Child Sexual Abuse – The Facts
- research suggests about 40,000 Australian children are sexually abused each year.
- 76% of reported child abuse involved female victims
- children aged 6-15 years are most affected by child sexual abuse
- the average age of most victims is 10 years old
- most abused children know their attackers, with strangers forming a comparatively small proportion of child sexual offenders
- records show the offender is often related to the victim
- the majority of perpetrators are male
- the most frequently reported form of child sexual abuse involves fondling of the child’s genitals