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One in 14 adults in England and Wales were sexually abused as children, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, the first research of its kind.
An average of 7% of adults – 11% of women and 3% of men – told the
annual Crime Survey of England and Wales that they were sexually
assaulted during their childhood, after questions about child abuse were
introduced to the research for the first time.
The findings
suggest 567,000 women aged between 16 and 59 and 102,000 men in the
same age bracket suffered “sexual assault by rape or penetration” as
minors, in figures described as “utterly staggering” by campaigners.
John Flatley, from the ONS’s crime statistics and analysis
department, said police forces in England and Wales had been dealing
with a growing number of reports of child abuse in recent years. “Many
of these have been historical cases reported by adults many years after
the event,” he said. “These new ONS estimates, based on asking adults to
recall abuse experienced during their childhood, provide a more
comprehensive picture than has previously been available.”
An spokesman for the NSPCC
said including historical abuse in ONS figures was an important step
towards gauging the true level of child abuse in England and Wales, but
that it was important not to lose sight of the vulnerable children being
targeted today or the “cycle of historical abuse [would] rear its ugly
head in the future”.
The spokesman said: “Whilst it’s crucial that those who have suffered
are heard and the perpetrators of these awful crimes are brought to
justice, the authorities’ primary focus must be on identifying those who
are enduring abuse right now; helping them rebuild their lives, and
catching offenders to stop them from inflicting even more harm.”
The Crime Survey for England and Wales,
formerly known as the British Crime Survey, is used to estimate crime
levels and asks people aged 16 and over about their experiences of crime
in the last 12 months. Apart from sexual abuse, 9% of adults who took
part in the survey said they had suffered psychological abuse and 7%
physical abuse as children, while 8% said they had witnessed domestic
violence or abuse at home.
With the exception of physical abuse, women were more likely than men
to report abuse during childhood. This was most marked when it came to
sexual assault, where women were four times as likely as men to be a
survivor of such abuse during childhood.
Survivors of sexual assault by rape or penetration reported that the
perpetrator was most likely to be a friend or acquaintance (30%) or
other family member (26%). For other types of sexual assault, the
perpetrator was most likely to be a stranger (42%). For sexual assault
by rape or penetration, male victims (15%) were three times more likely
than females (4%) to report that they had been abused by a person in a
position of trust or authority, such as a teacher, doctor, carer or
youth worker.
Perpetrators of psychological and physical abuse were most likely to
be a parent, with 35% of psychological abuse survivors saying the
culprit was their father and 40% saying it was their mother, while 39%
of those who said they had been physically abused said the culprit was
their father and 29% said it was their mother.
Three in four victims also said they did not report what had happened
at the time, with the most common reason given being “embarrassment or
humiliation, or thinking that they would not be believed”.
The report also noted that older people were more likely to report
being abused than younger people, but added: “It is difficult to
determine whether this indicates a reduction in the prevalence of child
abuse in more recent years or whether it is due to survivors being more
willing to disclose past abuse the further in time they are away from
the experience.”
The
government minister for vulnerability, safeguarding and countering
extremism, Sarah Newton, said the government was determined to stamp out
all forms of abuse against children. “Having a comprehensive national
picture of the scale of these types of crimes is crucial to tackling the
problem and protecting our children and young people in the future and I
welcome the Office for National Statistics’ report,” she said.
“This government has done more than any other to lift the lid on
non-recent child sexual abuse and ensure the mistakes of the past are
not repeated, including establishing the independent inquiry into child
sexual abuse. We have also increased funding for violence against women
and girls’ services to £80m between now and 2020.
“But we are not complacent and know more must be done. Today’s
figures reaffirm just how important it is that we continue to work to
end child sexual abuse, create an environment where victims can report
abuse without fear of not being believed and give survivors the ongoing
support they need.”
A spokesperson for the Home Office said more and more perpetrators of
child sexual abuse were being brought to justice. In the year to
December 2015, 8,593 defendants were prosecuted for child sexual
abuse-related offences, up from 7,536 – a rise of 14% on the year to
December 2014. In the same time period 5,940 were convicted, up from
4,982 – an increase of 19% on the number of convictions in 2014.
Barnardo’s
chief executive, Javed Khan, said abuse and exploitation of children
must be “dragged from the shadows and placed firmly in the spotlight, to
prevent future generations of children becoming victims”. He said: “The
sheer scale of those who reported witnessing or being abused as
children is utterly staggering. It is everyone’s responsibility to keep
children safe.”
Source: theguardian.com/uk
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