Lifetime prevalence and incidence of sexual victimization of adolescents in institutional care.

The frequency of sexual victimization in high-risk populations like adolescents in institutional care has hardly been studied. In this study, we report lifetime prevalence and incidence from a nationwide German sample including 322 adolescents (mean age 16.69 years, 43% female) from 20 residential care facilities and 12 boarding schools. Lifetime prevalence for severe sexual victimization (in and outside of institution) was 46.7% for girls and 8.0% for boys. Moreover, 5% of all adolescents experienced severe sexual victimization for the first time after they were admitted to the current institution (mean duration of stay in the current institution 3.08 years). Offenders were mostly adolescents of the same age whereas staff members played a minor role as perpetrators. We conclude that the high rate of sexual victimization among adolescents in institutional care should be considered during decision-making processes concerning out-of-home placement and during a stay in residential care.