Female child sex abuse 'remains taboo' while victims struggle
Helen Clifton & Melanie Abbott
BBC File on 4
Victims of female child sexual abusers face "enormous stigma and shame", according to police and charities.
Figures from BBC Radio 4's File on 4 show there were over 10,400 reports of this type of abuse from 2015 to 2019 - equivalent to an average of 40 a week.
Experts say there is still a "lack of understanding" about the extent of such abuse.
The UK government said it would not allow "any safe space for sex offenders to operate - male or female".
Between 2015 and 2019, the numbers of reported cases of female-perpetrated child sexual abuse to police in England and Wales rose from 1,249 to 2,297 - an increase of 84%.
Dr Andrea Darling, a criminology researcher at Durham University - who has looked at 40 cases of male and female teachers who sexually abused students - said the File on 4 figures represented the "tip of the iceberg".
She said that although all child sexual abuse was underreported, there was a particular "lack of understanding" of the extent of female-perpetrated abuse.
"That means that potentially abusive behaviour that may have been picked up if the perpetrator had been a male is explained away," she said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55338745
BBC File on 4
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Victims of female child sexual abusers face "enormous stigma and shame", according to police and charities.
Figures from BBC Radio 4's File on 4 show there were over 10,400 reports of this type of abuse from 2015 to 2019 - equivalent to an average of 40 a week.
Experts say there is still a "lack of understanding" about the extent of such abuse.
The UK government said it would not allow "any safe space for sex offenders to operate - male or female".
Between 2015 and 2019, the numbers of reported cases of female-perpetrated child sexual abuse to police in England and Wales rose from 1,249 to 2,297 - an increase of 84%.
Dr Andrea Darling, a criminology researcher at Durham University - who has looked at 40 cases of male and female teachers who sexually abused students - said the File on 4 figures represented the "tip of the iceberg".
She said that although all child sexual abuse was underreported, there was a particular "lack of understanding" of the extent of female-perpetrated abuse.
"That means that potentially abusive behaviour that may have been picked up if the perpetrator had been a male is explained away," she said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55338745
31-35, M
