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Claims of sex abuse by women grow

by generaldecay | November 8, 2009 at 11:48 pm

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A huge rise in the number of children calling to report sexual abuse by women has been revealed by ChildLine. Over the past five years, the charity says the number of such calls has risen five times faster than youngsters reporting abuse by a man. Of 16,094 children who called ChildLine about sex abuse last year, 2,142 told of abuse by a woman, up 132% on 2004-5. Men still account for the majority of child abuse claims, but the NSPCC said female sex abuse was under-reported.

It is absolutely under-reported. It is also thought by some that women can't abuse - they can, and they do. These figures show exactly that. (People often think also that because I am a feminist, I think that women can do no wrong. That is not the case at all. They can, and they do.)

This situation with female abuse will have to go through exactly the same motions that the situations with rape and domestic violence went though some years ago (and continue to go through). There has to be an acknowledgement first and foremost that it does happen - that women sexually abuse children. Only then will it start to be reported, and only then can we start to tackle it.

Now, it is noteworthy that ChildLine did not claim that sexual abuse by females is necessarily on the rise - rather that reports of this abuse are on the rise. There is an important difference. When any official statistics on crime rise, they nearly always do so because the number of reports increase rather than the number of incidents themselves. It is impossible to say right now what these figures mean in terms of actual abuse taking place, and that is something that we need to work on finding out.

But that aside...

The ChildLine report said the issue of female sex offending was not well-reflected in policy, practice and guidance on child protection and offender management.

Indeed.

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Paschen

at 00:03 on November 9th, 2009

I do agree with your comment here Generaldecay.

The question though that comes to mind would be the same as in the sudden reports of abuses conducted by priest or men in the 80s, "why now?"

Are the kids or adolescent more confident to report such abuses or are the institutions in charge more willing to listen now then they used to?

I remember a case in my youth, that happened to class mate of mine that was raped by a Nurse in our bording school, he did report it, however, the Gendarme and the teachers alike just fund it ridicule that a male of 13 could be raped by a woman.

Nothing ever came of it even though he committed suicide shortly after he endured all this. His closed friends and parents knew he was genuine, but the institution in charge rejected it form the start and did not even interview the nurse in question.

generaldecay

at 00:23 on November 9th, 2009

Paschen, indeed. This is not to minimise the gravity of female sexual abuse but just to be clear that we're not necessarily seeing a steep rise (there will possibly be some rise, but it's more about reporting).

And the case you mention of your friend happened all too often. It's frightening what we've put some children through. The abuses by the Catholic Church are exactly the same.

Thanks for the recommendation and comment, Paschen.

kerja keras adalah energi kita (not verified)

at 03:15 on November 9th, 2009

woman still as object. it is not right, because nowaday all going in the same level, same hardwork. we should care each other , its look like pertamina way

Hugh Askew

at 03:45 on November 9th, 2009

Noticed after a couple of incidents that took place in public schools here, that women themselves, seem to downplay the woman-on-children incidents. As if they think that it isn't really as bad as it when perpetrated by men. Maybe it is the idea that men must be "willing", in order to participate?

Sputnic

at 04:47 on November 9th, 2009

Willing 5 year olds ? Lets hope its not many ! Some women seem to find jokes about "scouting for boys, or bending over for the soap, in prison" funny. To be fair, so do many men. I look forward to the day when there is complete equality between the sexes.

stejeb

at 13:23 on November 13th, 2009

With you on that one Sputnic.

The figures make one wonder if it might not have something to do with increased use of nasty sites by women, I don't suppose female sexual deviants are any different to their male counterparts in hunting out the rubbish.

Keep at it though people, one day we may see change brought about our collective abhorrence.