Community characteristics and child sexual assault: Social disorganization and age

• We find that the sources of sexual assault differ between preteen and teen victims.
• More registered sex offenders in a community increases only teen sexual assault.
• Social disorganization adds moderately to explaining preteen & teen sexual assault.

PurposeThis study examines the utility of social disorganization theory as an explanation for community rates of child sexual assault. We explore the sources of preteen (<=12) and teen (13-17) sexual assault victimization.MethodsDrawing on 1,172 child sexual assault incidents reported to law enforcement agencies in Orange County, Florida in 2004-2006, the present study assesses whether social disorganization theory can explain variation in amounts of preteen and teen sexual assault across census tracts. Social disorganization is assessed using measures of economic disadvantage, collective efficacy, and social cohesion, along with measures of population density, violent crime and presence of sex offenders in the community, and gender-related socioeconomic standing.ResultsEconomic disadvantage is positively related to the amount of both preteen and teen sexual assault. Surprisingly, immigrant concentration is negatively related to both preteen and teen sexual assault. Housing density is positively related to preteen sexual assault and the presence of registered sex offenders is positively related to teen sexual assault.ConclusionSocial disorganization provides a moderate explanation for community variance in the amount of preteen and teen sexual assault. Also, sources of child sexual assault are different between younger children and older adolescents.