Scale of historical child abuse to be examined in crime figures for first time
The scale of historical child abuse is set to be examined in official crime figures for the first time.
A new module of questions has been incorporated into the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), the Office for National Statistics said.
Adult respondents were asked whether they had experienced emotional, physical or sexual abuse as a child.
Information relating to relationships to the perpetrator, where the incident took place and the age at which the abuse started and finished, will also be gathered.
The CSEW is seen as the most authoritative indicator of crime rates because it takes account of offences not reported to or recorded by police.
It asks people aged 16 and over about their experiences of crime in the previous year in order to provide estimated numbers of incidents in England and Wales.
In an update on a three-year project to improve crime statistics published on Tuesday, the ONS said: “From time to time the Crime Survey includes additional questions on topical issues, and for this reason the 2015/16 Crime Survey for England and Wales incorporated for the first time a new module of questions on abuse experienced as a child.”
Results from the questions will be released in the summer, but they will not be included in the overall crime totals.
A blizzard of historical child abuse claims have surfaced in recent years and the research comes at a time of unprecedented scrutiny of allegations.
An NSPCC spokesman said: ‘It’s crucial that victims of past abuse get justice and support so they can rebuild their lives.
“It’s vital that those who have suffered abuse are helped, but this cannot be at the cost of those who are currently suffering, or those who are in danger of being targeted.
“The focus must be geared towards catching offenders and preventing them from inflicting more harm on vulnerable children.”
Meanwhile, a review will look into how the survey approaches the issue of victims who experience multiple incidents.
For certain crime types such as domestic violence, someone may suffer “repeat victimisation with a frequency that is difficult to quantify over a 12 month period”, the ONS said.
It added: “If left untreated survey estimates would be subject to large sample variability from year to year and this would result in the publication of incident rates which would fluctuate widely between survey years.”
In cases of repeat victimisation the CSEW has always only included the first five incidents in its estimate of the total number of “victimisations” in the population.
However, this approach has been criticised for failing to adequately address the phenomenon of repeat victimisation.
Statisticians also revealed they are exploring the use of an additional “weighted crime index” to be published alongside existing measures.
Currently official statistics of police recorded crime are presented as simple counts of the number of offences, meaning each carries an identical weight regardless of seriousness.
The ONS said: “The principle behind a weighted index is to have more serious crimes carry a higher weight than less serious crimes. As a result, changes in more serious crimes would have a greater impact on the index than on traditional crime rates.
“This would reduce the impact of high-volume, less serious offences and allow the index to better reflect the level of harm to society.”
It comes days after experts claimed the current approach is a “paper-and-pencil legacy of the 19th century” which presents crime in totals that give equal weight to shoplifting and homicide.
They proposed a new system which incorporates an assessment of the impact of a crime on the victim using sentencing guidelines.
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