Child Abuse

Indications of Child Abuse, Sexual Abuse & Neglect:

Bruises in different stages of healing or on parts of the body where bruises are not common?
Lacerations, burns, fractures, or dislocation?
Bite marks, objects or pattern shaped injuries and/or abrasions?
Other indicators may be the child's fear of adult contact; poor social skills, aggressive or acting out behavior, withdraw, fear of returning home.
Not sleeping at night.
Drop in grades and school performance.
Excessive masturbation.
The child may offer some unbelievable explanation for injuries.

What to ask suspected victims of child abuse or neglect:

If you suspect abuse/neglect, or a child discloses to you: ask only these 4 questions.

What happened?
Who did this?
When did this happen?
Where did this happen?

Then contact law enforcement and make a report!

Last year, CAC's & FAC's in Arizona

provided victim services to more than 18,821 children.

Child Sexual Abuse

One in three girls and one in five boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18 years old.
94% of people who sexually abuse a child are family members.
12.3% of women were age 10 or younger at the time of their first rape/victimization, and 30% of women were between the ages of 11 and 17.
27.8% of men were age 10 or younger at the time of their first rape/victimization.
More than one-third of women who report being raped before age 18 also experience rape as an adult.
96% of people who sexually abuse children are male, and 76.8% of people who sexually abuse children are adults.
325,000 children are at risk of becoming victims of commercial child sexual exploitation each year.
The average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 12 to 14 years old, and the average age for boys is 11 to 13 years old.

Child & Family Advocacy Centers prevent

abuse and keep children safe.

Last year, CACs provided child sexual abuse prevention education to 1.6 million individuals, many in school settings.

Child & Family Advocacy Centers save money.

Their service delivery model saves court, child protection, and investigative dollars averaging $1,000 per child abuse case compared to non-CAC/FAC communities.

Child & Family Advocacy Centers are efficient.

Providing significantly higher rates of coordinated investigations; 81 % of investigations in CACs/FAC's were coordinated between law enforcement and child protective services, compared with 52% in comparison communities.

Child & Family Advocacy Centers hold offenders accountable.

Increased usage of CACs/FAC's and multidisciplinary teams has resulted in increased successful prosecutions of child abuse perpetrators. One study shows an average 94% conviction rate for CAC/FAC cases carried forward.

Child & Family Advocacy Centers help child victims heal.

Child victims of sexual abuse who receive services at CACs/FAC's are four times more likely to receive forensic medical exams and increased referrals for mental health treatment than children served by non-CAC/FAC communities.

Child Advocacy Centers are effective.

Research demonstrates caregivers in CAC/FAC cases are more satisfied with the investigation than those from non-CAC/FAC comparison sites. 97% of parents would tell others to seek help at the CAC/FAC.

Sexual Assault

3,193 victims of sexual assault received services in a safe & neutral environment during 2021.

You didn't choose to be a victim, it was thrusted upon you.

Whether you have been sexually assaulted or raped recently or some time ago, you are not alone. You may have concerns about your safety, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, or telling your partner or family about the assault. You may be having feelings of shock, fear, disbelief, recurring memories, outrage, confusion, sadness, despair, and anger. At a Family Advocacy Center you can regain hope, and begin your journey from victim to survivor to thriver. If you would like to receive a Jane Doe or a John Doe Rape kit that can also take place and any of our Family Advocacy Centers.

What is a “Jane Doe or John Doe Rape Kit?”

A “Jane Doe Rape Kit” is the common name for the forensic evidence collected during a sexual assault examination of a victim who chooses to remain anonymous. A “Jane Doe/John Doe Rape Kit” enables a victim to have forensic evidence collected without revealing identifying information. Victims are given a code number they can use to identify themselves if they choose to report later, and they are not required to cooperate with law enforcement or criminal justice authorities. Some states and localities are providing this voluntarily for victims who are not ready to report to law enforcement at the time of the examination.

Statistics About Sexual Violence Sexual Violence In The U.S.

Every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted.
Every 9 minutes, that victim is a child.
One in five women and one in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives
46.4% lesbians, 74.9% bisexual women and 43.3% heterosexual women reported sexual violence other than rape during their lifetimes, while 40.2% gay men, 47.4% bisexual men and 20.8% heterosexual men reported sexual violence other than rape during their lifetimes.
Nearly one in 10 women has been raped by an intimate partner in her lifetime, including completed forced penetration, attempted forced penetration or alcohol/drug-facilitated completed penetration. Approximately one in 45 men has been made to penetrate an intimate partner during his lifetime.
91% of the victims of rape and sexual assault are female, and 9% are male.
In eight out of 10 cases of rape, the victim knew the person who sexually assaulted them.
8% of rapes occur while the victim is at work.

Cost and Impact

Each rape costs approximately $151,423.
Annually, rape costs the U.S. more than any other crime ($127 billion), followed by assault ($93 billion), murder ($71 billion), and drunk driving ($61 billion)
81% of women and 35% of men report significant short-term or long-term impacts such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Health care is 16% higher for women who were sexually abused as children.

Child Sexual Abuse

One in three girls and one in five boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18 years old.
94% of people who sexually abuse a child are family members.
12.3% of women were age 10 or younger at the time of their first rape/victimization, and 30% of women were between the ages of 11 and 17.
27.8% of men were age 10 or younger at the time of their first rape/victimization.
More than one-third of women who report being raped before age 18 also experience rape as an adult.
96% of people who sexually abuse children are male, and 76.8% of people who sexually abuse children are adults.
325,000 children are at risk of becoming victims of commercial child sexual exploitation each year.
The average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 12 to 14 years old, and the average age for boys is 11 to 13 years old.

Campus Sexual Assault

One in 5 women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college.
More than 90% of sexual assault victims on college campuses do not report the assault.
63.3% of men at one university who self-reported acts qualifying as rape or attempted rape admitted to committing repeat rapes.

Crime reports

Rape is the most under-reported crime; 63% of sexual assaults are not reported to police.
Only 12% of child sexual abuse is reported to the authorities.
The prevalence of false reporting is between 2% and 10%. For example, a study of eight U.S. communities, which included 2,059 cases of sexual assault, found a 7.1% rate of false reports. A study of 136 sexual assault cases in Boston found a 5.9% rate of false reports. Researchers studied 812 reports of sexual assault from 2000-03 and found a 2.1% rate of false reports.

Domestic Violence

What is Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. It includes physical violence, sexual violence, threats, and emotional abuse. The frequency and severity of domestic violence can vary dramatically.

Many times, people live in denial of a bad situation. But the facts are, domestic violence is the number one cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44, more than rape, auto accidents and muggings combined.

You may want to use the following questions to evaluate your present situation. If you find yourself answering 'yes' to these questions, you may want to contact us.

Do you think:

It was my fault.
If I love him enough, he'll change.
I deserved it.
If I leave, he'll kill me.

Does your partner:

Embarrass you with bad names or put downs?
Control what you do, whom you see or talk to, or where you go?
Stop you from seeing or talking to your friends or family?
Take your money, make you ask for money, or refuse to give you money?
Make all the decisions?
Tell you that you are a bad parent or threaten to take away your children?
Act like the abuse is no big deal, it's your fault, or deny that it even happened?

Do you find yourself:

Feeling afraid that you will be forced to have sex?
Feeling afraid that you or your children will get hurt?
Feeling that there is nothing that you can do in your life?

Domestic Violence in Arizona

In Arizona, first- and second-time domestic violence offenders are not charged with domestic violence; only the third incident is charged as domestic violence. First and second offenders are charged with offenses that then have 'domestic violence flags' attached.
In Arizona in 2010, law enforcement made 25,376 domestic violence-flagged arrests, an increase of 17.8% over arrests in 2001. Many other incidents were not reported to police or did not end in arrests.
Between 2001 and 2010, when controlling for population, arrests for domestic violence aggravated assault increased 82%.
The most common sentence for a perpetrator convicted of aggravated domestic violence (third offense) was probation.
There were 109 domestic violence-related deaths in Arizona in 2014.
In 2012, Arizona ranked 8th in the nation in femicides per capita.

Did You Know?

1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men in the United States have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner.
1 in 3 women and 1 in 7 men in the Arizona have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner.
On a typical day, domestic violence hotlines receive approximately 21,000 calls, an average of close to 15 calls every minute.
Intimate partner violence accounts for 15% of all violent crime.
The presence of a gun in the home during a domestic violence incident increases the risk of homicide by at least 500%.
72% of all murder-suicides involve an intimate partner; 94% of the victims of these crimes are female.

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Human Trafficking

Information provided by TRUST

Sadly, some victims are trafficked by family members while others are initiated into “the life” through an older boyfriend or girlfriend who forces them to perform sex acts for personal profit. These victims often have a difficult early life including poverty, child maltreatment, domestic violence or substance use in the home which places them at risk for being trafficked.

Human Trafficking defined

Under U.S. federal law, “severe forms of trafficking in persons” includes both sex trafficking and labor trafficking:

Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age (22 USC § 7102).

Human trafficking is a business, and for any business to survive, it requires supply and demand

In this case, there appears to be a growing demand fueled by easy access through the internet, and a ready supply of victims that are constantly being recruited and exploited.

Sadly, some victims are trafficked by family members, some end up selling sex as a means to support drug use, while others are initiated into “the life” through an older boyfriend or girlfriend who forces them to perform sex acts for personal profit. These victims often have a difficult early life including poverty, child maltreatment, domestic violence or substance use in the home which places them at risk for being trafficked.

Successful prosecution of traffickers is a long and complicated process for law enforcement. It is very difficult to get victims to testify against their traffickers. Victims are often scared and fear retaliation.

For more information on how traffickers control their victims download the human trafficking power and control wheel.

Download PDF FAQs

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Elder Abuse

Additional Information

The National Council on Aging (NCOA) estimates that up to 5 million seniors suffer from abuse every year.

That being said, the exact numbers remain unclear as elder abuse often goes unreported. The WHO estimates that just 1 out of 24 elder abuse cases gets reported.

Elder abuse is a nationwide issue that affects millions of people each year. Researchers and advocates collect data and compile statistics to help better understand this widespread problem. By studying these statistics, families can learn why abuse takes place, which groups of seniors run a higher risk of being abused, and how to keep their loved ones safe.

As of 2018, 52 million people in the U.S. were over the age of 65. Nearly 1 in 10 of these people suffer from elder abuse every year, according to some estimates. Anyone can commit elder abuse, from loved ones to caregivers to other residents in a nursing home. And, elder abuse takes many forms, including physical injuries, financial exploitation, and even sexual battery.

Here are some important emotional elder abuse statistics:

According to the Office on Women’s Health (OWH), caregivers are more likely to emotionally abuse seniors (as opposed to spouses or family members).
Roughly 54 out of 129 seniors with dementia experienced some form of psychological abuse from their caregivers, according to a 2010 study from the Journal of American Geriatrics Society.
38% of elders reported they experienced at least one instance of verbal abuse in a 2014 study conducted by Northeastern University researchers.

Here are some important financial elder abuse statistics:

Seniors lose at least $2.6 Billion a year due to financial abuse — and possibly more due to unreported cases.
Only 1 in 44 cases of financial abuse is reported, according to the National Adult Protective Services Association (NAPSA).
NAPSA also notes that elderly victims of financial abuse are three times more likely to die and four times more likely to enter a nursing home.
Financial abuse can take many forms, including identity theft, use of debit or credit cards, lottery scams, telemarketing or internet scams, or abuse of power of attorney.
If a senior lives with a child that is unemployed or suffers from substance abuse, they run a greater risk of financial abuse.

Here are some important physical abuse statistics:

Seniors who were physically abused had a 300% greater risk of prematurely dying compared to those who had not been, according to a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Spouses or other partners were the greatest culprits of physical abuse, accounting for nearly 60% of all cases according to a study from the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
In 2013, over 9,700 complaints about nursing home abuse were filed in the U.S. The most common type of complaint involved physical abuse.

Here are some notable statistics about sexual abuse among seniors:

Sexual abuse remains the least reported type of elder abuse, according to data from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the Administration for Community Living, nearly 16,000 reports of sexual abuse in nursing homes have been made since 2000.
From 2013 to 2016, over 1,000 nursing homes were cited for sexual abuse, according to data from a CNN report. Roughly 100 of these homes received multiple citations during this time.

Important statistics about nursing home neglect include:

The U.S. Justice Department notes that caregiver neglect is the most unreported type of abuse, with 1 out of every 57 cases being reported. Neglect is also one of the most common types of elder abuse.
A 2011 study found that 21% of nursing home residents were neglected at least once over a 12-month period.
Neglect accounted for 14% of complaints against nursing homes, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime.

source: https://www.nursinghomeabusecenter.com/elder-abuse/statistics/