Winter Turns into Spring - The Blog

The latest statistics on the prevalence of child sexual abuse in England and Wales, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS)  bring together a range of different data sources from across government and the voluntary sector:

• The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates that 7.5% of adults aged 18 to 74 years experienced sexual abuse before the age of 16 years (3.1 million people); this includes both adult and child perpetrators.
• The abuse was most likely to have been perpetrated by a friend or acquaintance (37%); around a third (30%) were sexually abused by a stranger.
• The majority of victims did not tell anyone about their sexual abuse at the time, with 'embarrassment' being the most common reason.
• In the year ending March 2019, the police in England and Wales recorded 73,260 sexual offences where there are data to identify the victim was a child.
• At 31 March 2019, 2,230 children in England were the subject of a child protection plan (CPP) and 120 children in Wales were on the child protection register (CPR) for experience or risk of sexual abuse.

It’s Not Ok

• 1 in 20 children in the UK have been sexually abused. Over 90% of sexually abused children have been abused by someone they know, mostly someone who live in the same household.

• The NSPCC recorded a 57% rise of cases of Child Sexual Abuse at home and demand changes to support children. “Childline counselling sessions about sexual abuse in the family triple during lockdown” Child sexual offences jump 57% in 5 years | NSPCC 

The recent lockdowns aren't the cause of the rise but they definitely highlighted the  hidden horror some children have lived with for so long.

The organisation also reveals:

• girls were 4 times as likely to be victims
• there were more than 8,000 offences committed against 14-year-olds, making it the most common age group to report offences
• there were 12,374 sex crimes recorded against children under 10
• 449 offences were recorded against babies yet to reach their first birthday. 

It’s Not OK.

Although there is more and more awareness on Child Sexual Abuse there is still a lot of work to do. Most victims don’t ever disclose what they are going through as some are too young to even understand what is happening. They are very often groomed and threatened by the perpetrators (see The Grooming Process in Child Sexual Abuse) The very few children who disclose are not believed and more abuse often follows – from the abuser and from professionals. The non-abusive parent or carer of the victims are also very often treated as criminals and liars. They are  going through hell with the various organisations claiming the protect their family. They are failed time and time again and further re-traumatised.

It's not ok.

• If you are a parent or a carer and your child disclosed sexual abuse, please contact Mosac. This great organisation  offers various services, such as: a National Helpline (0800 980 1958), an advocacy service, free resources and Play therapy. 

• For adults survivors, One In Four has a telephone support line: Freephone 0800 121 7114
  Opening Hours 10am-12pm, 2pm-4pm & 6pm-8.30pm Available from November 2020 until March 2021

• Male survivors can find support from Survivors UK. The organisation has  a helpline, counselling and group therapy and more.

• For children under 18 years Old, the NSPCC also has a free telephone helpline: 0800 1111

It isn't ok to let children, victims and survivors suffer in silence. It isn't ok that those who fights on their behalf are also being silenced.

Please take good care of yourselves through this difficult time.

Sylvie

For more resources go on the website's Resources page.