One In Every Five Child Abusers ‘Is A Woman’

One in five children reporting sex abuse to a helpline said their abuser was a woman, a new study has revealed. A report into the findings by ChildLine Scotland, said more needs to be done to raise awareness of child sex abuse by women, after the charity found 20 per cent of young victims who called its telephone support line said the perpetrator was female.

It also said that children who are the victims of sexual abuse by people they know are not getting the help they need because too much attention is given to so-called “stranger danger”.

More than 3,000 young Scots who called ChildLine in 2003 and 2004 said they had been sexually abused, the report revealed. It said: “There is a need for greater recognition of sexual abuse perpetrated by females,” the report said. “This is particularly important since a major barrier to disclosing sexual abuse described by many is the fear of not being believed.”

According to the report, 93 per cent of sexual abuse victims who called the helpline were the victims of people close to them. It added: “The public discourse around evil paedophiles – and continued silence on familial abuse – must inevitably make it more difficult for children to understand and cope with the complex feelings they have surrounding abuse by those they know.”

Elsewhere, the report also called for improvements to the way sex education is delivered in primary and secondary schools amid concerns that young people are not getting enough reliable information.

The report prompted Hugh Henry, the education minister, to announce that councils are to receive an extra £630,000 to improve the training teachers receive on sex education.

Mr Henry said: “Sex and relationships education in schools is being increasingly developed and it is important that teachers are comfortable dealing with the wide range of issues raised during delivery of these programmes.”