David Finkelhor
Born1947 (age 76–77)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Harvard College (BA, 1968)

Harvard Graduate School of Education (MEd, 1971) University of New Hampshire (PhD, 1978)

Known forResearch on child abuse
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of New Hampshire
ThesisSexually victimized children and their families (1978)
Doctoral advisorMurray A. Straus
Websitewww.unh.edu/ccrc/researchers/finkelhor-david.html

David Finkelhor (born 1947) is an American sociologist known for his research into child sexual abuse and related topics. He is the director of the Crimes against Children Research Center, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory and professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire.

Life and career

Finkelhor graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1964, then attended Harvard College, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Relations in 1968. While at Harvard, he took courses at the Institut d'Études Politiques, University of Paris in 1967. He earned his M. Ed. in 1971 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and he received his Ph.D. in Sociology from University of New Hampshire in 1978 where he studied under Murray A. Straus.[1][2]

Finkelhor is also a senior faculty fellow and Master in Public Policy faculty member at the Carsey School of Public Policy.

Finkelhor began studying the child abuse problems of child victimization, child maltreatment and family violence in 1977. He is known for his conceptual and empirical work on the problem of child sexual abuse, reflected in publications such as Sourcebook on Child Sexual Abuse (Sage, 1986) and Nursery Crimes (Sage, 1988).[3] He has also written about child homicide, missing and abducted children, children exposed to domestic and peer violence and other forms of family violence. His 2008 book, Child Victimization, sought to unify and integrate knowledge about diverse forms of child victimization in a field he has termed "developmental victimology".

Finkelhor has received grants from sources including the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, and the US Department of Justice. In 1994, he was given the Distinguished Child Abuse Professional Award by the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. In 2004 he was given the Significant Achievement Award from the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. In 2005 he and his colleagues received the Child Maltreatment Article of the Year award, and in 2007 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology.

Finkelhor researches and has authored many studies, articles, and books on child sexual abuse. He is associated with the model which suggests that there are four preconditions which need to be met in order for child sexual abuse to occur:

  1. an offender with a predisposition to sexually abuse a child;
  2. the ability to overcome the offender's internal inhibitions against acting on that predisposition;
  3. an ability to overcome external barriers, such as lack of access to the child or supervision of the child by others;
  4. an ability to overcome any resistance or reluctance on the part of the child.[4]

He has stated that he intends to continue his research until he proves "an unambiguous and persuasive case that the problem [of child sexual abuse] is widespread".[5] According to Ken Plummer, he is "probably the most prominent sociologist at work in the field [of child sexual abuse]".[6]

In 1988 Finkelhor completed an investigation of child sexual abuse in daycares in the United States in response to the satanic ritual abuse panic[7] and co-authored a book with Linda M. Williams.[3] Mary de Young, a sociologist who has written about the moral panic that occurred along with the McMartin preschool trial, criticized the work for a lack of verifiable evidence and incorrect conclusions.[8]: 101–106  It was also cited by Bruce Rind[9] in his controversial work that concluded that the harm caused by child sexual abuse was not necessarily intense or pervasive.[10][11]

References

  1. ↑ David Finkelhor, Ph.D., Professor
  2. ↑ "Dissertation Catalog: Sexually victimized children and their families (Finkelhor, David, dissertant)". University of New Hampshire Library. University of New Hampshire. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
  3. 1 2 Finkelhor, David; Williams, Linda; Burns, Nanci (1988). Nursery Crimes: Sexual Abuse in Day Care. SAGE Publications. ISBN 9780803934009.
  4. ↑ Finkelhor, David; Cuevas, Carlos A.; Drawbridge, Dara (2016). "The Four Preconditions Model". The Wiley Handbook on the Theories, Assessment and Treatment of Sexual Offending. pp. 25–51. doi:10.1002/9781118574003.wattso002. ISBN 9781118572665.
  5. ↑ Finkelhor, David (1984). Child Sexual Abuse: New Theory and Research. New York: Free Press. p. 229. ISBN 9780029100202.
  6. ↑ Plummer, Kenneth (1985). "Review of Child Sexual Abuse: New Theory and Research by David Finkelhor". Contemporary Sociology. 14 (6): 712–713. doi:10.2307/2071423. JSTOR 2071423.
  7. ↑ Finkelhor, David; Williams, Linda M; Burns, Nanci; Kalinowski, Michael (1988). "Executive Summary - Sexual Abuse in Day Care: A National Study" (PDF). University of New Hampshire, Family Research Laboratory. Eric # ED292552. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
  8. ↑ de Young, Mary (2004). "A problem to Puzzle the Devil". The Day Care Ritual Abuse Moral Panic. McFarland & Company. pp. 97–106. ISBN 9780786426898.
  9. ↑ Rind, Bruce (2002). "The Problem with Consensus Morality". Peer Commentaries on Green (2002) and Schmidt (2002). Archives of Sexual Behavior. Vol. 31. pp. 479–503. doi:10.1023/A:1020603214218. S2CID 102340546.
  10. ↑ Rind, Bruce; Tromovitch, Philip; Bauserman, Robert (1998). "A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples" (PDF). Psychological Bulletin. 124 (1): 22–53. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.124.1.22. PMID 9670820. S2CID 16123776.
  11. ↑ Rind, Bruce; Tromovitch, Philip (2007). "National Samples, Sexual Abuse in Childhood, and Adjustment in Adulthood: A Commentary on Najman, Dunne, Purdie, Boyle, and Coxeter (2005)" (PDF). Archives of Sexual Behavior. 36 (1): 101–106. doi:10.1007/s10508-006-9058-y. PMID 17139555. S2CID 392041. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-04-16. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
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