ABSTRACT
To gauge by media attention and popular opinion, the prevalence of sexual crimes is not only escalating but their nature is becoming more gruesome as well. The US Department of Justice oversees the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which actually maintains nation-wide incidents of all crimes, including rapes and sexual assaults. Exhibitionism, frottage (rubbing up against a woman for sexual pleasure), and voyeurism are rarely listed in national crime statistics. Of all violent crimes committed in 2002, rape/sexual assaults numbered 349,810. Studies have indicated that up to 40% of all American women have been the victims of sexual abuse. In certain other countries and societies, these figures might be even higher. The declining rates of such abuse in America are encouraging but do not indicate that we can relax our efforts at prevention of such abuse. Among all sexual offenders, situational offenders who molest girls are probably the most common.
