaho,
Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Dakota, South
Carolina, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia.  These reports were
scanned to identify incidents of sexual assault.  The FBI's
offense coding structure classifies sexual assault into four
separate offense categories.  From most to least serious, these
crimes are forcible rape, forcible sodomy, sexual assault with
an object, and forcible fondling.  If more than one of these
offenses occurred, the most severe sexual charge was used to
classify the sexual assault in the incident.

To study the sexual assault of young children, two research
bases (differing by unit of count) were extracted from the 1991
through 1996 NIBRS master files.  One base summa- rized the
information for each of the 60,991 victims of sexual assault,
the incident characteristics, and (where available) information
on their offender(s).  The second base compiled information for
each of the 57,762 victim-identified offenders in sexual assault
incidents, their victims, and related incident characteristics.

Findings

Age of the victims of sexual assault

The most serious sexual assault charge was forcible fondling in
45% of all sexual assaults reported to law enforcement in the
1991 through 1996 NIBRS master files.  Incidents of forcible
rape were nearly as common (42%), while incidents of forcible
sodomy (8%) and sexual assault with an object (4%) were far less
frequent.  One percent of victims of these crimes was age 54 or
older.  Seven percent of victims were over age 34. Another 12% 
were ages 25 through 34, and 14% were between ages 18 and 24.  
The remainder, over two-thirds (67%) of all victims of sexual assault 
reported to law enforcement agencies, were juveniles (under the 
age of 18 at the time of the crime).  More than half of all juvenile 
victims were under age 12.  That is, 33% of all victims of sexual 
assault reported to law enforcement were ages 12 through 17 and 34% 
were under age 12. ***Footnote 1: This finding that a third of sexual 
assault victims reported to law enforcement were under age 12 largely 
accounts for the discrepancy between the NCVS and the UCR estimates 
of the number of sexual assaults reported to law enforcement.***  
Most disturbing is that one of every seven victims of sexual assault
(or 14% of all victims) reported to law enforcement agencies
were under age 6.

The age profile of sexual assault victims varied with the nature
of the crime.  Juveniles were the large majority of the victims
of forcible fondling (84%), forcible sodomy (79%), and sexual
assault with an object (75%).  In contrast, juveniles were the
victims in less than half (46%) of forcible rapes.  In each
sexual assault category except forcible rape, children below the
age of 12 were about half of all victims.

The detailed age distribution of the victims of sexual assault
emphasizes the high proportion of juvenile victims.  The single
age with the greatest proportion of sexual assault victims
reported to law enforcement was age 14.  There were more victims 
in each individual age group between 3 and 17 than in any individual 
age group over age 17 (any adult age group), and more victims age 
2 than in any age group above age 40.  For victims under age 12, 
4-year-olds were at greatest risk of being the victim of a sexual 
assault.

The victim age distribution differed with the nature of the
offense.  The risk of being the victim of forcible rape increased 
dramatically from age 10 to age 14, where it peaked.  By age 20, 
the risk had dropped to less than half the peak 14-year-old rate, 
and dropped to a 10th of the 14-year-old peak by age 40.  For 
the other types of sexual assault, the victim age curves had two 
peaks, one (as in forcible rape) around age 13 or 14 and the other 
around age 4.  The risk of being the victim of forcible sodomy peaked 
at age 4.  By age 11 the risk of forcible sodomy dropped to half the 
peak rate, then increased for a couple of years through age 13, 
before falling to a 10th of the peak rate by the early 20s.  The risk 
of being the victim of sexual assault with an object peaked at ages 
3 and 4, then fell to less than half the peak rate by age 8.  After
age 8 the risk of sexual assault with an object increased through age 
14 to almost three-fourths the 3- and 4-year-old peak, and then dropped 
to a 10th of the peak rate by the mid-20s.  The risk of forcible fondling, 
the other high volume sex assault offense along with forcible rape, first
peaked at age 4, dropped marginally through the pre-teen years, and then
increased to its absolute peak for victims age 13.  After age
13, the risk of forcible fondling dropped precipitously, so that
by age 24 the risk was a 10th of that of 13-year-olds.

Gender of sexual assault victims

Females were more than six times as likely as males to be the
victims of sexual assaults known to law enforcement agencies. 
More specifically, 86% of all victims of sexual assault were
female.  The relative proportion of female victims generally
increased with age.  Sixty-nine percent of victims under age 6
were female, compared with 73% of victims under age 12, and 82%
of all juvenile (under age 18) victims.  The female proportion
of sexual assault victims reached 90% at age 13 and 95% at age
19.

Nearly all forcible rapes (99%) involved a female victim. 
***Footnote 2: Males can be victims of a forcible rape when
the perpetrator is a female.***  Females were the large majority 
of victims in incidents of sexual assault with an object (87%) 
and forcible fondling (82%).  In contrast, the majority of victims 
of forcible sodomy (54%) were males.  In general, across all specific 
offense categories, the proportion of female victims increased 
with the age of the victim.  A greater percentage of juvenile sexual
assault victims were male (18%) than were adult sexual assault
victims (4%).  Males were 15% of the juvenile victims of sexual
assault with an object, 20% of the juvenile victims of forcible
fondling, and 59% of the juvenile victims of forcible sodomy. 
For victims under age 12, the male proportions were even
greater: sexual assault with an object (19%), forcible fondling
(26%), and forcible sodomy (64%).  

Based on the NIBRS data, the year in a male's life when he is
most likely to be the victim of a sexual assault is age 4. By 
age 17 his risk of victimization has been cut by a factor of 5.  
A female's year of greatest risk is age 14.  Her risk drops to 
half the peak level by age 17 and to a fifth of the peak level 
by age 27.  At his peak victimization age of 4, a male's risk 
of sexual assault victimization is just half that of females of 
the same age. In the later juvenile years (ages 14 to 17), the 
female victimization rates are at least 10 times greater than the 
male rates for similar age groups.

Other offenses in sexual assault incidents

In 92% of sexual assault victimizations, a single sexual assault
was the only crime against the victim recorded for the offender.
Crimes against adults were more likely to involve multiple charges 
than were crimes against juveniles.  That is, law enforcement recorded 
that 16% of all adult sexual assault victims also experienced another 
offense in the incident, compared with 5% of juvenile victims.  
Overall, female victims of sexual assault were more likely to 
experience multiple offenses than were male victims (10% versus 4%).  
This gender difference was far less for juvenile victims; 5% of 
female juvenile victims experienced multiple offenses compare with 
3% of male juvenile victims.  When juvenile victims experienced
multiple offenses, the most serious other charge in 47% of the
incidents was another sex offense, 21% involved a non-sexual
assault, 17% a kidnaping, and in 8% a burglary.  When adult
victims experienced multiple offenses, in 13% of the incidents
the most serious other charge was another sex offense, in 20% a
non-sexual assault, in 30% a kidnaping, in 10% a robbery, and in
21% a burglary.

Other victims in sexual assault incidents

When adults were sexually assaulted, the adult was the only
victim in the incident in the vast majority of victimizations
(96%).  Juvenile victimizations were far more likely to include
other victims.  In 19% of juvenile sexual assault
victimizations, the juvenile was victimized along with another
individual.  Thirteen percent of juvenile victimizations
involved a second victim; the remaining 6% involved three or
more victims (not necessarily victims of sexual assault).

Younger juvenile victims were more likely than older juvenile
victims to be sexually assaulted with other victims.  The
proportion of youth victimized with others was greater for
juvenile victims under age 12 (25%) than for older juveniles
(13%).  However, within the younger juvenile group, this
age-related pattern was reversed; that is, youth ages 6 through
11 were more likely to be victimized with others than were youth
under age 6.  Twenty-one percent of victims under age 6 were
victimized with others compared to 28% of victims ages 6 through 11.

Forcible rapes were more likely to involve a single victim than
any other sexual assault.  In 94% of forcible rape victimizations, 
there were no other victims involved,  compared with 79% of forcible 
fondling, 81% of forcible sodomy, and 85% of victimizations of 
sexual assault with an object. Within each type of sexual assault, 
juvenile victims were more likely to be victimized with others than 
were adults. Regardless of the nature of the sexual assault, juveniles 
under age 12 were more likely than older juveniles to be victimized
with others.  But, as in the overall pattern, within each
detailed offense category, youth ages 6 through 11 were more
likely to be victimized with others than were the youngest
victims, under age 6.

Females were more likely to be victimized alone than were males.
In 96% of adult female sexual assault victimizations, the
female was the only victim, compared with 88% of adult male
victimizations.  This discrepancy held for juvenile victims; in
83% of juvenile female sexual assault victimizations, the
female was the only victim, compared with 71% of male
victimizations.  This discrepancy also held for victims under
age 12; females under age 12 were the lone victims in 77% of
their sexual assaults compared with 69% of young males.  Similar
gender differences were found in each specific sexual assault
offense category.

When there was more than one victim in the incident, the victims
were likely to be of similar ages.  This relationship was
stronger for juvenile victims than adult victims.  In adult
victimizations involving more than one victim, 71% percent of
the victimizations involved another adult and 35% involved a
juvenile victim, with 6% involving both another adult and a
juvenile victim.  However, in juvenile victimizations with more
than one victim, 96% percent of the victimizations involved
another juvenile and 6% involved an adult victim, with 2%
involving both another juvenile and an adult victim.  For
victims under age 12 who were victimized with others, 90% of
victimizations involved another youth under age 12, 15% involved
older juveniles, and 4% involved adult victims.

Location of sexual assault

Most (70%) of the sexual assaults reported to law enforcement
occurred in the residence of the victim, the offender, or the
residence of another individual.  Less than two-thirds of
forcible rapes (64%) occur in a residence compared with
three-quarters of other sexual assaults: forcible sodomy (74%),
sexual assault with an object (76%), and forcible fondling
(74%).  Sexual assaults against females were less likely to
occur in a residence than were those against male victims (69%
versus 77%).  

Young victims were generally more likely to be victimized in a
residence than were older victims.  The age of the victim was 
strongly related to where the assault occurred. Seventy-seven 
percent of sexual assaults with juvenile victims occurred in a 
residence compared with 55% of adult victimizations.  Older 
juveniles were more likely than younger juveniles to be victimized 
in a location other than a residence.  While just 16% of the sexual 
assaults of youth below the age of 12 occurred in a place other than 
a residence, 31% of the victimizations of youth ages 12 through 17 
occurred in such locations.  The most common non-resident locations 
for sexual assaults of juveniles were roadways, fields/woods, schools, 
and hotels/motels.  For adults the most likely locations after a
residence included roadways, fields/woods, hotels/motels, parking 
lots, and commercial/office buildings.

When a juvenile female was the victim of a sexual assault, the
incident was almost as likely to occur in a residence as when a
juvenile male was the victim.  Seventy-six percent of juvenile
female victims of sexual assault were victimized in their home
or in another residence compared with 80% of juvenile male
victims.  The proportion of victimizations that occurred in
residences was also similar for female and male victims under
age 12 (85% versus 83%) and for female and male victims ages 12
through 17 (69% versus 72%).

Weapons in sexual assault

In 93% of sexual assault victimizations the NIBRS data provided
information on the most serious weapon used in the incident.  In
77% of sexual assaults where the weapon information was
available, the only weapon involved was what the FBI label as a
personal weapon such as hands, feet, or fists.  A firearm was
used or brandished in just 2% of sexual assault victimizations. 
Other non-personal weapons such as a knife or club, were used or
brandished in another 6% of sexual assaults.  In 14% of
victimizations the records indicate that no weapon was involved.

The use of a weapon other than a personal weapon increased with
the age of the victim.  Rarely did the sexual assaults of youth
under age 12 involve a firearm.  A firearm was involved in just
1% of the sexual assaults of youth ages 12 through 17.  Other
non-personal weapons were more common in these crimes, being
involved in 4% of crimes against both juveniles under age 12 and
victims between ages 12 and 17.  For adult victims, firearms
were a slightly more common attribute of sexual assault, being
used in 5% of victimizations.  Other non-personal weapons were
more common in adult, rather than in juvenile assaults, being
used in 11% of the sexual assaults of persons ages 18 and over.

Time of day of sexual assault

The time of day when sexual assaults occurred was related
primarily to the age of the victim.  For adult victims, sexual 
assaults were most common between midnight and 2 a.m.  From morning 
through 7 p.m. the number of adult sexual assaults committed in each 
1-hour period was essentially constant.  The number of adult assaults 
began to increase in the 8 p.m. hour and increased consistently until 
the peak in the 2 a.m. hour.  ***Footnote 3: The time of incident
information in NIBRS is truncated to the hour, so that a crime that 
occurred at 2:45 a.m. is coded as a 2 a.m. crime.***  The temporal 
pattern for the sexual assaults of very young victims, children under 
age 6, was quite different.  For these young victims, the temporal
distribution appears to be a combination of two separate distributions.  
The primary temporal pattern for these crimes has a peak in the 3 p.m. 
hour.  This is also the hour other research has found to be the period 
when juveniles are most likely to be the victims of violent crime in
general (Snyder and Sickmund, 1999).  This primary temporal
pattern shows a consistent increase in the frequency of sexual
assaults of very young victims before 3 p.m. and a consistent
decline in the hours after 3 p.m.  The secondary temporal
pattern for the sexual assaults of very young children shows the
hours of 8 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. (traditional meal times) to be
periods when the number of sexual assaults of very young victims
spike.  The temporal patterns of sexual assault of youth ages 6
through 11, and juveniles ages 12 through 17, appear to be a
combination of the patterns of the very young, and the adult
victims.  These temporal distributions combine the after-school
and mealtime hour patterns of very young victims and the
temporal patterns of sexual assault for adults.

Gender and age of offenders in sexual assault

Nearly all of the offenders in sexual assaults reported to law
enforcement were male (96%).  Female offenders were most common
in assaults against victims under age 6.  For these youngest
victims, 12% of offenders were females, compared with 6% for
victims ages 6 through 12, and 3% for victims ages 12 through
17.  Overall, 6% of the offenders who sexually assaulted
juveniles were female, compared with just 1% of the female
offenders who sexually assaulted adults.

The age profile of offenders in sexual assault varied with the
nature of the crime.  Overall, 23% of sexual assault offenders 
were under age 18 and 77% were adults.  Juveniles were
a substantially smaller proportion of the offenders in forcible
rapes (17%) than in sexual assaults with an object (23%),
forcible fondlings (27%), and incidents of forcible sodomy (36%).

Sixteen percent of juvenile offenders were under the age of 12. 
These very young offenders were seldom the offenders in forcible
rapes (1% of all offenders and 7% of juvenile offenders), while
they made up greater proportions of the juvenile offenders in
forcible fondlings (19%), sexual assaults with an object (17%),
and forcible sodomies (23%).  Young adults (persons 18 through
24) were 22% of adult offenders in forcible fondlings; however,
they were 35% of adult offenders in forcible rapes. 
Correspondingly, adults over age 34 were 28% of all adult
offenders in forcible rapes and 47% of the adult offenders in
forcible fondlings. 

In general, the detailed age profile of offenders in sexual
assault crimes shows that the single age with the greatest
number of offenders from the perspective of law enforcement
was age 14.  ***Footnote 4: Analyses of the NIBRS data on age
of offender is complicated by the fact that the distribution of
ages is greatly affected by the use of age estimates by the victims.
See Appendix A for more details.***  The frequency of offenders 
within age groups declined gradually with age, reaching half the peak
frequency by the late 30s.

The age profile of offenders varied with the age of the victim.  
Juvenile offenders assaulted 4% of adult victims, while adult offenders
assaulted 67% of juvenile victims. Younger juvenile victims tended to 
have a greater proportion of juvenile offenders than did older juvenile
victims.  Thirteen percent of offenders of victims under age 6 were ages 
7 through 11, and 27% of the offenders of these very young victims were
ages 12 through 17.  That is, 40% of the offenders of victims under age 
6 were themselves juveniles.  A similar proportion (39%) of offenders of
victims ages 6 through 11 were also juveniles.  For older juvenile 
victims, the proportion of juvenile offenders dropped to 27%.

Victim-offender relationships in sexual assault

About one-quarter (27%) of all offenders were family members of
their victims.  The offenders of young victims were
more likely than the offenders of older victims to be family
members.  Almost half (49%) of the offenders of victims under
age 6 were family members, compared with 42% of the offenders
who sexually assaulted youth ages 6 through 11, and 24% of
offenders who sexually assaulted juveniles ages 12 through 17. 
Overall, just 12% of the offenders who sexually assaulted adults
were family members of the victims, compared with 34% of the
offenders of juvenile victims.

Except for victims under age 6, most sexual assault offenders
were not family members but were otherwise known to the victim. 
Sixty percent of all sexual assault offenders were classified by
law enforcement as acquaintances of the victim.  Just 14% of
offenders were strangers to their victims.  Strangers were a
greater proportion of the offenders of adult victims (27%) than
juvenile victims (7%).  The youngest juveniles were least likely
to have an offender who was a stranger.  Just 3% of the
offenders in the sexual assaults of children under age 6 were
strangers, compared with 5% of the offenders of youth ages 6
through 12, and 10% of offenders of juveniles ages 12 through 17.

In general, the victim-offender relationships were similar for
male and female victims; however, there were differences in the
offender profiles for victims under age 12.  Compared with young 
male victims, a greater proportion of female victims under age 12 
was assaulted by family members.  For male victims under age 12, 
40% of offenders were family members compared with 47% of the 
offenders of females under age 12.

Offender profiling

Using NIBRS data, it is possible to develop probability
statements about the characteristics of the offenders given
certain characteristics of the incident.  For example,
knowing that a victim under age 6 was assaulted in a residence,
the NIBRS data indicate that the most likely offender was a
juvenile acquaintance age 12 through 17 (probability 15.2%) or a
family member age 25 through 34 (probability 15.0%).  When a
very young victim was assaulted some place other than a
residence, the probability that the offender was an adult family
member declines, while the probability that the offender was a
juvenile acquaintance under age 12 increases substantially. 
When the victim was a little older (ages 6 through 11) and
assaulted in some place other than a residence, the likelihood
that the offender was a juvenile acquaintance increases even
more (probability 41.0%).

The offenders of adolescents (victims ages 12 through 17) were 5
times more likely to be adult family members when the crime was
committed in a residence than when it was committed elsewhere. The 
probability that the offender was a juvenile age 12 through 17 was 
twice as great when the crime occurred outside of a residence.  For 
adult victims, the offender profile was also related to the location 
of the crime.  Offenders of adult victims were 3 times more likely 
to be adult strangers when the crime occurred outside of a residence 
than when it occurred inside a residence.  

Probability of arrest and clearance

The NIBRS data indicate that an arrest was made in 27% of all
sexual assault victimizations.  There were only minor
offense-related differences in arrest probabilities: forcible
rape (25%), forcible sodomy (30%), sexual assault with an object
(28%), and forcible fondling (27%).  Crimes were also cleared by
means other than arrest, or what the FBI has labeled clearances
by exceptional means.  More specifically, in 7% of sexual
assault victimizations the victim refused to cooperate. 
Prosecution was declined in 6% of sexual assaults, implying that
there was insufficient evidence to charge or convict the
offender.  In a small proportion of cases, the offender had
died, making arrest impossible.  Overall, in the NIBRS sample,
42% of all sexual assaults were cleared by law enforcement
through arrest or by exceptional means.  ***Footnote 5: It should
be noted that 41% of forcible rapes in the NIBRS data were cleared
by arrests or exceptional means, a level below the national figure
of 52% reported by the FBI in Crime in the United States 1996.***  

In general, the assaults of juvenile victims were more likely to
result in an arrest (29%) than were adult victimizations (22%). 
Assaults against the youngest victims were the least likely of
juvenile victimizations to result in arrest.  An offender was
arrested in just 19% of the sexual assaults of children under
age 6, compared to 33% of victims ages 6 through 11, and 32% of
victims ages 12 through 17.  In all, arrest probabilities were
similar in victimizations of children under age 6 and of adults,
while the probability of arrest was greater when the victim was
between the ages of 6 and 17.  

One factor in the relatively lower arrest probability for crimes
against adult victims can be found in a study of clearances by
other means.  When considering both arrest and other exceptional
means, the probability that adult victimizations were cleared
(39%) was closer to the clearance probabilities for crimes
against victims ages 6 through 11 (45%) and victims ages 12
through  17 (45%).  These clearance probabilities were more
similar than the arrest probabilities because a much larger
proportion of adult crimes were classified as cleared by law
enforcement when the victim refused to cooperate.  However, even
when considering all means of clearances, the youngest victims
(under age 6) still had the smallest proportion of their
victimizations cleared by law enforcement (34%).

The probability that an offender would be arrested or the matter
cleared by arrest or exceptional means was largely unrelated to
the offender's age.  The only age-related difference was for very 
young offenders.  While the crimes of very young offenders were far 
less likely to result in arrest than were those of other offenders, 
the proportion of their crimes cleared were similar.  The reason for 
this pattern is that law enforcement considered many of these crimes 
to be cleared because the offender had been identified, but due to the 
young age of the offender no arrest was made.

Correlates of the probability of arrest

While age of the offender was differentially related to the
likelihood of arrest, only for the very young offender, other
incident characteristics were correlated with the probability of
arrest and the probability that the offense would be otherwise
cleared by law enforcement.  Based on the results of a logistic
regression, the factors that had the largest influence on the
probability of arrest (in order of their odds ratios) were --

*  the number of victims in the incident -- with more than one
victim increasing arrest probabilities
*  the number of offenders in the incident -- with incidents
with just one offender increasing arrest probabilities
*  the age of the victim -- with juvenile victims increasing
arrest probabilities
*  the sex of the victim -- with male victims decreasing arrest
probabilities.

Other incident characteristics that influenced the probability
of arrest to a lesser degree, but still remained statistically
significant were --

*  the relationship of the victim and the offender -- with
offenders who were strangers decreasing arrest probabilities
*  the location of the incident -- with incidents occurring
outside of residences decreasing arrest probabilities
*  the injury to the victim -- with incidents in which the
victim was injured decreasing arrest probabilities.

These correlates were roughly similar for predictions of
clearances with one exception.  Incidents with offenders who
were known to the victim were substantially more likely to be
cleared than those in which the offender was a stranger to the
victim.  This difference between the arrests and clearance
correlates reflects those incidents in which the offender is
known to the victim but the victim refuses to cooperate with law
enforcement.

Summary and conclusions

Based on NIBRS data, crimes against juvenile victims are the
large majority (67%) of sexual assaults handled by law
enforcement agencies.  One of every seven victims was under the
age of 6, and over a third of all sexual assaults involved a
victim who was under the age of 12.  This implies that by design
the National Crime Victimization Survey is missing over a third
of all sexual assaults that occur in the United States each
year.  The only large, multi-jurisdictional source of
information on these crimes, therefore, is the FBI's National
Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

With the more complete view of sexual assault patterns in the
NIBRS data, the characteristics of sexual assaults of young
juveniles can be differentiated from those of older juveniles
and adults.  Juvenile victims of sexual assault were more likely
to be male (18%) than were adult victims (4%).  Nearly a quarter
(27%) of the victims under age 12 were male.  Juveniles under
the age of 12 were about half of all the victims of forcible
sodomy, sexual assault with an object, and forcible fondling and
about an eighth of all victims of forcible rape reported to law
enforcement agencies.

Juvenile victims were more likely to be victimized with others
than were adults.  One of every five juvenile victims of sexual
assault were victimized in incidents with more than one victim,
while just 4% of adult sexual assault victims were victimized
with others.  Juveniles under 12 were far more likely to be
victimized in groups than were older juveniles; 25% of these
young juveniles were victimized with others, compared to 13% of
older juvenile victims.  When juveniles under the age of 12 were
victimized with others, 90% of victimizations involved other
victims under age 12, 15% involved older juvenile victims, and
4% also involved adult victims.

Nearly 5 of every 6 sexual assaults of young juveniles occurred
in a residence.  Crimes against older juveniles and, especially,
adult victims were far more likely to occur in other places. 
Weapons other than the offender's hands and feet were rarely
used in the sexual assault of young juveniles.  The temporal
pattern of sexual assault shows that unlike adults, young
juveniles are at highest risk of sexual assault in the hours
when meals are served and after school.

Adults were the offenders in 60% of the sexual assaults of youth
under age 12.  Rarely were the offenders of young juvenile
victims strangers.  Strangers were the offenders in just 3% of
sexual assaults against victims under age 6 and 5% of the sexual
assault victimizations of youth ages 6 through  11.  Sexual
assaults of children under the age of 6 were the least likely of
all such crimes to result in arrest or be otherwise cleared. 
The NIBRS data indicate that law enforcement identified the
offender in just a third (34%) of the sexual assaults of
children under age 6 and nearly half (45%) of the victimizations
of youth ages 6 through 11.

In all, the characteristics of the large number of sexual
assaults of youth under age 12 differ on significant dimensions
from the sexual assaults of older juveniles and adult victims. 
This substantial component of America's crime problem has been
characterized by subjective assessments or atypical high profile
crimes for too long.  NIBRS data provide policymakers
(especially in the communities where NIBRS-compatible,
management information systems exist) with the information
required to make empirically-based judgments about the scope and
characteristics of sexual crimes against our youngest citizens. 
With this critical information, justice professionals and
policymakers can focus their energies on possible interventions
designed to reduce this very serious crime that affects the most
vulnerable of our children and causes lifelong problems for its
victims. 

NIBRS definitions of forcible sex offenses

Forcible sex offenses  Any sexual act directed against another
person, forcibly and/or against that person's will; or not
forcibly or against the person's will where the victim is
incapable of giving consent because of his/her temporary or
permanent mental or physical incapacity.

Forcible rape (except "statutory rape")  The carnal knowledge of
a person, forcibly and/or against that person's will; or not
forcibly or against the person's will where the victim is
incapable of giving consent because of his/her temporary or
permanent mental or physical incapacity.  If force was used or
threatened, the crime should be classified as forcible rape
regardless of the age of the victim.  If no force was used or
threatened and the victim was under the statutory age of
consent, the crime should be classified as statutory rape.

Forcible sodomy  Oral or anal sexual intercourse with another
person, forcibly and/or against that person's will; or not
forcibly or against the person's will where the victim is
incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because
of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.

Sexual assault with an object  To use an object or instrument to
unlawfully penetrate, however slightly, the genital or anal
opening of the body of another person, forcibly and/or against
that person's will; or not forcibly or against the person's will
where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of
his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent
mental or physical incapacity.  An "object" or "instrument" is
anything used by the offender other than the offender's
genitalia.  Examples are a finger, bottle, handgun, stick, etc.

Forcible fondling  The touching of the private body parts of
another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, forcibly
and/or against that person's will; or not forcibly or against
the person's will where the victim is incapable of giving
consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary
or permanent mental or physical incapacity.  Forcible fondling
includes "indecent liberties" and "child molesting."  Because
forcible fondling is an element of forcible rape, forcible
sodomy, and sexual assault with an object, it should be reported
only if it is the sole forcible sex offense committed against a
victim. 

Appendix A

Law enforcement may report the victim's perception of offender
age as a point estimate or as a range.  This results in two
analysis problems.  First, victims often express the offender's
age as 5-year age range, for example, 25 to 30.  In such
instances, the NIBRS data record the midpoint of the range which
would be 27.  In other situations the victim gives a specific
age, but these estimates are most likely to fall on ages
divisible by 5, such as 20, 25, 30, 35.  Both of these response
patterns create artificial peaks, one at 5-year points and one
between 5-year points.  A presentation of the raw NIBRS data on
offender age confirms this peaking in the data.  For
presentation in this paper, the offender age data were smoothed.

Bibliography

Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Crime in the United States
1996. Washington, DC:  Government Printing Office, 1997.

Federal Bureau of Investigation.  NIBRS Flatfile Tape Master
Record Descriptions. Washington, DC:  U.S. Department of
Justice, 1995.

Greenfeld, L.  Sex Offenses and Offenders:  An Analysis of Data
on Rape and Sexual Assault. BJS report, NCJ 163392, February
1997.

Ringel, C.  Criminal Victimization 1996: Changes 1995-96 with
Trends 1993-96.  BJS Bulletin, NCJ 165812, November 1997.

Snyder, H. and Sickmund, M. Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999
National Report.  Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice,
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1999.

End of file
6/30/00 ih













Acknowledgments



I would like to acknowledge the technical support given to this
effort by the Criminal Justice Information Services Division of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the financial support
provided by a grant from the American Statistical Association.



Contents



Introduction



The data  



Findings

Age of the victims of sexual assault  

Gender of sexual assault victims

Other offenses in sexual assault incidents 

Other victims in sexual assault incidents

Location of sexual assault

Weapons in sexual assault

Time of day of sexual assault

Gender and age of offenders in sexual assault

Victim-offender relationships in sexual assault

Offender profiling

Probability of arrest and clearance

Correlates of the probability of arrest



Summary and conclusions



NIBRS definitions of forcible sex offenses



Appendix A 



Bibliography