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Cycle of child sexual abuse: links between being a victim and becoming a perpetrator

Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and University College, London

D. CAMPBELL, MSW, A. GLASSER, BA, I. LEITCH, MBCS and S. FARRELLY, MSc

all currently or formerly at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, London, UK

Correspondence: Professor I. Kolvin, Tavistock Centre, 120 Belsize Lane, London NW3 5BA, UK

Declaration of interest None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

See invited commentaries, pp. 495–497, this issue.

Background There is widespread belief in a ‘cycle’ of child sexual abuse, but little empirical evidence for this belief.

Aims To identify perpetrators of such abuse who had been victims of paedophilia and/or incest, in order to: ascertain whether subjects who had been victims become perpetrators of such abuse; compare characteristics of those who had and had not been victims; and review psychodynamic ideas thought to underlie the behaviour of perpetrators.

Method Retrospective clinical case note review of 843 subjects attending a specialist forensic psychotherapy centre.

Results Among 747 males the risk of being a perpetrator was positively correlated with reported sexual abuse victim experiences. The overall rate of having been a victim was 35% for perpetrators and 11% for non-perpetrators. Of the 96 females, 43% had been victims but only one was a perpetrator. A high percentage of male subjects abused in childhood by a female relative became perpetrators. Having been a victim was a strong predictor of becoming a perpetrator, as was an index of parental loss in childhood.

Conclusions The data support the notion of a victim-to-victimiser cycle in a minority of male perpetrators but not among the female victims studied. Sexual abuse by a female in childhood may be a risk factor for a cycle of abuse in males.

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Highlights of this issue

ELIZABETH WALSH
BJP 2001 179: 0. [Full Text]  

Invited commentaries on: Cycle of child sexual abuse: links between being a victim and becoming a perpetrator

Mary Cannon
BJP 2001 179: 495-496. [Full Text]  

Invited commentaries on: Cycle of child sexual abuse: links between being a victim and becoming a perpetrator

Susan Bailey
BJP 2001 179: 496-497. [Full Text]  

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				J. M. Cantor, M. E. Kuban, T. Blak, P. E. Klassen, R. Dickey, and R. Blanchard Physical Height in Pedophilic and Hebephilic Sexual Offenders Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, December 1, 2007; 19(4): 395 - 407. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. R. Hughes Review of Medical Reports on Pedophilia Clinical Pediatrics, October 1, 2007; 46(8): 667 - 682. [Abstract] [PDF]

				L. Green An overwhelming sense of injustice? An exploration of child sexual abuse in relation to the concept of justice Critical Social Policy, February 1, 2006; 26(1): 74 - 100. [Abstract] [PDF]

				P. Tyson The Challenges of Psychoanalytic Developmental Theory J Am Psychoanal Assoc, March 1, 2002; 50(1): 19 - 52. [PDF]

				M. Cannon Invited commentaries on: Cycle of child sexual abuse: links between being a victim and becoming a perpetrator The British Journal of Psychiatry, December 1, 2001; 179(6): 495 - 496. [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Bailey Invited commentaries on: Cycle of child sexual abuse: links between being a victim and becoming a perpetrator The British Journal of Psychiatry, December 1, 2001; 179(6): 496 - 497. [Full Text]