Abstract
Sex crimes are an increasing phenomena that are changing society on many levels. Research exploring the statistics of reported sexual abuse has often led to a misconception of what an abuser is and what types of victims are susceptible to the abuse. This project focuses on details that have been unexplored, and examines what child sex crimes are, who commits them, effects on the victims, and how state level reporting systems collect, document, and categorizes sex crimes. Data were collected through available official documents from all of the fifty states’ Departments of Justice, or equivalent agencies, crime reporting documentation as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report. Through these primary sources, the nationwide data are used to reach a national average for sex crimes. This study found that of all fifty states in the United States, Virginia, Tennessee, and Wisconsin reported the most detailed crimes with regard to children, which allowed the researcher to create a profile of a susceptible child molestation victim. The remaining states provide little to no information on sex crimes against children.