Faye Carlson, assistant professor of the School of Nursing, Jane Grassley, faculty in the school of nursing, and Janet Reis, research professor and senior researcher for the Center of Health Policy, along with Kelley Davis, St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center, published an article in the Journal of Forensic Nursing January/March 2015 issue.
Characteristics of Child Sexual Assault within a Child Advocacy Center Client Population is a descriptive study that summarizes data from a child advocacy center to illustrate how such information might be used to profile the scope and character of child sexual abuse at the community level. Variables include victim demographics, type of sexual abuse and relationship to the perpetrator, and the person to whom the victim was most likely to disclose their sexual abuse. Those children most often seen at this child advocacy center were girls (73 percent); white (67 percent), and living with their mothers, with both parents, or with parent and stepparent (80 percent). The incidence of child sexual abuse increased for girls across age groups. However, boys aged 6-10 years comprised the greatest percentage of the male sample (56 percent) who experienced child sexual abuse. For all three age groups, over half of the perpetrators were identified as relatives and children often disclosed child sexual abuse to their mothers. Understanding patterns of child sexual abuse at the local level provides guidance beyond national and state data to forensic nurses regarding child and family needs within their communities.