April marks the start of child abuse prevention month, an opportunity for all of us to learn more about the forms abuse can take and ways to recognise it.
According to NAPAC, the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, less than 4% of the people calling their helpline identified their abuser as someone they had never met before. That means than in over 95% of cases the person that abused them as a child was someone they knew. It a person who had a duty of care towards them like a teacher or coach or even someone running a group at the local youth club. In the vast majority of cases it was a family member or close family friend.
Our team specialises in supporting victims of abuse. We have heard many life experiences from victims and certain themes keep coming up again and again. The feeling of fear that if the victim tells on their abuser they will not be believed. The threat that what is happening is their fault. The lack of recognition of what was happening amongst other close friends and family.
None of these things comes as a surprise to practitioners supporting victims. Most people think that these things would never happen in their homes, their neighbourhoods or to people they know. Sadly, information shared by the National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime 2023 paints a different picture as nearly 830,000 people in the UK have been identified as posing a possible sexual risk to children. That figure does not even cover other forms of abuse including emotional and physical violence.
During this month we will release a series of articles to help you recognise abuse and empower children to feel safe to seek help.
If you have suffered abuse as a child you are entitled to legal advice. We understand that talking about such experiences can be traumatic in its own right but if and when you are ready a member of our specialist team would be happy to have a free, confidential discussion with you and explore options for making a civil claim. To have a chat with a member of our team call us on 0800 044 8488 or fill in our contact form.
