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Testing the “Sexually Abused-Abuser Hypothesis” in Adolescents: A Population-Based Study

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Abstract

A long-standing belief in the literature on sex offenders is that sexually victimized youths are at increased risk of becoming sex offenders themselves. The present study tested the link between past sexual abuse, either with or without contact, and sexually offending behavior in a representative sample of male and female adolescents while controlling for other types of abuse, mental health problems, substance use, and non-sexual violent behaviors. Self-reported data were collected from a nationally representative sample of 6,628 students attending 9th grade public school in Switzerland (3,434 males, 3,194 females, mean age = 15.50 years, SD = 0.66 years). Exposure to contact and non-contact types of sexual abuse was assessed using the Child Sexual Abuse Questionnaire and sexually offending behavior by the presence of any of three behaviors indicating sexual coercion. Two-hundred-forty-five males (7.1 %) and 40 females (1.2 %) reported having sexually coerced another person. After controlling for non-sexual abuse, low parent education, urban versus rural living, mental health problems, substance use, and non-sexual violent behavior, male adolescents who were victims of contact sexual abuse and non-contact sexual abuse were significantly more likely to report coercive sexual behaviors. Females who experienced contact or non-contact sexual abuse were also found at increased risk of committing sexual coercion after controlling for covariates. The present findings demonstrate a strong relationship between past sexual abuse, with and without physical contact, and sexual-offending behavior in male and female adolescents. Reducing exposure to non-contact sexual abuse (like Internet-based sexual exploitation) should become a new area of sexual violence prevention in youths.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all the students who participated in the study. We also thank Ursula Meidert from the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Zurich, who helped with data collection. The data presented in this article were assessed in the context of the Optimus Study. The Optimus Study was initiated and funded by the UBS OPTIMUS FOUNDATION (http://www.optimusstudy.org).

Conflict of interests

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest regarding this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Clinics of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Zurich, Neptunstrasse 60, 8032, Zurich, Switzerland

    Marcel Aebi

  2. Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry, University Children’s Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Markus A. Landolt

  3. Department of Child and Adolescent Health Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Markus A. Landolt

  4. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Christoph Mueller-Pfeiffer & Ulrich Schnyder

  5. Center of Education and Research (COEUR), Psychiatric Services of the County of St. Gallen-North, Wil, Switzerland

    Christoph Mueller-Pfeiffer & Thomas Maier

  6. Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Christoph Mueller-Pfeiffer

  7. Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Meichun Mohler-Kuo

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  1. Marcel Aebi
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  2. Markus A. Landolt
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  3. Christoph Mueller-Pfeiffer
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  4. Ulrich Schnyder
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  5. Thomas Maier
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  6. Meichun Mohler-Kuo
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Correspondence to Marcel Aebi.

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Aebi, M., Landolt, M.A., Mueller-Pfeiffer, C. et al. Testing the “Sexually Abused-Abuser Hypothesis” in Adolescents: A Population-Based Study. Arch Sex Behav 44, 2189–2199 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-014-0440-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-014-0440-x

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