The effects of perpetrator power on the duration and number of children victimized in episodes of child sexual abuse linked to a federated youth serving organization

Background

Qualitative research on child sexual abuse (CSA) in youth serving organizations (YSOs) indicates that powerful, high-status persons are better able to abuse children, because they have a superior capacity to obtain the acquiescence and overcome the resistance of children to their abusive advances, evade detection of their abusive behavior, and escape accountability for their detected abuse.

Objective

We conduct quantitative empirical analyses designed to confirm the presumption that powerful, high-status persons are better able to abuse children in YSOs.

Setting

We analyzed 85 episodes of CSA linked to Boys and Girls Clubs (BGCs) affiliated with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, identified by a Hearst Connecticut reporting team.

Method

We conduct multivariate analyses that estimate the relationship between two sources of perpetrators' power and status (occupancy of a leadership position in their BGC and affiliations with other YSOs in their local BGC's community) and two public health consequences of the CSA they perpetrated (the duration of their abuse and the number of children they abused), controlling for a battery of possible confounds.

Results

Episodes of abuse perpetrated by persons who were leaders of their local BGCs victimized 1.9 more club-affiliated children than those that were perpetrated by lower-level staffers, while episodes of abuse perpetrated by persons affiliated with other YSOs in their local BGC’s community on average were 3.3 years longer and victimized 1.8 more club-affiliated children than those that were perpetrated by persons not affiliated with other YSOs.

Conclusion

YSO child safety measures, which currently focus on lower-level staffers' potential to abuse children, should be augmented to increase their focus on YSO leaders' and prominent community members' abusive potential.