Preliminary Analysis of Indiana Adults' Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Surveys on Sexual Assault

State of Indiana is one of the highest rates of adolescent sexual assault with low reported cases in the United States. With this backdrop, the present research attempts to collect data from which we might assess the extent to which such crimes are underreported. The Adverse Childhood Experience survey, created by the CDC and Kaiser Permanente, was used to ask individuals’ experience of sexual assault during adolescence. Based on the population analysis, 664 mail surveys were distributed to 92 counties in the state of Indiana, using a random assignment method. As a result, 137 survey responses (female: 88.3%, Mage: 35.18 years, White: 90.5%) were returned (20.63% response rate). Preliminary analysis was performed to examine the descriptive statistics, using SPSS. Findings suggest that 12.4% of the respondents reported that they were sexually abused as a child and 7% reported that a therapist of counselor suggested to them that they were sexually abused as a child. 9.5% of the respondents reported that a boy or group of boys about their own age ever forced or threatened to harm them in order to have sexual contact, during first eighteen years. Of the respondents, 37.1% involved someone touching their sexual parts or trying to have intercourse with them (oral, anal, vaginal) and 33.3% involved a person actually having intercourse with them. Family members and friends were identified as sexual abusers. The informative findings will guide policy makers and public health practitioners to prevent adolescent sexual assault.