No one knows which family member will sexually abuse a child, but with a grant an NIU professor will study the situation.

Joel Milner, a psychologist specializing in domestic violence, received a $500,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health for a three-year study.

“I was very fortunate to get the grant because the competition was tough,” Milner said. He said he submitted a written proposal for academic and administrative review by the institute.

Describing and predicting sexual child abuse within the family is the goal of the study, he said. He will try to discern whether there are similar characteristics among abusers which can be made into a scale to measure personalities objectively, he said.

“We know the existing methods of measurement aren’t valid,” he said. A personality scale could be used by social workers along with interviews and case history to help the social worker decide if further investigation is necessary, he said.

Milner has already developed a personality scale which assists in predicting physical abuse. If the sexual abuse study is successful, a follow-up study will be done and within ten years it could be used in the field, he said.

In Milner’s study, identified but untreated sexual abusers will voluntarily and anonymously fill out questionnaires. The questions will be based on theory and research literature, he said.

After the subjects are separated into age, marital status and education categories, the groups will be compared to see if members of one group differ from another, he said.

All of Milner’s research will be done out of Illinois and will not involve any study or treatment of individuals, he said.