Child abuse in England

[Sriram]

Hi everyone,

Here is a BBC report on the number of child abuse cases in Britain (England) that are missed or not reported.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34904705

**************
Only one in eight children in England who are sexually abused are identified by authorities, a study suggests.

Police and local authorities found 50,000 cases of abuse in the two-year period from April 2012 to March 2014.

But a report by the children's commissioner suggests the actual number was up to 450,000, with 85% of cases missed, particularly within families.

The government says it has set up a taskforce to change the way police, schools and social services react.

She said: "We must now wake up to and urgently address the most common form of child sexual abuse - that which takes place behind the front door within families or their trusted circles."

Estimated total incidence - 425000

In system                         -  49673

Reported to police            -  37844

Convictions                       -   6414

It drew on a recent study of child maltreatment, which found 11.3% of young adults aged 18-24 had experienced sexual abuse during childhood, and calculated results based on the 11.5m children and young people living in England.

***************

Not a pleasant subject for discussion but British people need to know this.

For information.

Cheers.

Sriram

[Bubbles]

Hi everyone,

Here is a BBC report on the number of child abuse cases in Britain (England) that are missed or not reported.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34904705

**************
Only one in eight children in England who are sexually abused are identified by authorities, a study suggests.

Police and local authorities found 50,000 cases of abuse in the two-year period from April 2012 to March 2014.

But a report by the children's commissioner suggests the actual number was up to 450,000, with 85% of cases missed, particularly within families.

The government says it has set up a taskforce to change the way police, schools and social services react.

She said: "We must now wake up to and urgently address the most common form of child sexual abuse - that which takes place behind the front door within families or their trusted circles."

Estimated total incidence - 425000

In system                         -  49673

Reported to police            -  37844

Convictions                       -   6414

It drew on a recent study of child maltreatment, which found 11.3% of young adults aged 18-24 had experienced sexual abuse during childhood, and calculated results based on the 11.5m children and young people living in England.

***************

Not a pleasant subject for discussion but British people need to know this.

For information.

Cheers.

Sriram

We are already aware there may be an issue, and it is on our UK news ATM. ( this exact second)

At least in the UK such things are looked into and people charged.

I'd worry more about countries that blindly refuse to accept they might have an issue.

[floo]

I suspect that even though child sexual abuse is these days brought to the fore, and treated more seriously than in the past, a lot of paedophiles still get away with the abuse, as it is often family or friend related. My husband was sexually abused by an uncle by marriage in the early 50s when he was five. He told his father who believed him, and had a stern word with the uncle, but did not report him to the police! It never happened again where my husband was concerned, but as the uncle had a part-time hobby as a clown entertaining kids at parties one wonders how many of them he touched up?

[Sriram]

There is another related article on pedophilia and its possible causes.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34858350

*************

"Paedophilia is a sexual orientation," he says. "Paedophilia is something that we are essentially born with, does not appear to change over time and it's as core to our being as any other sexual orientation is."

Cantor found that the brains of the paedophiles he studied were wired differently to non-paedophiles - something he describes as effectively a "cross-wiring" of the brain. "It's as if, in these people, when they perceive a child, it's triggering the sexual instincts instead of triggering the nurturing instincts," he says.

He also says that convicted paedophiles are three times more likely to be left-handed or ambidextrous than the rest of the population - and that they are significantly shorter than other convicted criminals. It must be stressed that doesn't mean short and left-handed people are significantly more likely to be paedophiles, but these are characteristics that are generally determined during the first trimester of pregnancy - suggesting paedophilia could be determined at the same time, Cantor says. A possible cause may be maternal stress or malnourishment.

Cantor's work provides an alternative explanation of how paedophilia develops. However, it carries with it the stark implication that, if you are born a paedophile, you are condemned to stay a paedophile.

This is strongly disputed by many, including Dr Paul Fedoroff, director of the Sexual Behaviours Clinic at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.

Fedoroff maintains he is able to "cure" paedophiles, making use of anti-androgen drugs to temporarily remove their sex drive.
"We take sex off the table," Fedoroff says. "We give them a chance then to develop healthy lifestyles." Those being treated are able to get a job and hopefully build up a consensual relationship with an adult "that's not primarily based on sex".

"Once they're in that situation… then we stop the anti-androgens and their sex drive comes back. And it turns out that if it develops into a normal healthy relationship, they start to have sexual activities with their partner which they both enjoy. Their preference changes to adult."

Breakdown of abusers (In England between April 2012 and March 2014)
40% - male family friend or neighbour
25% - father
16% - uncles
14% - stepfathers
13% - grandfathers
10% - mothers

**************