Girls are sexually abused three times more often than boys. Boys have greater risk of emotional neglect and serious injury than girls,

Source: US Dept of Health and Human Services Administration for Children & Families, Child Welfare Information Gateway (formerly Nat’l Clearinghouse on Child Abuse & Neglect), 2000

67% of victims of sexual assault were juveniles (under age 18).
34% of sexual assault victims were under age 12.
1 of every 7 victims of sexual assault was under age 6.
40% of offenders who victimized children under age 6 were juveniles (under age 18).

Offenders who had victimized a child were on average 5 years older than the violent offenders who had committed their crimes against adults.

Nearly 25% of child victimizers were age 40 or older, but about 10% of the inmates with adult victims fell in that age range.

Convicted rape and sexual assault offenders serving time in State prisons report that two-thirds of their victims were under the age of 18, and 58% of those--or nearly 4 in 10 imprisoned violent sex offenders--said their victims were aged 12 or younger.

In 90% of the rapes of children less than 12 years old, the child knew the offender, according to police-recorded incident data.

Forty-four percent of rape victims were younger than 18 years old, according to data from police-recorded incidents of rape in three states. Two-thirds of state incarcerated violent sex offenders said their victims were younger than 18. An estimated 15 percent of imprisoned rapists said their victims were 12 years old or younger. An estimated 45 percent of those sentenced to prison for other sexual assaults (statutory rape, forcible sodomy and molestation) said their victims were 12 years old or younger.

Of the rapes and sexual assaults reported by victims in the BJS survey, 60 percent took place in the victim's home or at the home of a friend, relative or neighbor.

Addressing the mandate of the National Child Protection Act of 1993, which called for a study of offenders who committed crimes against children, this study found that:
1 in 5 violent State prisoners (about 65,000 offenders) reported a victim under age 18.
Older violent inmates were substantially more likely than younger inmates to have victimized a child; and 8 out of 10 prisoners convicted of sexual assault had committed their crime against a victim under age 18.

Of all prisoners convicted of rape or sexual assault, two-thirds victimized children.
Three out of four child victims were female.
Offenders typically preyed on children they knew, not strangers.
Eighty-eight percent had a prior relationship with their victims.
Prisoners convicted of attacking children were mostly male (97 percent).
Almost 70 were percent white.
Sixty-four percent were married or divorced.
Child victimizers were generally five years older than those who victimized adults.
About 22 percent of the child sex offenders reported having been sexually abused themselves during childhood; and Three out of four prisoners who victimized a child reported the crime took place in their own home or in the victim's home.

According to the 1994 study of 11 states and Washington, D.C., half of the women who reported they had been raped during 1992 were under 18 years old, and 16 percent were younger than 12.

In separate study of three states in 1991, 96 percent of the female rape victims younger than 12 years old knew their attackers. Twenty percent were victimized by their fathers.

In a 1991 BJS survey of child rape state prisoners (the rape of girls under 12), 94 percent of the offenders said their victim was either a family member, friend, or acquaintance.

This result was almost identical to that found in law enforcement data from three states in 1991.
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics ~ 1996-2006 data Victims, offenders, and the criminal justice system.