§ Baroness Cox asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the number of— (a) reported incidences of child abuse; and (b) convictions for child abuse 14WA in the years 1966; 1968; 1969; 1970; 1980; 1990; and 2000. [HL2606]
§ Baroness AndrewsInformation detailing the number of reported incidences of child abuse in the years 1966; 1968; 1969; 1970; 1980; 1990; and 2000 is not held centrally.
However, by revamping its database of serious cases, the Department of Health has a record of serious case notifications from 1 April 2002. A serious case notification concerns the death of, or serious injury to, a child where abuse and/or neglect is known or suspected to have been a factor.
One hundred and twenty-one serious case notifications are recorded on the Department of Health's database between 1 April and 31 December 2002; 62 serious case notifications are recorded on the database for the period 1 January to 1 May 2003.
Information on convictions for child abuse are given in the following table.
15WA
Persons convicted at all courts for violent offences against children where the age of victim is identified by the offence, 1980, 1990 and 2000. Number of persons England and WalesPersons convicted Offence 1980 1990 2000 INDICTABLE OFFENCES Violence against the person Murder of infant under 1 year of age — 1 5 Infanticide 7 3 2 Child destruction — — — Cruelty to, or neglect of children 147 247 448 Abandoning children under 2 years 2 — — Child abduction 10 33 50 Concealment of birth 3 — 1 Sexual offences Buggery with a boy under the age of 16 or with a woman or an animal 147 189 — Attempt to commit buggery with a boy under the age of 16 or with a woman or an animal 15 18 — Buggery by a male of a male under 16 — — 51 Buggery by a male with a female under 16 — — 13 Indecent assault on male person under 16 years 562 421 299 Rape of a female aged under 16 — — 206 Rape of a male aged under 16 — — 24 Attempted rape of a female aged under 16 — — 32 Attempted rape of a male aged under 16 — — 2 Indecent assault on a female under 16 1,685 1.537 1.353 Unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 102 110 53 Unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 566 304 214 Incest with a girl under 13 52 84 12 Inciting girl under 16 to have incestuous sexual Intercourse 6 3 2 Householder permitting unlawful sexual intercourse with girl under 16 5 5 — Person responsible for girl under 16 causing or encouraging her prositution etc. 3 2 — Abduction of unmarried girl under 16 11 8 3 Gross indecency with boys aged 14 and under 130 128 58 Gross indecency with girls aged 14 and under 134 148 135 Other indictable offences Take or make indecent photographs, or pseudo-photographs, of children — 35 218 SUMMARY OFFENCES Cruelty to or neglect of children 4 24 2 Possession of an indecent photograph, or pseudo-photograph of a child — 32 77 Total 3,591 3,332 3,250 — = not applicable. 1 Staffordshire Police were only able to submit sample data for persons convicted at magistrates' courts in 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust enough at a detailed level and have been excluded from this table.
Source
Home Office.
Data prior to 1980 are not available at this level of detail.