Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

Divisive Govt rhetoric around asylum seekers & child sex abuse (CSA) is now indistinguishable from far-right rhetoric.

Consequently, people's understanding of these issues is very poor eg in 2019/20, CSA defendants were 92% WHITE & 99% MALE. 🇬🇧

theguardian.com/society/2023/a…

As with asylum seekers, & probably due to political rhetoric & sensational news reports, people's understanding of child sex abuse is poor. In England, the number of children on sexual abuse child protection plans reduced between 1993 & 2001, but has stayed fairly constant since.

However, the best evidence suggests that far more children are sexually abused than services identify, with up to 500,000 children being sexually abused, every year.

Despite Child Protection statistics, sexual abuse is just as common as other forms of childhood abuse. Child sexual abuse is prevalent across England & Wales, but partly because we live in a very unequal society, where children live impacts whether that abuse is identified.

And while there is now more reporting & police recording of child sexual abuse, there are fewer prosecutions & convictions, & the average time it takes from charge to completion at court is getting longer, going from 252 days in 2020/21, to 353 days in 2021/22.

Across England & Wales, 87,992 child sex abuse (CSA) offences were recorded by the police in 2019/20, slightly fewer than in the previous year.

Offences against children accounted for more than half of all sexual offences recorded by the police.

In 2019/20, 48% of sexual offences against females were committed against children under 18, and 65% of sexual offences against males were perpetrated against under-18s.

Only a small proportion (12%) of investigations into CSA offences were concluded with a decision to charge the offender(s) in 2019/20; the charge rate has fallen sharply from 37% six years earlier.

Charge rates vary by offence: in 2019/20, ‘abuse through sexual exploitation’ (23%) & ‘sexual grooming’ (15%) offences had the highest rates, while only 6% of offences relating to ‘rape of female child under 16’ or ‘sexual activity with a child under 13’ resulted in a charge.

Despite all the too often sensational & misleading rhetoric around child sex abuse, there are no agreed UK-wide definitions for CSA: all nations have their own definitions.

In England the definition is set out in the statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children.

I'm not going to print the definitions in this thread, not least because they are harrowing, & for many victims of sexual abuse, triggering.

If you want to know, the definitions can be found in this document.

csacentre.org.uk/documents/scal…

By 2019/20, the number of defendants prosecuted for CSA offences had fallen by more than one-third since its peak in 2016/17.

The court system recorded a total of 6,387 prosecutions and 4,870 convictions for CSA offences in 2019/20.

As the number of prosecutions has fallen, the conviction ratio has risen to 76% in 2019/20.

The vast majority of defendants were male (99%) & from White ethnic backgrounds (92%) in 2019/20.

Rates of CSA offences, charges and prosecutions all vary by local area.

Importantly, given the @Conservatives disgusting, misleading, dangerously irresponsible & divisive fearmongering, #misinformation, & far-right framing of so-called "grooming gangs", I want to end by emphasising how LITTLE we know about 'group-based child sexual exploitation'.

A 2020 Home Office review of the characteristics of group-based child sexual exploitation in the community concluded that perpetrators of this form of abuse are mainly male, with some evidence suggesting those offending in groups tend to be younger than those operating alone.

Contrary to the Govt's rhetoric & press headlines, it is very difficult to draw firm conclusions about the ethnicity of offenders, as existing research is limited & data collection is poor; but the best evidence suggests perpetrators who offend in groups are predominantly White.

Instead of using cheap grotesque & dangerous rhetoric, Britain would be a much safer place for children if the Government & the right-wing media acted more honestly, professionally, & responsibly in discussing child sex abuse, & not seek to make political capital from it.

It is increasingly obvious that safeguarding & child protection professionals across a range of agencies are not sufficiently equipped with the training, development & support necessary to enable them to apply knowledge & understanding of CSA with confidence. This costs money.

CSA has been eroded from the content of most core pre & post-qualification training programmes for safeguarding professionals.

Without that essential CSA training, it's unclear how social workers, police officers, teachers, doctors & nurses (all professions which have been demonised & scapegoated by the UK Govt) can be expected to confidently identify concerns & record them appropriately in data systems.

If professionals do not recognise the signs or are not confident to record & respond to them, agency data does not accurately reflect the scale of CSA that is occurring, so the issue appears less important & prioritisation of training & support declines further.

The result is that fewer children are protected from abuse or are supported to deal with its impacts and consequences.

The Government knows all this, but it prioritises cheap misleading rhetoric which result in culture war headlines in the Tory-supporting press, over solutions.

The absence of training & development for professionals has an even greater impact on the protection of sexually abused children who we know are already under-represented in the data (e.g. boys & young men, & children from minority ethnic groups).

Over the last few years, the Welsh Government & the UK Government have published 'strategic plans' to address child sex abuse.

We already know what works, so whether or not these plans makes any difference, remains to be seen.

csacentre.org.uk/documents/scal…