Prevalence of child sexual abuse: A corrective metanalysis

Prevalence estimates for child sexual abuse range from 2 percent to 62 percent. Reviews of these prevalence studies recognize that methodological differences among studies affect their stated prevalence yet disagree as to how they do so. The purpose of the current study was to perform our our metanalysis of all random prevalence studies using North American populations. Our results suggested that child sexual abuse is a problem of epidemic proportions. The number of screen questions, the size of the sample, and the year in which the prevalence study was done significantly affect the stated prevalence and account for the wide variance among previous studies' results.