It's a lonely journey: a rapid evidence assessment on intrafamilial child sexual abuse

This Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) was commissioned by the Office of the Children?s Commissioner (OCC) and conducted by Middlesex University. It centres on concerns about the level of child sexual abuse within the family environment (referred to in this report as ?intrafamilial child sexual abuse or IFCSA) and how such abuse is being addressed by the child protection system and the criminal justice system. The OCC recently completed a two year Inquiry into child sexual exploitation in gangs and groups. This found that: ?so many young people told us?of their early histories of being sexually abused within the family home and of their experiences never being acknowledged (Berelowitz, Clifton, Firmin, Gulyurtlu and Edwards, 2013, p.96). This concern has prompted the OCC to undertake a new two year Inquiry into child sexual abuse in the family environment. This REA will inform and provide the evidence base for this Inquiry. The aims of the REA are, broadly, to investigate the prevalence and impact of child sexual abuse within the family environment and to investigate the extent to which the child protection system and criminal justice system are adequately identifying and attending to the needs of victims. This piece of work is important and necessary due to questions surrounding the possible under-reporting of child sexual abuse within the family environment and the apparent lack of research which captures the direct views of victims of in regards to their experiences of the child protection system and criminal justice system.