Claims of sex abuse by women grow

[Elaine Kirk]

The NSPCC who run Childline are regarded by the DCSF and safeguarding units as THE experts in child protection.
This is a BBC report[/URL] from Monday 9th November 2009

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

So if the NSPCC are to be believed (and lets face it the authorities never question their reliability) Child sex abuse in 13% of reported cases is perpetrated by a woman!!

Still it is the NSPCC so it must be true
Or is it

The London Safeguarding Children Board have put together a rather ominous piece of guidance titled
London guidelines for assessing children and families affected by adults viewing child sexual abuse images on the Internet
Final Version 6 (27/01/2010)

(I havent read the doc fully yet as this distracted me)

1 Introduction
1.1 This document has been produced on behalf of the London Safeguarding Children Board and in conjunction with the Essex Safeguarding Children Board.
1.2 It draws on the contribution of colleagues in Essex, and a small group of practitioners and managers from various services in London, including a specialist NSPCC Project.

1.5 Throughout this document an adult involved in viewing child sexual abuse images is referred to in the male gender. The perpetrator’s partner is referred to in the female gender. This is for ease of reference and reflects the current position that it is mostly men who are known to be involved in this behaviour. Women do commit sexual offences against children, however current research and experience suggests that the numbers are very small.

I will leave you to draw your own conclusions (my first connclusion was that Badman helped them draw up the figures)

[marl2580]

It's actually true that women are less likely to commit a sexual offence against children, though I doubt it's as low as 13%, but women are more likely to neglect and emotionally abuse their children, including facilitating sexual offences against children. NSPCC are a waste of bloody money anyway.

[Elaine Kirk]

but women are more likely to neglect and emotionally abuse their children,

Is that true?
Is it not the case that women tend to be the primary carer and therefore when abuse is detected the perpetrator is female?

What factual basis is there for saying "women are more likely" ? has there been an in depth independent study carried out where 10,000 families where a male is the primary carer and 10,000 families where a female is primary carer are compared ?
that is the only way you would get anywhere near finding out if "women are more likely" . I am not nit picking I am just pointing out that you cannot present as fact something that is an assumption!

The NSPCC along with the Lucy Faithful foundation began a campaign to 'raise awareness' of female perpetrated sexual abuse when the Vanessa George case hit the headlines and cash strapped Local Authorities will be investing thousands in sending children's workers along to their 1 day courses who will return to work and use their new found knowledge to start detecting cases and lo and behold the outcome will be along the lines of the notorious NSPCC led Satanic Abuse awareness campaign.
Child sexual abuse takes many many forms ,the NSPCC have shown above that they do not know the male/female ratio be very wary of encouraging a witch hunt before proper research is done, meanwhile I will go check the news , no doubt another hapless female teacher has become sexually involved with a teenage pupil .

[marl2580]

I must confess that I don't know of a study, I only know what I myself have seen when working with young survivors. I think (don't know for sure) that women DO tend to abuse in a different way to men. This makes sense when you think about it because women and men are different and have different societal pressures and expectations on them and, of course, they are the main caregivers for children. It is important to raise awareness of female abusers, otherwise we make it impossible for many children to disclose. But I really object to the way many people and the media talk about abusers (male and female). I really wish the general public would realise it's not the creepy man down the road that's likely to hurt your kids but people that you and your kids trust including - grandparents, aunts and uncles, teachers, friends etc.

[Elaine Kirk]

That is the big risk of these 'campaigns' by government funded charities they are not the response to a problem they are a sales pitch.
A case arises and they are like dogs round a bitch and the bitch isn't the 'subject matter i.e. female sexual abuse , no they are sniffing around the dcsf honey pot and vying to be the ones who get the contract to deal with the 'problem'.
A case comes up
Media hype it
media say the public want a solution
various charities produce research and solutions -google the subject, write a load of waffle wrapped around links to 'research- waffle more about how as the biggest and best they are best placed to deal with the issue-present to dcsf at a charity (public donation) sponsored wine and cheese event- and the best vintage wins the contract-