.Nine-year-old Melissa undresses younger playmates on the school ground and mimics sexual acts.

.Eleven-year-old Aaron was caught masturbating a classmate of the same age and sex in the boys’ bathroom at school.

The above children all have one similarity: They are sexually reactive children. In other words, they act out in sexual ways because they themselves have been abused sexually in the past. It is behavior that is learned.

The Awareness Center, an organization located in Baltimore, Maryland that aims to prevent and address child sexual abuse, reports that 25 to 40% of all alleged sexual abuse involves young perpetrators.

A 2001 study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed that many sexual crimes against children and adults (but mostly younger children) are committed by juveniles aged between 12-18; during 1999, juveniles accounted for 16% of all violent crimes in the U.S. and 17% of total arrests for forcible rape.

Dr. Phil Rich, MSW, writes in Self-Help Magazine that 7-15% of juveniles treated for sexually abusive behavior will commit a further offense at some later point.

Not all sexually reactive children behave this way because of direct experience with sexual abuse. Some mimic pornography belonging to a relative or household member. Some imitate what they may see in their own parents’ or older sibling’s room.

Some topics in this essay:
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