UNITED KINGDOM
Huffington Post
Jon Brown
It’s now just over a year since the NSPCC began to take calls to its helpline from adults, about being sexually abused when they were children by Jimmy Savile and others.
Those who had been silenced by their experiences and by their abusers for so long because they felt they were in some way to blame, and that they were the only ones, began to realise that there were many others with a story to tell.
So why hasn’t there been an increase in arrests and charges for cases of child sexual abuse that may have been committed years ago?
A recent BBC 5 Live investigation into allegations of historic child sexual abuse before and after the Jimmy Savile case found a 70% increase between November 2011-April 2012 and the same period from 2012-2013. However, there was a 6% drop in arrests and the rate of charging only increased by 6 cases (from 352-358) despite the huge increase in allegations.
Police capacity is undoubtedly a factor in the lack of increase. Many forces have seen a huge increase in reports and have had to respond, often with the same resources. Some have resorted to bringing in extra capacity from other (non-sexual crime) units and this is problematic if these officers are not trained in dealing with sexual abuse cases, either current or historic.
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