Research

"The second most common context of victimization involved cases we identified as child predation. These were cases of police sexual violence in which the victim was a minor less than 18 years of age. We identified 135 cases of police sexual violence that occurred within the context of child predation. These cases comprised just over 20 percent of all the identified in our study. Roughly one-fifth of all victims of child predation were age 13 or less (n = 26). Cases of child predation commonly resulted in serious injuries to the victim (n = 95, or 70% of all cases of child predation). A comparatively large percentage of child predation cases occurred while the officer was off-duty (n = 56; 41.5%).

The crimes were detected by citizen complaints in almost all of these cases (94.8%). The officer’s employing agency made the arrest in less than one-third (31.1%) of the child predation cases. The most serious offense charged in these cases was most commonly forcible fondling (42.2%), forcible rape (20%), forcible sodomy (11.9%), and statutory rape (10.4%). Arrested officers were known to have been convicted in 70.4% of these cases, with a majority of those being a felony conviction. Arrested officers were known to have been terminated from their job in less than one-half of the child predation cases (48.9%). Arrested officers were known to have been suspended in 62.2% of the child predation cases."

Cite: Stinson PM, Taylor RW, Liederbach J. The Situational Context of Police Sexual Violence: Data and Policy Implications. Fam Intim Partn Violence Q. 2020 Spring;12(4):59-68. PMID: 35959203; PMCID: PMC9365085.

To learn more, access the full article here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9365085/