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22 J. Child Sexual Abuse 1 (2013)

handle is hein.journals/wcsa22 and id is 1 raw text is: Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 22:1-8, 2013 Routledge Copyright 0 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Taylor&Francis Group ISSN: 1053-8712 print/1547-0679 online DOI: 10.1080/10538712.2013.744644 EDITORIAL PREFACE Current Perspectives on Children and Youth Who SexuaHy Abuse LUCINDA A. RASMUSSEN San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA RACHEL LEV-WIESEL and ZVI EISIKOVITS University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel The phenomenon of adolescents and children abusing others sexually con- tinues to be a multifaceted social problem. The United States National Incident-Based Reporting System for 2004 found juveniles accounted for 35.6% of those known to police to have committed sex crimes against minors (age 18 and younger; Finkelhor, Ormbod, & Chaffin, 2009). These data included 13,471 juveniles who committed sex offenses against minors. According to Finkelhor and colleagues (2009), 16% of these youth were under 12 years old and 7% were females. More recent U.S.crime statistics reported that, in 2010, youth under the age of 18 committed 14.5% of rapes and 17.8% of other sexual offenses (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2010). There is growing awareness of the complexities of the issues involved in identifying, assessing, and treating young people who sexually abuse, along with troubling questions and dilemmas. How does society respond to a child (or adolescent) that has acted in sexually abusive ways? What external influences contributed to the youth engaging in such behaviors? Parents and others who know the youth might ask, Why is this happening? Why is my child doing such things? Was the youth also a victim? or Did the youth learn about sexually abusive behaviors in some other way? Who is responsible if a child or adolescent is sexually inappropriate or abusive: the youths themselves, their parents, educators, or the community? Should a youth be punished for unacceptable sexual behavior; if so, by whom and at what age? That is, should the sanction come from parents, the child welfare system, the police or juvenile court? And once the youth Address correspondence to Lucinda A. Rasmussen, School of Social Work, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-4119. E-mail: lucindarasmussen@ cox.net 1

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