David Finkelhor

University of New Hampshire | UNH · Crimes Against Children Research Center

Objective: To describe the characteristics and consequences of online commercial sexual exploitation of children using a nationally representative sample. Method: The online survey sample comprised 2,639 respondents aged 18–28 from the KnowledgePanel maintained by the survey research firm Ipsos. Results: Fifty-eight respondents or a weighted 1.7% o...

Objective: Among survivors of image-based sexual exploitation and abuse, how many experienced persisting concerns about others encountering their sexual images? Method: Online self-administered questionnaire was used. A sample of 189 unique incidents of image-based sexual abuse or exploitation in childhood from 154 respondents ages 18–28 were gathe...

Background Numerous national public inquiries have highlighted the problem of child sexual abuse in religious organizations. Despite this, evidence of population-wide prevalence is scarce. Objective To provide the first nationally representative prevalence estimates of child sexual abuse perpetrated by adults in religious organizations in Australi...

This study aimed to explore key characteristics of the out-of-home care subgroup of a nationally representative Australian sample. To ensure that mental health services are appropriately targeted, it is critical that we understand the differential impacts of childhood experiences for this cohort. Using the Australian Child Maltreatment Study ( N =...

This paper describes incident characteristics and dynamics associated with six specific forms of image-based sexual exploitation and abuse of children (IBSEAC). Data were collected on a national sample of 2639 individuals aged 18-to-28 from a probability-based online panel. Respondents completed a self-administered survey questionnaire, providing d...

Importance Digital communication and imaging technologies have created new opportunities for technology-facilitated abuse (TFA) and necessitate a better understanding of how and why the risk for TFA varies across different groups of youths. Objectives To compare the prevalence of TFA among youths across 5 different sexual and gender identity group...

This study presents the most comprehensive national prevalence estimates of diverse gender and sexuality identities in Australians, and the associations with five separate types of child maltreatment and their overlap (multi-type maltreatment). Using Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) data ( N = 8503), 9.5% of participants identified with a...

Using the nationally representative Ipsos online KnowledgePanel, the sample included three hundred thirty-six 18- to 28-year-olds who retrospectively reported first cyberstalking incidents as juveniles (9- to 17-year-olds) or adults. Half of the sample first experienced cyberstalking as juveniles and half first experienced it as adults. Juveniles w...

Few studies have examined associations between child maltreatment and criminal justice system involvement using large nationally representative samples and comprehensive measures of self‑reported maltreatment. This study analyses nationally representative data from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study, which surveyed 8,500 Australians to obtain...

Background The current study aims to better understand the mental health and subjective well-being of investigators and forensic examiners exposed to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) by examining which components of this work are associated with elevated mental health conditions and decreased well-being, as well as the intra-personal and organiza...

Background: Little evidence exists about the prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA) inflicted by different relational classes of perpetrators (e.g., parents; institutional adults; adolescents), and by individual types of perpetrators (e.g., fathers and male relatives; male teachers and male clergy; known and unknown adolescents). Objective: To gene...

Public and police concern about internet crimes against children has been primarily typified as a stranger danger problem. However, existing research suggests a variety of perpetrator ages and relationships to the victim. A more accurate estimate will help inform prevention efforts. This study provides a meta-analysis examining the identity of perp...

This study looked at experiences of help-seeking from websites and police following an episode of technology-facilitated abuse. It used data from a nationally representative online panel of adults aged 18 to 28, sampled from Ipsos Knowledge Panel. A total of 1,952 unique victimization episodes from childhood and adulthood were identified and used i...

Background and objective: This paper presents a categorization of sexual image crimes and abuse that occur against children, and it compares their frequency, dynamics, and emotional impact. Participants: A national sample of 2639 respondents aged 18-to-28 disclosed 369 childhood episodes involving a variety of image abuse. Methods: Online self...

Objectives To describe the aims, design, methodology, and respondent sample representativeness of the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS). Design, setting Cross-sectional, retrospective survey; computer-assisted mobile telephone interviewing using random digit dialling (computer-generated), Australia, 9 April – 11 October 2021. ParticipantsP...

Objectives To estimate the prevalence in Australia of each type of child maltreatment; to identify gender- and age group-related differences in prevalence. Design, setting Cross-sectional national survey; mobile telephone interviews using random digit dialling (computer-generated), Australia, 9 April – 11 October 2021. Retrospective self-report dat...

Objectives To examine the associations between experiences of child maltreatment and mental disorders in the Australian population.DesignPopulation-representative survey conducted by computer-assisted telephone interviewing. Setting, participants Australian residents aged 16 years and older. Main outcome measures Mental disorder diagnoses of lifeti...

Objectives To determine the prevalence in Australia of multi-type child maltreatment, defined as two or more maltreatment types (physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, or exposure to domestic violence) and to examine its nature, family risk factors, and gender and age cohort differences. Design Retrospective cross-sectional survey...

Objective: To estimate associations between all five types of child maltreatment (emotional abuse, neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and exposure to domestic violence) and health risk behaviours and conditions. Design, setting, participants: Nationally representative survey of Australian residents aged 16 years and older conducted by comput...

Objectives: To examine associations between child maltreatment and health service use, both overall, by type and by the number of types of maltreatment reported. Design, setting: Cross-sectional, retrospective survey using the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire-R2: Adapted Version (Australian Child Maltreatment Study); computer-assisted mobile...

Background: To establish national prevalence of child maltreatment, reliable, valid and contextually appropriate measurement is needed. This paper outlines the refinement, adaptation and testing of child maltreatment sections of the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ)-R2 for use in the Australian context. Methods: Three phases were undert...

As technology has become increasingly integrated into the everyday lives of young people and social interactions have moved online, so too have the opportunities for child sexual abuse. However, the risk factors for online sexual abuse, and their similarities or differences with those of offline sexual abuse have not been clarified, making it diffi...

Background: The migration of offenses against children to the online environment requires a revised understanding of how episode dynamics aggravate the harm. Objective: To assess the contribution of various online offense episode elements to the overall negative emotional impact. Participants and settings: The sample comprised 2639 IPSOS Knowl...

Most school-based prevention curricula for young children fail to address multiple types of abuse and limit instruction to a single day, despite evidence that polyvictimization is common and children learn better when allowed to practice material repeatedly. This study utilized a cluster randomized control trial design to evaluate a multi-abuse pre...

Background It is well supported that engaging in prevention education increases a child's awareness of child sexual abuse. However, due to methodological limitations, prior research has yet to determine whether this knowledge leads to increases in reporting or substantiation of child sexual abuse. Objective We examined whether state mandates for s...

Importance: Sexual abuse is increasingly facilitated by technology, but the prevalence and dynamics of such offenses have not been well delineated, making it difficult to design prevention strategies. Objective: To examine the frequency and characteristics of online and technology-facilitated sexual abuse against children and youth. Design, set...

One of the many outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic was a shift in the delivery of elementary (primary) education. Schools transitioned swiftly to e-learning and prioritized education that was already or could be easily adapted to virtual formats. Given the paucity of online content available, it is not likely that child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention...

This article aims to understand what practices and training Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces and affiliated agencies are currently using to help mitigate distress and promote wellbeing among investigators of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Data were collected via telephone interviews with Commanders of 54 ICAC Task Forces as...

This article draws attention to the overlapping literature on social determinants of health and adverse childhood experiences, and the growing clinical interest in addressing them to promote children’s and parents’ health and well-being. We address important considerations and suggest solutions for leaders and practitioners in primary care to addre...

Epidemiological surveys measuring the prevalence of child maltreatment generate essential knowledge that is required to enhance human rights, promote gender equality, and reduce child abuse and neglect and its effects. Yet, evidence suggests Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) may assess the risk of these studies using higher than normal thresholds,...

Background Children's exposure to parental violence against another parent has been widely studied as an adverse childhood experience and source of childhood trauma. Exposure to parental violence against a sibling could be equally as traumatizing, but the literature on this exposure is sparse, by comparison. We examined the frequency of exposure to...

Teaching young people about “privacy” has serious defects if the goal is to promote children’s online safety. This commentary points out some the key problems to programs and educational modules with this privacy orientation. Privacy is an abstract and complicated concept, whose norms are in flux, making it difficult to impart clear, relevant, cons...

Importance Children and youth experience high rates of exposure to violence, which is associated with later poor physical and mental health outcomes. The immediate injuries and impacts from these exposures are often treated in emergency departments and medical offices. Objective To characterize, using nationally representative data, the size and c...

Importance Epidemiological literature on children’s mental health and children’s adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have consistently pointed to widespread, unaddressed, and treatable high-risk conditions among children. Objective To estimate the proportion of children with either high levels of ACEs and/or high levels of mental health symptoms...

Background It is important for those called upon to discuss major social determinants of health such as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to have accurate knowledge about generational trends in their prevalence. Objective To review available trend data on major forms of ACEs. Methods A search of academic data bases was conducted by combining t...

Background The monitoring of trends is important. The United Nations (UN) have defined indicators to monitor the proportion of young men and women who have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18 (Indicator 16.2.3) as part of their global agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Objective To examine recent trends in the disclosure of...

Background There is increasing interest in routine screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) to help identify high-risk children who would benefit from interventions. However, there has not yet been sufficient research concerning which particular set of ACEs would be most predictive as a potential screening tool. Objective This study comp...

Sibling victimization is associated with adjustment problems. Protective factors that reduce the detrimental effects of sibling victimization are unknown. We examined the mediating role of social support from family and friends in the relationship between sibling victimization and adolescents' mental health distress, self-esteem, and delinquency. A...

Background This review critically examines the messages of youth internet safety education programs in the light of research about both the dynamics of internet dangers and the efficacy of youth prevention education. Methods Using terms “internet safety education” and “digital citizenship,” a Google search identified 12 multi-topic safety programs...

We document four patterns of sibling victimization (Persist, New, Desist, and None) across two time points and their association with peer victimization at time two and whether these linkages are apparent in early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence. A telephone survey (N = 1653) was conducted with a nationally representative sample of U.S....

Background: The majority of studies investigating child pornography have focused on conceptualizing the problem and the harm of the crime, evaluating the risk for child pornography offending, or discuss preventive measures. Little is known about survivors of this type of crime. Objective: This research explores the relationship between child por...

The present study sought to examine features of sexual abuse cases among a U.S. nationally representative sample of 13,052 children and adolescents, ages 0–17 years. The National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence was collected in three different years (2008, 2011, and 2014) via telephone interviews. Information about sexual abuse and assaul...

Though peer victimization has received more attention than sibling victimization, they both have negative associations with mental health and may share common family origins. We explore whether there are common family characteristics (family climate, interparental conflict, parenting) in the prediction of sibling and peer victimization. We employ a...

Objectives To assess the prevalence of corporal punishment usage in the US population. Methods This study was based on a 2014 cross-sectional, telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of US households with children. Reports about spanking of 0–9 year olds were obtained from parents, while reports about 10–17 year olds were obtained f...

Background: Childhood neglect is an understudied form of childhood maltreatment despite being the most commonly reported to authorities. Objective: This study provides national estimates of neglect subtypes, demographic variations in exposure to neglect subtypes, and examines the psychological impact. Participants and setting: Pooled data from...

Using a pooled data set of two waves of the National Surveys of Children’s Exposure to Violence, this study investigates links between indicators of socioeconomic resources and lifetime exposure to two different forms of child neglect (physical and supervisory), examines how neglect is associated with the risk of other types of victimization, and e...

This study examines the lifetime prevalence and distribution of family/friend homicide exposure among children and adolescents age 2 to 17 in the United States, and assesses the impact of family/friend homicide on emotional and behavioral outcomes, while controlling for potential co-occurring factors. Data were collected by telephone about the expe...

This research explores the complex experiences of survivors of child pornography production. The study was conducted among a convenience sample of child pornography adult survivors (N = 133), using an online survey which included a series of open-ended questions. Nearly half of respondents reported that they felt the production of sexual images cau...

Predictability in a child's environment is a critical quality of safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments, which promote wellbeing and protect against maltreatment. Research has focused on residential mobility's effect on this predictability. This study augments such research by analyzing the impact of an instability index-including t...

This study examined how the combination of sibling victimization and parental child maltreatment is related to mental health problems and delinquency in childhood and adolescence. Co-occurrence, additive associations, and interactive associations of sibling victimization and parental child maltreatment were investigated using a sample of 2,053 chil...

Introduction: Official data sources do not provide researchers, practitioners, and policy makers with complete information on physical injury from child abuse. This analysis provides a national estimate of the percentage of children who were injured during their most recent incident of physical abuse. Methods: Pooled data from three cross-sectio...

Purpose: Sextortion (threats to expose sexual images to coerce victims to provide additional pictures, sex, or other favors) has been identified as an emerging online threat to youth, but research is scarce. We describe sextortion incidents from a large sample of victims (n = 1,385) and examine whether incidents occurring to minors (n = 572) are m...

To encourage healthy development in children and youth, a better understanding is needed of how exposure to violence and victimization is situated within broader risk contexts as well as those that may be protective or encourage resilience (Merrick, Leeb, and Lee, 2013; Turner, 2010; Turner, Finkelhor, and Ormrod, 2006). This bulletin describes the...

This article argues that it is still premature to start widespread screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in health care settings until we have answers to several important questions: 1) what are the effective interventions and responses we need to have in place to offer to those with positive ACE screening, 2) what are the potential neg...

Objective: Children with a physical disability, psychological disorder, or of nonnormative weight are often targets of peer victimization. Sibling victimization, however, is more common than peer victimization, but rarely explored. We investigated linkages between sibling victimization and whether children had a physical disability, psychological...

The trends and correlates of child and juvenile homicide rates in three developmental age groups (0-5, 6-11, and 12-17) during 1990–2013 in Mexico are examined by using vital statistical data. Homicide rates for adults and children were calculated yearly and the place where homicides occurred and the means used to commit homicide examined. Changes...

Victimization of Mexican youth (aged 12–17) has received little attention compared to that of adults. Using the 2014 Social Survey on Social Cohesion for the Prevention of Violence and Delinquency, we examine prevalence and types of victimization; describe the characteristics of incidents in terms of relationship with perpetrator(s) and places wher...

This study compares children and youth who have experienced lifetime war-related parental absence or deployment with those having no such history on a variety of victimization types, non-victimization adversity, trauma symptoms, and delinquency; and assesses whether cumulative adversity and victimization help to explain elevated emotional and behav...

Objective: To understand the role of family adversity in the onset and desistance of sibling victimization, we examined school-age children's sibling victimization patterns using 2 waves of longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample. Method: Parents of children aged 5-9 and children aged 10-12 years old (N = 945, Mage = 8.5 years, 52...

This study examined the prevalence and characteristics of family abduction episodes occurring in a nationally representative sample of US children ages 0–17. It drew on the experiences of 13,052 children and youth from the aggregation of three cross-sectional waves (2008, 2011, and 2014) of the National Surveys of Children Exposed to Violence. The...

Purpose: To test a behaviorally specific measure of serious peer victimization, called aggravated peer victimization (APV), using empirically derived aggravating elements of episodes (injury, weapon, bias content, sexual content, multiple perpetrators, and multiple contexts) and compare this measure with the conventional Olweus bullying (OB) measu...

Research on child maltreatment epidemiology has primarily been focused on population surveys with adult respondents. Far less attention has been paid to analyzing reported incidents of alleged child maltreatment and corresponding agency responses. This type of research is however indispensable to know how well a child protection system works and if...

Importance Protecting children in youth-serving organizations is a national concern.Objective To provide clinicians, policymakers, and parents with estimates of children’s exposure to abuse in youth-serving organizations.Design, Setting, and Participants Telephone survey data from the 3 National Surveys of Children's Exposure to Violence (2008,...

Sibling conflict and aggression is often a pervasive part of family life that parents want help managing and can have negative effects on children's well-being. The purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate current research regarding programs to reduce sibling conflict and aggression and promote positive sibling relationships. Online databas...

Several strands of research are consistent with the possibility that expansions in psychiatric medication usage have reduced crime and delinquency. Estimates suggest that medication usage has increased to as much as 9% of the youth population and up to 20% of the adult population in the United States and is high among populations associated with th...

Purpose: The current research used latent class analysis to uncover groups of youth with specific victimization profiles and identify factors that are associated with membership in each victimization group. Methods: This study used data from National Survey of Children Exposure to Violence II. Random digit dialing and address-based sampling were...

Stressful life events are common challenges to character and coping and a frequent theme in expressive writing. The Life Paths measure is adapted from the National Survey for Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV; Turner et al., 2013). The original measure contains 16 items, of which we chose 11 to best suit our target population.

The Financial Strain Index is designed to assess a lack of ability to meet current financial needs. Income alone is not a sufficient indication of financial stability, and in recent years, it has become more apparent that people who would typically fall into a middle-class economic bracket (or even higher) may also feel the effects of financial str...

This study examines whether the items from the original Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scale can be improved in their prediction of health outcomes by adding some additional widely recognized childhood adversities. The analyses come from the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence 2014, a telephone survey conducted from August 2013...

Children and adolescents experience more violence, abuse, and criminal victimisation than do other segments of the population. Proper public health attention to this vulnerability is hampered by many things, but one of the most remediable is the fragmentation of the response system. Separate institutions, researchers, and advocacy groups lobby and...

It is important to estimate the burden of and trends for violence, crime, and abuse in the lives of children. To provide health care professionals, policy makers, and parents with current estimates of exposure to violence, crime, and abuse across childhood and at different developmental stages. The National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence...

The Financial Strain Index is designed to assess concrete, observable measures that indicate a lack of financial resources. Income alone is not a sufficient indication of financial stability, and in recent years, it has become more apparent that people who would typically fall into a middle-class economic bracket may also feel the effects of financ...

Lifetime adversity is a challenge to character and coping. The Life Paths measure is adapted from the National Survey for Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV). The original measure contains 16 items, of which we chose 11 to best suit our target population. We present all items with the same wording with which they are asked in the original mea...

Past research has demonstrated the particularly damaging effects of exposure to multiple forms of victimization, or "poly-victimization," on youth mental health. The primary objective of the present study is to begin to identify the mechanisms that help explain its powerful impact. Analyses are based on two waves of longitudinal data from the Natio...

This study aims to present a qualitative, empirically based typology of offenders who use online communications to commit sex crimes against minors, including offenders who met victims online and those who knew them in advance. Seventy-five reports made by law enforcement officers were analyzed using a qualitative software program, during which a t...

This toolkit, jointly published by WHO, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, and the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes against Children Research Center, provides academics and decision-makers with information on methodological strategies and tips to conduct national or regional surveillance studies of agency response to child maltrea...

To estimate the health and economic burdens of child maltreatment in China. We did a systematic review for studies on child maltreatment in China using PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL-EBSCO, ERIC and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases. We did meta-analyses of studies that met inclusion criteria to estimate the prevalence of ch...

This study estimated the prevalence of child physical abuse in China, compared Chinese prevalence with international and Asian estimates, and ascertained whether some differences in sample characteristics and methodological factors (e.g., time prevalence, definitional or regional difference) help explain variations in Chinese rates. Based on a meta...

This national household telephone survey of youth and parents assessed exposure to a broad range of at-school victimizations among a representative sample of 3,391 children and youth ages 5 to 17. Nearly half the sample (48%) had been exposed to at least one form of victimization at school during the past year (in 2011), most of which was intimidat...

This study sought to identify features of peer victimization that aggravate negative outcomes in children. The features that were assessed include "power imbalance," a commonly used criterion in defining bullying, and 5 other characteristics: injury, weapon involvement, Internet involvement, sexual content, and bias content. Three outcomes were ass...

Purpose To estimate the likelihood that a recent cohort of children would be exposed to sexual abuse and sexual assault by age 17 in the United States. Methods This analysis draws on three very similarly designed national telephone surveys of youth in 2003, 2008, and 2011, resulting in a pooled sample of 708 17-year-olds, 781 15-year-olds, and 804...

This study is one of the first that investigated youth's response to unwanted Internet experiences, not only for those youth who were bothered or distressed but for all youth who reported the experience. Three types of response were examined: telling someone about the incident and ending the unwanted situation by active or passive coping. Responses...

This research examines how family dynamics like interparental conflict, family violence, and quality of parenting are associated with young children's experiences of sibling victimization. We use nationally representative data from interviews with caregivers of 1,726 children aged 2 to 9 years of age. We hypothesized different family dynamics predi...

The goal of this commentary is to articulate some issues and dilemmas raised by various efforts to mobilize international action around child abuse and neglect (CAN). We will start by proposing a typology of international mobilization strategies, noting that initiatives to promote CAN programming in new settings have tended to emphasize one of thre...

This paper reports on national estimates for past year child maltreatment from a national household survey conducted in 2011. It also discusses the validity of such estimates in light of other available epidemiology. The Second National Survey of Children Exposed to Violence obtained rates based on 4,503 children and youth from interviews with care...

This commentary on Livingstone and Smith (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 55, 2014, XXX) suggests that more attention should be paid to a set of hypotheses about technology that contrasts with those that have animated much of the current research interest: (a) That the digital environment is no more perilous and perhaps less perilous th...