Child Sex Abuse Convictions Rise 60% in 6 Years, AFP, September 2, 2011

Child Sex Abuse Convictions Rise 60% in 6 Years

AFP
September 2, 2011

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jxWrz8er-zUYqcORkz4Um89ukxHA?docId=CNG.adadb57c585647b651170b7507cc74cb.f1

Child sex abuse remains an under-reported crime, according to children's charities (AFP/File, Mustafa Ozer)

The number of people convicted of sex offences against children under 16 in England and Wales has risen by nearly 60 percent in six years, an investigation found on Friday.

The BBC said a Freedom of Information request to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) found that while there were 1,363 convictions in 2005, there were 2,135 in 2010.

The broadcaster said the increase was being attributed to better detection and wider awareness.

"It is good news as it's a good indicator that police services and others are getting their act together," the chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), Peter Davies, told the BBC.

But he added that authorities did not use conviction numbers as a key indicator of success because sexual abuse remains an under-reported crime.

"It's difficult to tell if these figures indicate an increase in the number of sex offences being committed against children," Lisa Harker of children's charity the NSPCC told the BBC.

"It may be that more people -- adults and children -- are becoming aware of abuse and so are reporting cases to the police and other authorities.

"Nevertheless it's still a relatively small number of convictions considering child sex abuse is a big problem."

Harker told the BBC that police in England and Wales were notified of more than 23,000 offences of this kind last year. A survey conducted by the NSPCC in 2009 suggested that one in 20 secondary school pupils had experienced sexual abuse.

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson told the broadcaster that better support for victims throughout the prosecution process, such as allowing witnesses to give evidence through a video link, had contributed to the rise in convictions.

The MoJ publishes quarterly statistics on sexual offences against children, but this does not include children who were raped. The figures obtained by the BBC cover all sex offences against children.