David Finkelhor

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.

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).

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". According to Ken Plummer, he is "probably the most prominent sociologist at work in the field [of child sexual abuse]".

In 1988 Finkelhor completed an investigation of child sexual abuse in daycares in the United States in response to the satanic ritual abuse panic and co-authored a book with Linda M. Williams. 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. It was also cited by Bruce Rind in his controversial work that concluded that the harm caused by child sexual abuse was not necessarily intense or pervasive.