You asked
Please provide the following information:
Proportion of children who suffered: physical, sexual abuse (in separate categories) vs neglect.
Of those, what proportion had parents caring for them?
What proportion were single households?
How many were cared for by Fathers/Mothers or other family?
How many parents had addiction or mental health problems?
How many had criminal convictions for violent crimes?
Of those children who suffered sexual abuse what proportion were perpetuated by a parent?
If sexual abuse was proven, how many were convicted of the crime?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry, requesting data on children who have suffered abuse (physical, sexual, and neglect) and their circumstances as well as convictions data for sexual abuse.
Our main sources of data on crime statistics are the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime. The CSEW is a victimisation survey asking households about their experience of crime in the previous 12 months.
The module on abuse during childhood was added to the self-completion section of the CSEW for the first time in the survey year ending March 2016. As this module is included in a rotating set of self-completion modules, it was included in the survey for the second time in the survey year ending March 2019. We can therefore only provide data for these survey years. It is also important to note that due to methodological changes, the data for the year ending March 2016 and the year ending March 2019 are not comparable.
In response to your request for data on the proportion of children who suffered physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect, our publication Child Abuse in England and Wales: March 2020 collates information on these subjects and the data for the year ending March 2019 can be found in Table 1 of the Appendix tables for each publication. These tables present data on adults aged 18 to 74 who experienced abuse before the age of 16.
Data on the proportion of children who suffered physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect can also be found in Table A1 of the Appendix table for our publication Abuse during childhood: Findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, year ending March 2016.
You requested data on a variety of circumstances for children who had suffered abuse. This includes whether a parent suffered addiction or mental health problems, or criminal convictions for violent crime. Our publication, Child Abuse in England and Wales: March 2020 also provides data on whether adults experienced abuse before the age of 16, by adverse childhood experiences, for the year ending March 2019. This can be found in Table 9 and Table 10a of the physical abuse and sexual abuse Appendix tables respectively.
These tables provide data whether a household member was ever sent to jail or prison, rather than convicted of a violent crime. These tables however do not differentiate between parents and other household members. Data on adverse childhood experiences are not available for the survey year ending March 2016.
You requested data on the proportion of sexual abuse perpetrated by a parent, Table 12 of the Appendix tables of the publication on Child sexual abuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2019 provides data on the relationship of the perpetrator to adults who experienced abuse before the age of 16 for the year ending March 2019. These tables are presented by type of abuse and by sex. For the year ending March 2016, this information can be found on Table A3 of the Appendix tables. This publication provides similar data, although it is not comparable with the year ending March 2019.
Unfortunately, we are not able to fulfil your full request for data.
We do not hold data on whether children who suffered abuse were cared for by their parents or other household members, or in single parent households. Therefore, we cannot fulfil this part of your request.
We also do not hold data on convictions of sexual abuse, this data is held by the Ministry of Justice who are also contactable by e-mail. They can be contacted at ESD@justice.gov.uk and may be able to help you further with this part of your request.