Profile Analysis of Sexual Abuse Characteristics Among the Children Who Experienced Child Sexual Abuse: Perspectives from National Case Management System Data in Korea

Background: This study examines sexual abuse characteristics among Korean children and adolescents who utilized victim support services provided by National Rape Crisis Intervention Centers. It has been well-established that under the one category of “sexual abuse” the experiences among the child sexual abuse survivors quite vary (Trickett et al., 2001; Negriff et al., 2014). Using the relatively stringent criteria of familial child sexual abuse, Trickett and colleagues (2001) found that three different profile groups exist and that each group showed different developmental trajectories after sexual abuse occurred. This study is the part of a Korean longitudinal study on sexual assault characteristics and its implications for post-abuse adjustments, which is supported by Korean Mental Health Technology R&D Project. Also, this is the first study in Korea to analyze case management system data for research purposes. The objectives of the study are three folds: 1) to examine the detailed sexual abuse characteristics experienced by children; 2) to identify different profile groups based on their abuse characteristics; and 3) to examine the associations between the profile group memberships and mental health service utilization.

Method: Out of 36 national rape crisis intervention centers nationwide, 11 centers participated in the study. The participating centers provided the data on sexual abuse characteristics from their standardized case management system. The cases were randomly selected among the cases opened during one year of 2015. The information gathered includes action type, relationship with perpetrator, age, frequency, and duration of abuse as well as the type of service utilized by the survivors and psychiatric diagnosis. The 1077 cases were gleaned from the case management system and 430 children and adolescent cases were utilized for this analysis.

Results: Out of 430 cases, 210 cases (48.8%) were attempted or completed sexual-intercourse cases. Strangers only comprised 15.6% of the entire cases. Predominant group of perpetrators was peers (24.2%), followed by family and relatives (17.9%). The abuse characteristics differed by victims’ age (children vs. adolescents) as well as relationship with perpetrator. We could identify three different profile groups: familial abuse, rape by non-kin perpetrators, and molestation by non-kin perpetrators. Results from the profile analyses were also differed by victims’ age. Finally, we could find significant relationship between profile group membership and mental health service utilization, but the relations were weak.

Implications: The results assured us of the importance to understand the detailed characteristics of sexual abuse and old notion that “one size may not fit all”. The results from the profile analyses may have important implication for developing victim support programs  and appropriately allocating agency resources according to different characteristics of the service users. Finally, the results showed the under-utilization of mental health services among the child survivors of sexual abuse in Korea and emphasize the important of developing ways to enhance service utilization among the survivors.