Sexual abuse
Journalist briefing, July 2006
Definition:
The official definition is "sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities including prostitution, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including penetrative (e.g. rape, buggery or oral sex) or non-penetrative acts. They may include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, pornographic material or watching sexual activities, or encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways" (DfES, 2006)
Key Points:
Sexual abuse can take a number of different forms, including:
Enticing or forcing a child to engage in fondling, masturbation, oral or anal intercourse or sexual intercourse.
Making a child observe inappropriate sexual behaviour.
Showing a child pornographic books, videos or photographs or engaging them in inappropriate discussion about sexual matters.
Meeting a child following sexual "grooming", which is when an abuser builds up a relationship with a child with the intention of abusing them at some stage.
It is impossible to describe a typical sex abuser. They do not look different to other people and they behave in a variety of ways. An abuser may be a man or woman or another child or adolescent.
Research shows that children are more likely to be sexually abused by someone they know including relatives, family friends and people in positions of trust than by a stranger (Cawson et al., 2000).
Children do not always tell about abuse (Cawson et al., 2000) and abuse can continue for years.
Statistics:
In total 16% of children aged under 16 experienced sexual abuse during childhood. 11% of this was contact abuse and 6% was non-contact.
(Cawson et al., 2000, Child Maltreatment in the UK: A Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect, NSPCC, p.85)
1% of children under 16 experienced sexual abuse by a parent or carer and another 3% by another relative during childhood.
(Cawson et al., 2000, Child Maltreatment in the UK: A Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect, NSPCC, p.85)
11% of children under 16 experienced sexual abuse during childhood by people known but unrelated to them.
(Cawson et al., 2000, Child Maltreatment in the UK: A Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect, NSPCC, p.86)
5% of children under 16 experienced sexual abuse during childhood by an adult stranger or someone they had just met.
(Cawson et al., 2000, Child Maltreatment in the UK: A Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect, NSPCC, p.86)
Three-quarters (72%) of sexually abused children did not tell anyone about the abuse at the time. 27% told someone later. Around a third (31%) still had not told anyone about their experience(s) by early adulthood.
(Cawson et al., 2000, Child Maltreatment in the UK: A Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect, NSPCC, p.83)
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