Surge in child sexual abuse and exploitation offences highlighted in reports

Developed by the Vulnerability Knowledge Practice Programme (VKPP), it reveals that around a third of CSAE contact crimes take place within the family environment and more than half of offences (where the age was known) were committed by children aged ten to 17.

Offending ranged from experimental image-based abuse to serious contact offences.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) says based on datasets collected from 44 police forces, this national snapshot gives “refreshed, enhanced insight and analysis” into the scale and nature of reported CSAE, trends in offending, including crime types, and presents profiles of both victims and perpetrators.

“Understanding the scale and nature of CSAE, by which we mean the sexual abuse of children, is key to improving responses across policing, law enforcement, government, the charity sector, and partners,” it added.

“It is known that there is significant under-reporting of these crimes, but policing recognises the value of presenting a known baseline of recorded abuse and harm taking place against children, to inform future understanding.”

Becky Riggs, NPCC lead for child abuse protection and investigation said: “Child sexual abuse and exploitation are horrendous crimes and this analysis helps us all to understand more about the real risks that children face as they grow up in today’s society.”

“Our work to prevent and protect children from the terrible harm of sexual abuse and exploitation never stands still and this report helps police and our partners to develop and improve our prevention, disruption, and investigation of these appalling crimes. Keeping all children safe is our shared mission.

“It’s the victims and survivors of abuse that really matter here. Behind every one of these offences is a child that has suffered harm and that’s something we never lose sight of. Many crimes are not reported or identified, with estimates that 500,000 children are sexually abused every year – a truly shocking number.

“Prioritising prevention is critical. We must stop the CSAE from happening and prevent so many children and young people from enduring the long term harm that abuse brings. At the same time we must give confidence to victims to come forward, safe in the knowledge that they will receive a compassionate and professional response. Policing must continue to relentlessly pursue offenders to justice, whilst not unnecessarily criminalising children engaged in harmful behaviours where appropriate.

“Children deserve to grow up safe in the knowledge that those responsible for protecting them from harm will work relentlessly to prevent abuse, improve outcomes for victims and bring perpetrators to justice.”

Jess Phillips, Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, said: “This report pulls back the curtain on the truly appalling magnitude of child sexual exploitation and abuse across England and Wales. It is paramount we do more to protect children from these horrors.

“In January, the Government announced a raft of new measures and an investment of £10 million that will allow us to do that and drive change at a local level.

“We are introducing mandatory reporting for adults working or volunteering with children in England as part of the Crime and Policing Bill. In addition, anyone trying to cover up abuse by interfering with the duty to report can go to prison for up to seven years. The UK will also become the first country in the world to make it a criminal offence to possess, create or distribute AI models designed to generate vile online child sexual abuse material.

“We are steadfast in our determination to keep children safe and go after abusers.”

Now in its second year, this annual report from the VKPP sets out publicly a clear, detailed picture of reported CSAE crimes across England and Wales.

Meanwhile, another report just released by the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre) shows a record number of charges for child sexual abuse offences were made by police forces in England and Wales in 2023/24, but a majority of investigations are closed with no further action due to evidential difficulties.

The report, ‘Child sexual abuse 2023/24: Trends in official data’, reveals that the number of people charged after sexually abusing a child increased significantly in the past year.

Police in England and Wales recorded 101,199 child sexual abuse offences in 2023/24 – the third year in a row where police forces recorded more than 100,000 offences. They recorded more charges brought against suspects of child sexual abuse (13,098) than ever before. In the courts, meanwhile, proceedings were brought against 9,215 defendants for child sexual abuse offences in the year to December 2023, which is the highest number since 2016 and 15 pe cent more than the previous year.

While these remain comparatively low figures overall, this small positive trend suggests more justice outcomes being pursued in response to more sexual abuse offences against children, says the CSA Centre.

It added: “These improvements occurred around the same time as the introduction of the new national operating model for investigating adult rape and serious sexual offences, which may suggest these changes have modestly but positively influenced the policing response to sexual offences against children as well.

“Although there has been an increase in charges and court proceedings for child sexual abuse offences, the majority of investigations (60 per cent) continue to be closed with no further action due to evidential difficulties.

“There are many reasons for this, but worryingly research shows that children are too often left without wider safeguarding responses and support when police investigations conclude with no further action.”

“The average length of a police investigation into sexual offences resulting in a charge increased by two in 2023/24, bringing time between recording a crime and a charge to 277 days. For rape offences, the average length of an investigation resulting in a charge was even longer at 423 days – well over a year. The average time taken for a child sexual abuse case to progress from charge to completion in the courts was 260 days, meaning victims and survivors of child sexual abuse face significant waits in the criminal justice system.

Overall, forces in England and Wales recorded four per cent fewer child sexual abuse offences compared to the last year, which was in line with an overall three per cent reduction in all recorded offences in 2023/24 excluding fraud and computer misuse. The four per cent overall decrease in recorded offences of child sexual abuse was not uniform across the 43 police force areas in England and Wales. Three-quarters (32) of police forces recorded fewer child sexual abuse offences than in 2022/23, while one quarter (11) recorded more.

For the first time, the CSA Centre analysed data on what happens after someone is convicted of child sexual abuse offences. The number of people subject to a Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) following a conviction of sexual offences against adults or children in England and Wales increased over the past decade from around 46,000 to over 70,000. Of these, three quarters are monitored by the police in the community.

The responses to safeguard and protect children when there are concerns of sexual abuse must be matched across all agencies, with robust protective activity taking place alongside criminal justice investigations. In contrast with policing, Local authority children’s services in England placed just 2,160 children on child protection plans for sexual abuse in 2023/24, the lowest number in the 30 years that this data has been collected. The number of child needs assessments recording any form of sexual abuse as a concern fell by eight per cent since the previous year, despite there being no drop in the overall number of assessments which recorded safeguarding concerns.

The CSA Centre, hosted by Barnardo’s, is concerned that far more children are sexually abused than services currently identify, and that the absolute number of children that local authorities provide a formal protection response to continues to fall, according to the data they collect. They suggest that the findings reflect an increasing difference in prioritisation given to protecting and support children from sexual abuse.

Ian Dean, director of the CSA Centre, commented: “This year we have already seen significant debate about how children are protected from sexual abuse. Yet our latest analysis shows that child sexual abuse is less likely to be identified and named as a concern in child protection plan than ever before.

“We continue to estimate that at least half a million children will experience sexual abuse each year, and the gap between this estimate and those actually identified and supported by safeguarding professionals remains far too wide.

“Today’s report, and the reports, inquiries and investigations proceeding it, underline the need for system-wide change in how sexually abused children are identified, responded to and protected by all statutory safeguarding agencies. We need to build a system where professionals have strong leadership, clear guidance, and proper support to identify abuse early and prevent further harm. Around all of this we need to build capacity across our society to prevent abuse from happening. These long-standing issues require concerted and determined cross-government activity, with sustained commitment over the coming years.”

In November, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s investigation into child sexual abuse in the family environment highlighted the need for the police, among other safeguarding partners, to fully engage in multi-agency safeguarding processes. It highlighted significant and long-standing issues in how children’s services respond to child sexual abuse and made a clear recommendation that the Government should take the necessary steps to ensure that professionals have the necessary skills, knowledge and capabilities to identify and respond to concerns of child sexual abuse.

The CSA Centre is calling for a sustained, long-term commitment ensure that professionals working with children are properly equipped to more effectively identify and respond to sexual abuse in all its forms.

Lynn Perry, Barnardo’s chief executive, said: “This report by the CSA Centre makes it clear that thousands of children experiencing sexual abuse are going undetected and unsupported.

“Being a victim of sexual abuse has devastating, life-long consequences for children, and we know from our work supporting thousands of victims and survivors across the UK that many don’t get the support they need and are at continued risk of harm.

“We urge the Government to use the new Crime and Policing Bill to make the changes that child victims of sexual abuse desperately need. It rightly includes measures to protect children and provide help for professionals to identify abuse and act effectively – but we also call on the government to make sure all children who have been abused or exploited have access to the specialist support services they need.

“There is a unique opportunity here to improve how professionals who are responsible for keeping children safe work better together, and provide the right level of funding, so that police officers, social workers, teachers and others have the resources they need to identify children at risk of abuse, put the right support in place, and give them back their future.”

Annie Hudson, chair of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, said the report “highlights some very concerning trends”.

“It is worrying that the number of children on a child protection plan for sexual abuse is now at the lowest level since the data started being recorded 30 years ago,” she said.

“We know that there is a huge disparity between the number of children suffering sexual abuse and the number of investigations and convictions. As our recent national review demonstrated, the current safeguarding system means children are all too often ignored or disbelieved and the risk posed by adults within the family is frequently misunderstood or minimised.

“It is vital that we recognise the challenges children face in verbally reporting sexual abuse, and that practitioners have the knowledge, skills and confidence to identify and respond to concerns. It is critical, therefore, that government provides strong leadership and delivers a robust strategy to address its stark reality of child sexual abuse in all its forms.”