David Finkelhor
Biographic Data
| ID | 78469 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Finkelhor |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Finkelhor |
| SIGNATURE | FINKELHOR D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of New Hampshire |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7008-4252 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 106 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 686 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 106 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1972 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Classifying Severity of Interpersonal Violence in Sport
The myriad ways in which severity has been conceptualized in domains beyond sport suggest there is no agreement on how to classify the construct. Our objective in this scoping review is to map the extant literature on approaches to classifying severity of interpersonal violence (IV), both against children and against adults. Searches for classification tools were conducted Sep-Nov 2024 using eight databases and professional networks. Eligible too…
Online child sexual victimization and associated health risk behaviours and mental disorders
Online child sexual victimization (OCSV) is increasingly prevalent, but little evidence exists about associated health outcomes. This study investigates whether two types of OCSV – nonconsensual sharing of sexual images, and sexual solicitation by an adult – are associated with health risk behaviours and mental disorders. This study analyzed data from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS), a nationally representative cross-sectional surv…
Identifying Subtypes of Image-Based Sexual Abuse and their Distinct Incident Characteristics, Victimization Histories, and Personal Correlates
Image-based sexual abuse is common among adolescents, yet most research treats it as a single, uniform construct, obscuring important variation in how image-based harms occur and who is most vulnerable. This lack of differentiation represents a central gap in the field, limiting theoretical development and hindering understanding of the behavioral and relational dynamics that shape youth image-based sexual abuse. The present study addresses this …
Child Maltreatment in Youth-Serving Organizations
Child abuse in youth-serving organizations (YSO) is an increasingly referenced topic, but it currently has a limited epidemiological foundation. A body of research is beginning to shed light on this abuse, and this scoping review was aimed at better documenting what is currently known. The review specifically examined published and gray literature on child abuse in YSOs across several subcategories: daycare, detention/juvenile justice, healthcare…
They had to change the model to fit the victim, versus the victim having to fit the model
Clarifying labels, constructs, and definitions
Research on aggressive and abusive sibling dynamics has grown significantly but is characterized by a disjointed literature, confusion about the identification of harmful behaviors, and missed opportunities for increasing awareness and prevention and intervention activities. This paper proposes several important suggestions about the classification and differentiation of sibling aggression. First, there is a level of sibling aggression that merit…
Perpetrators’ Identity in Online Crimes Against Children
Public and police concern about internet crimes against children has been primarily typified as a stranger danger problem. However, existing research suggests a variety of perpetrator ages and relationships to the victim. A more accurate estimate will help inform prevention efforts. This study provides a meta-analysis examining the identity of perpetrators in internet crimes against children. Databases were searched for published and unpublished …
When Is Online Sexual Solicitation of a Minor Considered Sexual Abuse? Recommendations for Victim Prevalence Surveys
Many new surveys have been developed to assess the prevalence of online sexual abuse. An important type of question asked in many of these surveys is about online sexual solicitation. However, not all sexual solicitations of children necessarily qualify as sexual abuse as it has conventionally been defined. Sexual solicitations from other same age youth may be legal and nonabusive. Solicitations of youth above the age of consent by adults may als…
Online commercial sexual exploitation of children in a national victim survey
This national survey reveals a high frequency of childhood commercial sex that diverges from descriptions of dynamics based on police and social agency data. Such dynamics suggest the need for alternative approaches to prevention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Persisting concerns about image exposure among survivors of image-based sexual exploitation and abuse in childhood
The study highlights that some survivors of sexual image exploitation and abuse have persistent concerns about further image exposure to other audiences. Survivors with lower levels of persistent concern are typically those who do not believe the images are available online. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
The prevalence of corporal punishment in Australia
Corporal punishment is associated with adverse outcomes; however, little empirical data exists about the state of corporal punishment in Australia. This paper presents the first national prevalence estimates of experiences of corporal punishment during childhood among Australians and its use as adults by Australian parents and caregivers. We also report community beliefs about the necessity of corporal punishment. Results show corporal punishment…
Characteristics and Dynamics of Cyberstalking Victimization Among Juveniles and Young Adults
Using the nationally representative Ipsos online KnowledgePanel, the sample included three hundred thirty-six 18- to 28-year-olds who retrospectively reported first cyberstalking incidents as juveniles (9- to 17-year-olds) or adults. Half of the sample first experienced cyberstalking as juveniles and half first experienced it as adults. Juveniles were more likely to have more than two perpetrators in the same episode, to experience more violent t…
Emerging Ideas
Practices and Policies Around Wellness
This article aims to understand what practices and training Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces and affiliated agencies are currently using to help mitigate distress and promote wellbeing among investigators of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Data were collected via telephone interviews with Commanders of 54 ICAC Task Forces as well as an online survey of 155 investigators at ICAC-affiliated agencies. Sixty-two percent of resp…
Improving services for youth survivors of commercial sexual exploitation
Youth Internet Safety Education
Background: This review critically examines the messages of youth internet safety education programs in the light of research about both the dynamics of internet dangers and the efficacy of youth prevention education. Methods: Using terms “internet safety education” and “digital citizenship,” a Google search identified 12 multi-topic safety programs. Review articles were identified via Google Scholar for six forms of online harm to youth that hav…
Family and friend social support as mediators of adolescent sibling victimization and mental health, self-esteem, and delinquency
850; 49% female) was conducted with a nationally representative sample of United States adolescents (Aged 10 to 17). Three mediation models were tested exploring (a) the unique effects of family and friend support, (b) the relative effects of each type of support, and (c) the effects of total support (family and friend support summed). The three models demonstrated partial mediation of adolescents' mental health and self-esteem. Family and total …
Sextortion of Minors
Screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
Patterns of Sibling Victimization as Predictors of Peer Victimization in Childhood and Adolescence
Homicide of children and adolescents in Mexico (1990–2013)
The trends and correlates of child and juvenile homicide rates in three developmental age groups (0-5, 6-11, and 12-17) during 1990–2013 in Mexico are examined by using vital statistical data. Homicide rates for adults and children were calculated yearly and the place where homicides occurred and the means used to commit homicide examined. Changes and continuities in homicide rates during 2002–2007 and 2008–2013 and their association with socio-e…
Effects of Poly-Victimization on Adolescent Social Support, Self-Concept, and Psychological Distress
Past research has demonstrated the particularly damaging effects of exposure to multiple forms of victimization, or “poly-victimization,” on youth mental health. The primary objective of the present study is to begin to identify the mechanisms that help explain its powerful impact. Analyses are based on two waves of longitudinal data from the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV), conducted in 2008 and 2010, that comprised …
Has Psychiatric Medication Reduced Crime and Delinquency
Several strands of research are consistent with the possibility that expansions in psychiatric medication usage have reduced crime and delinquency. Estimates suggest that medication usage has increased to as much as 9% of the youth population and up to 20% of the adult population in the United States and is high among populations associated with the criminal justice system. Studies show that four classes of commonly used psychiatric medication do…
The State of Interventions for Sibling Conflict and Aggression
Sibling conflict and aggression is often a pervasive part of family life that parents want help managing and can have negative effects on children’s well-being. The purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate current research regarding programs to reduce sibling conflict and aggression and promote positive sibling relationships. Online databases, reference lists, and Google Scholar were searched using key words and inclusion/exclusion criter…
Polyvictimization and Youth Violence Exposure Across Contexts
Identification of Child Maltreatment With the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales
The effect of lifetime victimization on the mental health of children and adolescents
Current Information on the Scope and Nature of Child Sexual Abuse
Approximately 150,000 confirmed cases of child sexual abuse were reported to child welfare authorities in the United States during 1993. This number represents about 15% of the more than one million confirmed cases of all child abuse and neglect. But the true scope of this problem is better reflected in retrospective surveys of adults, and this article summarizes data from 19 of these surveys. Considerable evidence exists to show that at least 20…
Why Have Child Maltreatment and Child Victimization Declined
Various forms of child maltreatment and child victimization declined as much as 40–70% from 1993 until 2004, including sexual abuse, physical abuse, sexual assault, homicide, aggravated assault, robbery, and larceny. Other child welfare indicators also improved during the same period, including teen pregnancy, teen suicide, and children living in poverty. This article reviews a wide variety of possible explanations for these changes: demography, …
The Exposure Of Youth To Unwanted Sexual Material On The Internet
This national survey of youth, ages 10 to 17, and their caretakers has several implications for the current debate about young people and Internet pornography. Twenty five percent of youth had unwanted exposure to sexual pictures on the Internet in the past year, challenging the prevalent assumption that the problem is primarily about young people motivated to actively seek out pornography. Most youth had no negative reactions to their unwanted e…
Corporal Punishment as a Stressor among Youth
This article addresses the impact of corporal punishment by parents on the psychological well-being of youth. The present research used the National Youth Victimization Prevention Study (NYVPS), a nationally representative sample of 1,042 boys and 958 girls, ages 10-16. Based on a stress-process framework, we examine: (a) the effects of frequency of corporal punishment experienced by youth ages 10-16 on psychological distress and clinically relev…
Community Disorder, Victimization Exposure, and Mental Health in a National Sample of Youth
This study considers whether elevated distress among youth living in more disordered neighborhoods can be explained by personal exposure to violence and victimization, level of non-victimization adversity, and family support. Analyses were based on a sample of 2,039 youth ages 10 to 17 who participated in the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence, a national telephone survey conducted in 2008. Using structural equation modeling, we f…
Explanations of pedophilia
We review a variety of theories that have been proposed to explain why adults become sexually interested in and involved with children. All the theories appear to be directed to explaining one of four factors: (a) emotional congruence—why the adult has an emotional need to relate to a child; (b) sexual arousal—why the adult could become sexually aroused by a child; (c) blockage—why alternative sources of sexual and emotional gratification are not…
Sex among siblings
Specifying Type and Location of Peer Victimization in a National Sample of Children and Youth
Family structure, victimization, and child mental health in a nationally representative sample
Improving services for youth survivors of commercial sexual exploitation
Patterns of Sibling Victimization as Predictors of Peer Victimization in Childhood and Adolescence
Response to Bauserman
No abstract available for this article
Clarifying labels, constructs, and definitions
Research on aggressive and abusive sibling dynamics has grown significantly but is characterized by a disjointed literature, confusion about the identification of harmful behaviors, and missed opportunities for increasing awareness and prevention and intervention activities. This paper proposes several important suggestions about the classification and differentiation of sibling aggression. First, there is a level of sibling aggression that merit…
The prevalence of corporal punishment in Australia
Corporal punishment is associated with adverse outcomes; however, little empirical data exists about the state of corporal punishment in Australia. This paper presents the first national prevalence estimates of experiences of corporal punishment during childhood among Australians and its use as adults by Australian parents and caregivers. We also report community beliefs about the necessity of corporal punishment. Results show corporal punishment…
Predictors of receiving counseling in a national sample of youth
Risk Factors for Family Abduction
Does Equality in Custody Arrangement Improve the Parent-Child Relationship
Victimization prevention programs for children
OBJECTIVE. This study examined whether victimization prevention instruction in school has any impact on children's behavior in situations of real victimization threat. METHODS. Telephone interviews were conducted in 1992 with a nationally representative sample of youths aged 10 to 16 and their caretakers, and the experience of 1457 of these children was followed up more than a year later. RESULTS. Exposure to a more comprehensive prevention progr…
Children Abducted by Family Members
Up Against the American Myth
The Family, Society and the Individual
What's wrong with sex between adults and children? Ethics and the problem of sexual abuse
The belief that sex with adults causes harm to children is often offered as the most compelling argument against such relationships, and is the basis for much current concern about sexual abuse. This paper argues for the importance of a stronger ethical position, less dependent on an empirical presumption that is not firmly established. It is suggested that basing the prohibition of adult-child sex on the premise that children are incapable of fu…
Sexually Victimized Children
Sex among siblings
Sexual Assault of Children and Adolescents
Sexually Victimized Children
Child Sexual Abuse
Understanding Violence in the Family
The traumatic impact of child sexual abuse
A framework is proposed for a more systematic understanding of the effects of child sexual abuse. Four traumagenic dynamics--traumatic sexualization, betrayal, stigmatization, and powerlessness--are identified as the core of the psychological injury inflicted by abuse. These dynamics can be used to make assessments of victimized children and to anticipate problems to which these children may be vulnerable subsequently. Implications for research a…
Child Sexual Abuse
Impact of child sexual abuse
This article reviews studies that have tried to confirm empirically the effects of child sexual abuse cited in the clinical literature. In regard to initial effects, empirical studies have indicated reactions-in at least some portion of the victim population-of fear, anxiety, depression, anger and hostility, aggression, and sexually inappropriate behavior. Frequently reported long-term effects include depression and self-destructive behavior, anx…
Impact of child sexual abuse
Revue de la litterature traitant des effets des agressions sexuelles contre des enfants et discussion de leurs effets immediats et a long terme et de l'impact des differents types d'agression
License to Rape
Explanations of pedophilia
We review a variety of theories that have been proposed to explain why adults become sexually interested in and involved with children. All the theories appear to be directed to explaining one of four factors: (a) emotional congruence—why the adult has an emotional need to relate to a child; (b) sexual arousal—why the adult could become sexually aroused by a child; (c) blockage—why alternative sources of sexual and emotional gratification are not…
A sourcebook on child sexual abuse
A Sourcebook on Child Sexual Abuse
The Prevalence of Elder Abuse
In this first large-scale random sample survey of elder abuse and neglect, interviews were conducted with 2020 community-dwelling elderly persons in the Boston metropolitan area regarding their experience of physical violence, verbal aggression, and neglect. The prevalence rate of overall maltreatment was 32 elderly persons per 1000. Spouses were found to be the most likely abusers and roughly equal numbers of men and women were victims, although…
Sexual Abuse and Its Relationship to Later Sexual Satisfaction, Marital Status, Religion, and Attitudes
In a large, nationally representative survey of 2,626 adult Americans, men and women who reported a history of childhood sexual abuse involving penetration were also more likely to report a disrupted marriage, dissatisfaction in their sexual relationship, and a tendency to be a religious nonpractitioner. Victims of abuse were also more likely to have read or talked about the problem recently and tended to see it as a more common occurrence than n…
Causes of elder abuse
Elderly abuse victims and a nonabused control group were compared to test the widely accepted proposition that such abuse results from the burden and stress placed on those caring for infirm and dependent elderly people. The study found substantially more support for the idea that abuse is associated with personality problems of the caregiver
Sexual abuse in a national survey of adult men and women
Early and long-term effects of child sexual abuse
nNew research on the impact of child sexual abuse generally confirms the conclusions of an earlier review article by Browne and Finkelhor and extends findings into a few new areas. For example, more studies are now available concerning the impact of abuse on boys, but they have not found consistent gender differences. Some longitudinal studies have also been completed; they show a decline in symptomatology in the months following disclosure. Two …
Estimating the number of stranger-abduction homicides of children
Response to Bauserman
No abstract available for this article
Children Abducted by Family Members
Psychology (84 works) · Medicine (72 works) · Poison control (66 works) · Child Abuse and Trauma (59 works) · Suicide prevention (51 works) · Injury prevention (45 works) · Medical emergency (43 works) · Clinical Psychology (39 works) · Developmental psychology (39 works) · Psychiatry (33 works)