In 2021, there were over 850 arrests across the UK for accessing child sexual abuse material, including sexual images of children under 18, every single month.
Research shows that compared with those convicted of other forms of sexual offending, people who access child sexual abuse material are more likely to be married and have children. For the partners of people who have offended in this way, discovering that the person they love has been viewing or sharing child sexual abuse content can bring feelings of shock, fear, and confusion. For children the impact can be devastating; they may feel ostracised at school and in their community, experience verbal abuse, miss their offending parent, or worry about what will happen to them. There is also a significantly increased risk of suicide among men arrested for these crimes – estimated to be around 100 times higher than the suicide risk among the general population – and so mitigating this risk is paramount for the whole family’s wellbeing.
Written in collaboration with The Lucy Faithfull Foundation, this new guide from the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse (CSA Centre) provides the latest research and practice-led information to help professionals to confidently safeguard and support families at a time of great emotional distress.
