What is Abuse?
A child is sexually abused when another person who is more sexually mature involves the child in any activity which the other person expects to lead to their sexual arousal or gratification. It is not just intercourse or touching but includes non touching activities which are sexually stimulating to the abuser.

It is defined by the Department of Health, Education and Home Office in their document “Working Together To Safeguard Children” 1999:
“Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including penetrative (e.g. rape or buggery) 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.”

Sexual Abuse Is Not New
Sexual abuse like every other kind of abuse is not a new problem. It has been with us since biblical times. In the Old Testament (2 Samuel 13) there is the story of Tamar, a young daughter of King David. Tamar was raped by her older brother Amnon probably age 13 or 14. The resulting chaos that followed led to the eventual death of Amnon and the heir apparent Absalom. Tamar is never mentioned again, but we are left in no doubt that her life was ruined.

How widespread is Sexual Abuse?
The figures are very upsetting. In 1991 a survey was done by the Child Abuse Studies Unit of the University of North London and revealed that one in two girls (59%) and one in four boys (27%) will experience child sexual abuse by the time they are 18.
(Definition of abuse any event or interaction which the young person reported as abusive/unwanted before the age of 18.)
Other surveys also confirm the high occurrence of sexual abuse in our society:

• 38% of girls sexually abused before the age of 18
• (Diana Russell et al The Secret Trauma 1986)
• 16% of boys are sexually abused before the age of 18
(David Finkelhor et al Sexual Abuse in a National Survey 1990)

A later study in 2000 (Cawson: NSPCC) also exposes that sexual abuse continues to be extremely prevalent in the UK with 11% of boys under 16 and 21% of girls under 16 experiencing sexual abuse in childhood.

The Internet also has made more readily available images of child sexual abuse. About 1.5m UK adults had seen child abuse online, the Internet Watch Foundation said in a report in October 2007.

Sadly, it is not a problem that is just confined to the West. In South Africa some surveys suggest that up to a third of South Africans believe that having sex with a virgin will cure the body of AIDS. This belief has led to rape of many babies. The Bangkok based international child protection campaign group (ECPAT – End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) has said that marriage contracts can be found all over the Middle East and South Asia to be a cloak for child abuse.

Who are Abusers?
Research in the UK also shows most abusers are known to the victims.
On TV and in the media abusers are usually portrayed as strangers in the park wearing dirty raincoats or men who are members of a paedophile ring. But that is not the case. I can personally testify that in over ten years of running a recovery group for women who have been sexually abused and speaking to several hundred victims I have never ever met any woman who was pulled off the street and abused by a total stranger. Research also shows that most abusers are not only known to the victim but related to them. They are not strangers at all.

An NSPCC report in 1986 “Child Sexual Abuse Trends in England and Wales” reported 86% of abusers were a relative or someone known to the child, only 14% were abused by strangers.

This pattern is repeated today. In 2005-2006 of the 11,976 children calling Childline about sexual abuse:
• 94% of knew their abuser
• 59% of abusers were family members,
• 35% were acquaintances
• 5% were strangers
• 22% of girls cited their father as the abuser
• 20% of boys cited their father as the abuser

Abusers also appear no different to any other man or woman and come from every social strata – builders, doctors, teachers or religious leaders.
DEH Russell completed a study in 1986 (The Secret Trauma NY1986) of 152 women who had been incestuously sexually abused:
• 32% of the perpetrators had upper middle class occupations
• 34% had middle class occupations
• 34% had lower class occupations.
There was also no extraordinary racial or ethnic preponderance among the abusers beyond that of the general population.

Why It Has Come To Light
Child sexual abuse may have been with us throughout the ages, but it has remained hidden, and it is only relatively recently in the UK that legislation protecting the victim has been implemented. Because sexual abuse was not seen it was believed to not exist. It is has only been since the 1980s that professional attention from social workers to GPs to teachers have been mobilised to look more closely at child sexual abuse. The ball actually started rolling after a survey was taken in 1986 by the BBC Programme “That's Life” asking viewers for their help in an investigation into child abuse. Three thousand adults (of whom 90% were women) completed the survey and 90% of them said they had experienced child sexual abuse.

They also found that children today were suffering as much as had their predecessors. It seems that after this highly publicised media event our society at last sat up and took notice that sexual abuse was happening – and was happening now.

As a direct result of this child care professionals and the voluntary sector established “Childline” a confidential help-line for children.

Today Childline continues to provide help and counsel for children and the statistics around sexual abuse continue to be high. In 2002 – 2003 Childline counselled over 120,000 children – over 22,000 (20% per cent) contacted Childline about sexual or physical abuse – sometimes both. In the 20 years between 1986 and 2006 Childline counselled more than 175,000 children about sexual abuse.

Childline says “children often don’t tell about abuse because they have been threatened into keeping silent or made to feel ashamed and guilty”.

Sadly the shame and silence often continues into adulthood.

Some positive news though – children are now calling earlier in the cycle of sexual abuse than they did when Childline first stated. Nearly 65% of children calling Childline in 1986 said the sexual abuse had been going on for more than a year by 2006 that had dropped to 23%.

Childline says “children often don’t tell about abuse because they have been threatened into keeping silent or made to feel ashamed and guilty”.

Sadly the shame and silence often continues into adulthood.