An alarming 15% of U.S. families have had an “incest event,” according to a review of hundreds of published and peer-reviewed articles reviewed by BedBible, an intimacy and sexual health company.

Incest is sexual contact between close blood relatives. It is a crime in all states except Rhode Island and New Jersey, where incest between consenting adults (16 or over for Rhode Island, 18 or over for New Jersey) is not a criminal offense, though marriage is not allowed in either state.

The BedBible review, which spanned 1980 to 2023, also found:

• 32 million Americans report to have been the victims of incest as a child (12.7% of all adults in the U.S.).
• 1 in 5 girls has been a victim of incest (compared to 1 in 14 boys).
• Only 20% of incest victims report the crime to law enforcement.
• 46% of all children under 18 who are raped have been raped by someone in their own family.
• 74.4% of incest cases happen within the biological family.
• 25.6% of incest cases are with someone related, e.g. stepfather (without consanguinity).
• The most frequent type of incest is father-daughter incest (34.8% of all incest cases is father-daughter; 23.1% is brother-sister; 6.1% is mother-son).
• 15% of the females and 10% of the males reported some type of sexual experience involving a sibling.
• 70.8% of all who experienced incest were under 18 when it happened the first time (29.2% were 11 or younger, and 43.3% were 12 or younger).
• Over 50% of pornographic videos on Pornhub have an incestuous angle (title, video theme, or “characters played”).
• 90% of sexual abuse against children under 18 is perpetrated by members of the victim’s family.

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