Statistics

• Nearly a quarter of young adults experienced sexual abuse during childhood.
• 17,727 sexual crimes against children under 16 were recorded in England and Wales in 2010/11.
• Child abuse and neglect in the UK today (Radford et al, 2011) is a major piece of NSPCC research which interviewed 1,761 young adults aged 18-24 years; 2,275 children aged 11-17 years and 2,160 parents of children aged under 11. Experience of some form of sexual abuse:
• Nearly a quarter of young adults (24.1%) experienced sexual abuse (including contact and non-contact), by an adult or by a peer during childhood.
• One in six children aged 11-17 (16.5%) have experienced sexual abuse.
• Almost one in 10 children aged 11-17 (9.4%) have experienced sexual abuse in the past year. Teenage girls aged between 15 and 17 years reported the highest past year rates of sexual abuse.
• One in nine young adults (11.3%) experienced contact sexual abuse during childhood.
• One in 20 children aged 11-17 (4.8%) have experienced contact sexual abuse.
• Two thirds (65.9%) of contact sexual abuse experienced by children aged 0-17 was perpetrated by someone aged under 18. Disclosing sexual abuse
• More than one in three children aged 11-17 (34%) who experienced contact sexual abuse by an adult did not tell anyone else about it.
• Four out of five children aged 11-17 (82.7%) who experienced contact sexual abuse from a peer did not tell anyone else about it.
• From: Radford, Lorraine, Corral, Susana, Bradley, Christine, Fisher, Helen, Bassett, Claire, Howat, Nick and Collishaw, Stephan (2011) Child abuse and neglect in the UK today. London: NSPCC.

Child protection register statistics:

• There were 3,142 children in the UK on child protection registers or the subject of child protection plans under a category that included sexual abuse on 31 March 2011 (or 31 July 2011 in Scotland).
• 6% of all the children on child protection registers or the subject of child protection plans in the UK were under a category that included sexual abuse on 31 March 2011 (or 31 July 2011 in Scotland).

Crime statistics on sex offences:

• 17,727 sexual crimes against children under 16 were recorded in England and Wales in 2010/11.
• 32% of all sexual crimes (54,982 sexual crimes in total) recorded in England and Wales in 2010/11 were sexual crimes against children under 16.
• In 2010/11 the police in England and Wales recorded:
• 5,115 offences of rape of a female child under 16
• 918 offences of rape of a male child under 16
• 4,301 offences of sexual assault on a female child under 13
• 1,125 offences of sexual assault on a male child under 13
• 5,806 offences of sexual activity involving a child under 16
• 152 offences of abuse of children through prostitution and pornography
• 310 offences of sexual grooming.
• In 2010/11 the police in England and Wales also recorded 146 offences of abuse of a position of trust involving a child under 18.
• More than one third (38%) of all rapes recorded by the police in England and Wales in 2010/11 were committed against children under 16 years of age.

Child Abuse Images:

“Viewing child abuse imagery online is not a victimless crime and many people who view what the law classes as low level images will already pose, or go on to pose, a risk to children. We must remember that behind each image is a child victim being raped or abused.

There are currently 3 levels of images:

A – images involving penetrative sexual activity; images involving sexual activity with an animal or sadism. (this category is routinely described as rape and sexual torture.

B – images involving non-penetrative sexual activity

C – other indecent images not falling into A or B

• 417% increase in reports of child sexual abuse imagery in 2 years between 2013 and 2015
• 68,092 websites confirmed as child sexual abuse imagery in 2015, up 118% on 2014
• 112,975 reports made to IWF in 2015, an increase of 52% on 2014
• 34% of images were classed as Category A, which is rape or sexual torture of children
• 69% of victims assessed as “10 or under”
• 3% of victims assessed as “2 or under”
• Research shows up to 750,000 men in the UK have viewed child abuse imagery
• Up to 100,000 people in the UK involved in downloading and sharing child abuse imagery Offender statistics:
• 49,466 individuals were registered as sexual offenders in England and Wales on the most recent statistics. It is impossible to accurately know the scale of people who have not been arrested, or have been removed from the register.
• It is not possible to establish the number of sexual offenders against children in the UK, as the age of the victim of the sex offence is not given. Therefore these figures include sex offenders against adults as well as sex offenders against children.
• From: Ministry of Justice (2011) Table 1. In: Multi-agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) annual report 2010/11 (PDF). London: Ministry of Justice.
• 60-70% of child sex offenders target girls only, about 20-33% boys only, and about 10% children of either sex.
• “The majority of perpetrators sexually assault children known to them, with about 80% of offences taking place in the home of either the offender or the victim.”
• From: Grubin, Don (1998) Sex offending against children: understanding the risk (PDF). London: Home Office. pp.v-vi and p.26.