Melbourne: Majority of child sex abuse cases
are incestuous with the perpetrators often being the victim`s
adolescent brother hailing from broken families, an Australian
research suggests.
"It is still not widely appreciated that much of that
offending is actually perpetrated by adolescents and, in
particular, brothers of victims," a report by the Australian
Institute of Criminology (AIC) said.
The AIC researchers said that estimating the extent of
the abuse was difficult.
"However, estimates of the proportion of intrafamilial
abuse which occurs between people from the same generation
range from 40 to 90 per cent," quoted a media report.
"It is clear that sexual abuse of children by other
children or adolescents constitutes a significant proportion
of sexual offending against children."
The report said around half of intrafamilial adolescent
sex offenders were themselves victims of sex abuse. Families
where sibling incest occurred were frequently dysfunctional
with evidence of drug use, sexual abuse by an adult care giver
and neglect.
"Almost three in every four offenders had either no
contact or minimal contact with at least one biological
parent," it said.
AIC research general manager Peg Putt said that there
is a need to understand adolescent sex offence as a health
issue, rather than a moral one to end the intergenerational
transmission of abuse.
Bureau Report
