The pattern of child sexual abuse in northern ireland

Abstract

A team from the Departments of Child Psychiatry, Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, and of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queens University Belfast, conducted a study in 1987 of the reported incidence of child sexual abuse in Northern Ireland. The incidence rate of established cases of child sexual abuse was 0.9 per 1000 children under the age of 17 years. Further analysis of all the cases of sexual abuse (suspected, alleged and established) and an estimation of the potential under-ascertainment indicated that the actual rate was between 0.9 per 1000 and 1.85 per 1000 children. Data obtained from a detailed structured questionnaire on each sexually abused child was analysed. The results are presented in relation to the child, age and sex; the abuse, type and duration; the abuser, sex, age and relationship to the child; and outcome factors, initial psychological sequelae, physical signs and symptoms, and social sequelae.