The epidemiology of child sexual abuse

The scale of child sexual abuse is the central concern in this chapter. There are
two main types of studies which attempt to describe the scope of child sexual
abuse. Firstly, there are incidence studies which seek to estimate the number of
cases identified in a specific population during a given time period and in a given
locality. Secondly, there are prevalence studies which attempt to estimate the
proportion of a population that has been sexually abused in the course of their
childhood. Incidence figures are usually expressed as a number of cases per 1000
children per annum in a designated geogaphical area. Prevalence figures, on the
other hand, are expressed as a percentage of cases within a defined population
reporting abuse.