# 1 in 2 boys sexual abused? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 12, 2011, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-2-boys-sexual-abused/602677 "2011-11-12T08:15:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hbns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-2-boys-sexual-abused/602677/1 "2011-11-12T08:15:58Z")
Listening to the radio tonight I heard [Theo Fleury](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theoren_Fleury) giving an interview related to the Penn state scandal. Fleury alleges (and is pressing charges) that one of his youth hockey coaches, Graham James, molested him when he was a young boy. It should be noted that James pleaded guilty to charges brought by two other former players he coached. During the interview Fleury stressed how wide spread the problem of child sexual abuse is. Going so far as to suggest a parent never leave a child unsupervised and alone with any person in a position of authority. He went on to stat unequivocally and quite adamantly that 1 in 3 boys and 1 in 5 girls under the age of 18 are sexually abused. I thought the rates sounded backwards and a bit high. So I googled and ended up back at [wikipedia.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sexual_abuse) > [@](#): > > In North America, for example, approximately 15% to 25% of women and 5% to 15% of men were sexually abused when they were children. These rates if are close but a bit off from Fleury’s (assuming he has them flip-flopped). Is it just that Fluery had his rates reversed for boys and girls and exaggerating a bit? Or is there some other source that he is quoting from? ---
**Author:** ![AndyLee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@AndyLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyLee)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-2-boys-sexual-abused/602677/2 "2011-11-12T16:16:32Z")
How do you define sexual abuse? One scandal I recall was a little girl who was in a TV show and 25 years later she said, a co-star flashed her. OK I’m not saying that’s OK , but dropping one’s pants and showing your genitals and not touching her is somewhat different from an actual sexual act. Would this be sexual abuse? Or something else? Plus I think 18 is too high an age for boys. I was a horny bugger and I might have easily gone with an older woman when I was 12 and regretted it later So I think it could be accurate depending on how you’re defining “abuse” ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-2-boys-sexual-abused/602677/3 "2011-11-12T18:49:42Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-2-boys-sexual-abused/602677/4 "2011-11-12T18:59:09Z")
> [@Hbns](#): > > Listening to the radio tonight I heard [Theo Fleury](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theoren_Fleury) giving an interview related to the Penn state scandal. Fleury alleges (and is pressing charges) that one of his youth hockey coaches, Graham James, molested him when he was a young boy. It should be noted that James pleaded guilty to charges brought by two other former players he coached. During the interview Fleury stressed how wide spread the problem of child sexual abuse is. Going so far as to suggest a parent never leave a child unsupervised and alone with any person in a position of authority. He went on to stat unequivocally and quite adamantly that 1 in 3 boys and 1 in 5 girls under the age of 18 are sexually abused. I thought the rates sounded backwards and a bit high. So I googled and ended up back at [wikipedia.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sexual_abuse) > > These rates if are close but a bit off from Fleury’s (assuming he has them flip-flopped). > > Is it just that Fluery had his rates reversed for boys and girls and exaggerating a bit? Or is there some other source that he is quoting from? I think that’s exactly what happened. I would always hear- 1 in 3 girls, 1 in 4 boys. I had also always thought that probably covered a lot of of verbal or visual offenses & not actual intimate touching. However, I’m depressingly coming to the conclusion that may have been overly optimistic of me. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-2-boys-sexual-abused/602677/5 "2011-11-12T19:33:07Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I think that’s exactly what happened. I would always hear- 1 in 3 girls, 1 in 4 boys. I had also always thought that probably covered a lot of of verbal or visual offenses & not actual intimate touching. However, I’m depressingly coming to the conclusion that may have been overly optimistic of me. This has come up on this board before, 1 in 3 or 1 in 2 or 70 - 80 - 90 percent of girls are sexually assaulted. Most people realize that you can raise the number as high as you want, just by making more and more things a sexual assault, but that simply dilutes the definition and serves no one. Example: Maybe if you tell a little girl she can’t do math as well as a boy, or deprive her of food with the idea that her elder brothers are more useful for manual labor tasks – that gender-bias assault is a sexual assault. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-2-boys-sexual-abused/602677/6 "2011-11-12T19:36:26Z")
Well its universally agreed that only a small percentage is reported, so whatever statistic you come up with has to include a huge amount of guess work. Based on skimming the cites in the [wikipedia article](http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/VS75.pdf) it seems like that comes from survey data, and so seems very prone to error to me. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-2-boys-sexual-abused/602677/7 "2011-11-12T21:42:33Z")
> [@AndyLee](#): > > How do you define sexual abuse? One scandal I recall was a little girl who was in a TV show and 25 years later she said, a co-star flashed her. OK I’m not saying that’s OK , but dropping one’s pants and showing your genitals and not touching her is somewhat different from an actual sexual act. > > Would this be sexual abuse? Or something else? > > Plus I think 18 is too high an age for boys. I was a horny bugger and I might have easily gone with an older woman when I was 12 and regretted it later > > So I think it could be accurate depending on how you’re defining “abuse” Yes. I remember way back in elementary school (4th, 5th, etc grades), there was sexual taunting from child to child. Does that count as “sexual abuse”? Perhaps in a dictionary sense it is (it could be interpreted as abuse, and was of a sexual nature), but I doubt that it really harmed anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Hbns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-in-2-boys-sexual-abused/602677/8 "2011-11-13T04:48:45Z")
Thanks all. That is kind of what I thought. He had the values for boys and girls flip-flopped and that depending upon where you draw the line for abuse you can bring it up to pretty near 100%. I turned 18 a year and a half ahead of my high school sweetheart. I imagine depending upon how and where you draw the line something like that could contribute to the statistics. ☹