RECOMMENDATION AND SUMMARY
The Commissioner recommends that a survey of the prevalence of sexual violence and abuse, including historical/non-recent child sexual abuse, be considered in Northern Ireland.
It was a key recommendation of the 2019 Gillen report to conduct research into the ‘prevalence, extent, nature and experience of serious sexual offences’.
The prevalence research being proposed for consideration will enable government, statutory agencies and service providers to more effectively plan, resource and implement responses and services for victims and survivors of historical/non-recent child sexual abuse.
In line with current strategic and policy developments in Northern Ireland, including the Ending Violence against Women and Girls, and the Domestic and Sexual Abuse strategies, a focus on prevalence of historical/non-recent child sexual abuse is timely. It should be noted that a wider prevalence study of child abuse could be carried out which would incorporate child sexual abuse. Examples are provided in Appendix 2. Such a study would also fit with the wider study of Adverse Childhood Experiences in the population. In light of recommendations and developments in the wider strategy and policy environment and the very real presenting needs of victims, the Commissioner would advocate in the first instance a survey of the prevalence of sexual violence and abuse, including historical/non-recent child sexual abuse, be considered in Northern Ireland.
The impact of child sexual abuse on victims and survivors, including the frequency/intensity of interventions and resources which can also be significant even when a history of child sexual abuse is not disclosed, will be explored later in the paper. The implications for individual victims, communities, statutory and non[1]statutory service providers and policy-makers are stark. There are also financial implications which the Home Office has outlined in its recent report on the economic and social cost of child sexual abuse which will be explored later in the paper. See also Appendix 2.
The proposed study could draw on the recent Republic of Ireland model outlined at Appendix 2. This study is relevant for its capture of data relating to non-recent abuse, the perpetrator profile and the settings in which abuse occurred.
We have previously brought this proposal to the attention of officials leading on the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and the Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy 2023-2030
The case for a prevalence study into non-recent child sexual abuse in Northern Ireland
The knowledge of child sexual abuse—the recognition of its prevalence and the reality of its impact—has been lost and found in repeated cycles within society.
The Commissioner for Survivors of Institutional Childhood Abuse was established by the Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Act 2019. The Commissioner’s principal aim is to promote the interests of any person who suffered abuse while a child and while resident in an institution at some time between 1922 and 1995 (both inclusive). The Act requires the Commissioner to “provide advice on matters concerning the interests of victims and survivors to the Executive Office or a person providing services to victims and survivors… on whatever other occasions the Commissioner thinks appropriate” and empowers her to “make representations or recommendations to any person about matters concerning the interests of victims and survivors”.
It was a key recommendation of the 2019 Gillen report to conduct research into the ‘prevalence, extent, nature and experience of serious sexual offences’3 . Without adequate data, we are trying to support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse in a vacuum. This concern was also raised by the Northern Ireland Auditor’s Office (NIAO) in 2019, in relation to historical institutional childhood abuse. The NIAO stated that ‘data on the number of children who resided in residential homes over the period in question (1922 to 1995) is not complete and the Department is therefore currently unable to provide a reliable estimate of the numbers of eligible victims and survivors’.
While not claiming that a prevalence study on child sexual abuse including historical/ non-recent child sexual abuse would provide the answer to how many victims and survivors of historical/non-recent child abuse are in the population, such a study would at least provide an insight into incidence of historical/non-recent child sexual abuse as it occurred institutions. In the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, sexual abuse was one of the two main areas of complaint. Physical abuse often occurred in tandem with sexual abuse5 . Researching the incidence of historical/non-recent child sexual abuse in an institutional context could provide valuable insight. It may also go some way to partially engaging with NIAO concerns in at least providing some parameters around the potential scope of financial redress compensation.
The absence of such research highlights the challenges around understanding the wider incidence of child abuse/child sexual abuse and historical/non-recent child abuse which is compounded by relatively low disclosure rates among victims and survivors; many of whom are battling trauma and shame as a result of having been abused.
While the Commissioner recognises that research into all forms of child abuse is needed, in line with current strategic and policy developments in Northern Ireland, including the Ending Violence against Women and Girls and the Domestic and Sexual Abuse strategies, we are recommending that a survey into the prevalence of child sexual abuse in all of its forms, including historical/non-recent institutional child sexual abuse, be considered in Northern Ireland.
The Commissioner is concerned here with ‘historical/non-recent’ child sexual abuse: referring to abuse which occurred before an adult victim and survivor was 18 years old, and may have occurred many years ago. This follows the recent Republic of Ireland survey, which focused on abuse that occurred before the victim and survivor was 17 (the legal age of consent in the Republic of Ireland). The survey found a prevalence rate of childhood contact sexual violence of 20%. This timely publication may be helpful to consider in the context of establishing prevalence data in Northern Ireland.
The Commissioner wishes to draw attention to this model because it has yielded vital information about the prevalence of sexual violence in the Republic of Ireland, including reference to historical/non-recent abuse and information regarding settings of abuse and profiles of perpetrators. It shows, for example, that 7% of adults who experienced unwanted contact sexual violence as a child experienced it from a person in authority. The survey also finds that disclosure rates (not necessarily to police) are around 47%, indicating that sexual abuse is significantly more prevalent than we know. That figure is understood in the context of very real trauma victims and survivors live with as a result of the abuse perpetrated on them. The Commissioner witnesses firsthand the long term effects of child sexual abuse on adult victims and survivors of historical/ non-recent child abuse. In the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, sexual abuse was one of the two main areas of complaint. Physical abuse often occurred in tandem with sexual abuse. The pervasive, lifelong effects of child sexual abuse are well-documented.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences study found that childhood adversity (including sexual abuse) affects adults throughout their lives as a primary cause of mental illness, addiction and chronic disease. Research on the social impacts of institutional child abuse, for example, finds victims and survivors often report adverse outcomes to both interpersonal relationships and self-regulatory behaviours. Social and relational difficulties, parenting difficulties, substance abuse, criminal behaviour and re[1]victimisation, as well as feelings of shame, guilt and self-blame are among the negative impacts. Researchers have also found that institutional child sexual abuse is associated with vicarious trauma at the individual, family and community level. Where abuse occurs in religious settings, there are implications for the spiritual wellbeing of victims and survivors.
Child sexual abuse of all forms has far-reaching implications for public health, justice, technology, education, and the economy. The Home Office’s recent report on the economic and social cost of contact child sexual abuse estimates the financial and monetised non-financial cost relating to all survivors who experienced child sexual abuse in England and Wales in the year up until April 2019 as at least £10.1 billion. 64% of these costs are borne by victims and survivors, the rest by governments.
The costs include prevention, education, treatment, justice, physical and emotional harms to victims and survivors, and lost economic output. The recent final report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in England and Wales estimates that 1 in 6 girls and 1 in 20 boys experience sexual abuse before the age of 16. This represents a population level estimate of 3.1 million adults in England and Wales having experienced child sexual abuse. Other international studies bear this out. The Australian Child Maltreatment Study found a 28.5% rate of child sexual abuse. In North America it was 10.4%. Global estimates ranged from 8 to 31% for girls and 3 to 17% for boys. There is critical consensus that adequate data collection is both an essential and largely absent tool in current global efforts to support victims and survivors and prevent sexual violence. We already know that statistics for sexual crimes do not show the full prevalence of child sexual abuse.
The NSPCC, for example, reports that findings from research studies reveal much higher numbers of children who have been abused than statistics provided by services, which demonstrates the significant under-reporting in this area. Evidence suggests that more people will disclose abuse during research because they may do so anonymously and confidentially, without concern about an investigation from the authorities or the effect on their family.
Prevalence data will also yield information about the profile of those who harm children, with some evidence suggesting that around 40% of institutional child sexual abuse could result from harmful sexual behaviour displayed by other children under 18 years. This has significant implications for how we work with victims and survivors.
The lack of data on child sexual abuse can be considered in the context of human rights: the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, in the fifth periodic report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (CRC/C/GBR/5) recommends that governments: “Strengthen the systematic collection of data and recording of information on violence against children, including domestic violence, gender-based violence, abuse and neglect, in all settings, and the sharing of information and referral of cases among relevant sectors”.
Establishing baseline data will make not only the extent of child sexual abuse, but also victims and survivors themselves, visible, and place them at the centre of efforts to support them. Stubley and Taggart note that the Truth Panel, (one arm of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse), heard testimony from over 6000 adult survivors of child sexual abuse. This ‘created a new space for speaking about [child sexual abuse], that is ‘more stable and culturally validated’ and potentially fills ‘a lacuna that has surrounded responses to non-recent [child sexual abuse], a gap created because of … failures in recognizing … the scale of the problem.’ However, the report concludes that the lack of reliable data which measure the current prevalence of child sexual abuse in England and Wales (and across the UK) impedes the ability of statutory agencies and society more generally to prevent and respond appropriately to child sexual abuse.
Current important initiatives such as the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategic Framework and the Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy tie in very closely with the need to estimate the prevalence of child sexual abuse in Northern Ireland. The Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy, for example, highlights a ‘need for local research and disaggregated data to inform policy and service development.’ Recent reports published in Northern Ireland including ‘Every Voice Matters’ and ‘It’s Just What Happens’ show that sexual violence increasingly affects women and girls. ‘Every Voice Matters’ shows that 50% of girls experience a form of violence or abuse before the age of 11, and that 8% of girls experience child sexual abuse.
There is an opportunity to build on this important work, to understand the prevalence of child sexual abuse more broadly. The extent of child sexual abuse in Northern Ireland, affecting both girls and boys, is still not known, and the policy landscape remains fragmented. The results of a comprehensive prevalence survey will provide a baseline for levels of sexual abuse and violence in Northern Ireland, focusing service provision for victims and survivors, driving policy and interventions to treat, recompense and prevent child sexual abuse. The research will not reflect the reality of those who experienced sexual abuse and violence in these institutions, and who have died, many before their time. Nor will it reveal the reality of those who left Northern Ireland and who now live elsewhere. This research is important for children in Northern Ireland and the adults they will become. It also matters for the adult victims and survivors and the children they once were.
Appendix 1: Policy Context
A prevalence study will support the work of the Commissioner in promoting the interests of victims and survivors of historical institutional childhood abuse and seeking to create a legacy approach of positive action to acknowledge the scale and impact of such abuse and plan accordingly.
The findings of a prevalence study could have implications for departments and agencies working across education, health, communities, and justice where the impact and legacy of childhood abuse on supports and services can be most acutely felt, and where reliable data can allow responses to be better planned, trauma[1]informed and resourced.
The study will also support an Outcomes based approach to the Programme for Government, which promotes the need for a whole societal approach, drawing together scientific and technical expertise and the use of relevant data to target resources where need is greatest and monitoring arrangements to track the impact of interventions should be in place.
It will provide an opportunity for cross-departmental engagement and support the delivery of strategic and policy priorities for government, tying in with current initiatives such as the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategic Framework and the Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy.
The study will drive state responses to systemic failures to prevent and respond to non-recent child abuse. This concern was identified by the Northern Ireland Audit Office in relation to the financial compensation redress scheme established for victims and survivors of historical/non-recent institutional childhood abuse.
Studies such as these are perceived to potentially cause high distress to participants. However, the recent Australian Child Maltreatment Survey found that participant distress is infrequent and transitory, and that it is possible to fulfil ethical requirements to participants and demonstrate trauma-informed practice. Even distressed participants maintained that their involvement was worthwhile.
Appendix 2 COMPARATIVE TABLE OF PREVALENCE STUDIES is available in the PDF below.