CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND ADULT SEXUAL REVICTIMIZATION

symptom measures.A limitation of the study with respect to examining risk
factors for revictimization was that the assessmentof initial victimization ex,
periences wasnot restricted to assaultsoccurr~g prior to a specificage cutoff.
Thus, although the majority of prior rapes.reportedlyoccurred prior to age 18,
this study did not specificallyexamine CSA alop.eas a predictor of ASA.
The National Violence Against Wpmen~Study (Tjaden & Thoennes,
2000) provides data from another nationally representative sample, consist,
ing of 8,000 women and 8,005 men, ages 18 and older. Participants were
recruited by:.useof a random, digit dialing systet{i"that included all 50 states
and the Di*rict of Columbia. Interviews assesseda range of child and adult
victimizattcib experiences, including st3'lking, physical assault, and sexual
assault. Rape was defined as nonconsep.sual,;penetration of the victim's va,
gina or anus by penis, tongue, fingers: or object, or the victim's mouth by
penis, involving force or threats of forc~/ Physical assault included events
that threatened, attempted to inflict",or'~ctually caused physical harm to an
individual. Stalking was defined as events that were directed at a specific
person and included behaviors involving repeated visual or physical proxim,
ity, nonconsensual communication, or a combination of experiences that
produced fear in the victim.
Descriptive analysisof the data indicated that 17.6%of the women and
3% of the men in the study reported a rape or attempted rape at some time in
their life. Approximately 52% of the women and 66% of the men reported a
physical assault at some time in their life. Physical assault was reported dur,
ing the mostrecent rape in 41.4% of women and 33.9% of the men who were
raped since the age of 18. Additionally, 8.1% of the women and 2.2% of the
men reported being stalked at some time in their life.Finally, 40% of women
and 53.8% of men reported being physically abused as children, and 9% of
the women and 1.9% of the men reported being the victim of CSA.
Data indicated that 18.3%of the women who reported CSA before age
18 also reported ASA, whereas only 8.7% of the women who were not sexu,
ally abused as children reported ASA. Therefore, CSA victims were more
than twice as likelyas nonvictims to be sexuallyassaulted in adulthood. Rates
of revictimization were not calculated for the men based on the low preva,
lence of sexual victimization experiences. A significant relationship between
history of childhood physical abuseand subsequent adult physical assault was
also observed. Over 46% of women and 60% of men who reported a history
of child physical abuse also reported a physical assault in adulthood, whereas
only 19.8% of the women and 27.3% of the men without a history of child
physical abuse reported an adult physical assault. Similar to sexual assault
revictimization rates, both men and women with a child physical abuse his,
tory were twice as likely to be physically assaulted as an adult when com,
pared with individuals without a childhood physical abuse history.
Strengths of this study included a largenationally representative sample
of women and men, the use of behaviorally specificquestions, and the gath,
CHIW SEXUAL ABUSE AND ADULT SEXUAL REVICTIMIZATION 55
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