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David Finkelhor, PhD

JAMA. 1998;280:1864-1865.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In an important, unprecedented, and largely unnoticed development, there has been a dramatic decline nationally since 1992 in the cases of child sexual abuse being reported. This decline reverses a pattern of yearly increases that dates back to the late 1970s. Estimates for 1997 put the number of substantiated cases at 84,000 nationwide, down 40% from the early 1990s.¹ As a result, sexual abuse, which formerly constituted 14% of all episodes of child maltreatment, now constitutes only 8%.

The decline in child sexual abuse may be due to a new caution among and perhaps some intimidation of professionals and the public at large in the face of publicity about false reports, misguided prosecutions, and civil lawsuits.² It also may reflect the adoption of sounder, more conservative standards in the investigation of abuse.^3-4 But the decline also could be due to some real abatement of the problem, related . . . [Full Text of this Article]

From the Family Research Laboratory, University of New Hampshire, Durham.

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