ABSTRACT
In the summer of 1985, the Los Angeles Times newspaper ran an article captioned TWENTY-TWO PERCENT IN SURVEY WERE CHILD ABUSE VICTIMS (Timnick, 1985). The reporter, Lois Timnick, related the results of a nationwide Times poll. The study was gathered from 2,627 people, both female and male adults. Responses revealed 22% of the pollees had experienced sexual abuse during their childhood; of this number 27% were women and 16% were men. The highest percentage of crimes were committed by friends and acquaintances (41%), with strangers next (27%), and a near equal number performed by relatives (23%).
