MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The number of child sexual abuses reported to police in the United Kingdom has risen from over 5,500 cases to more than 8,800 in the past four years, while the number of arrests over the same period has fallen from about 3,500 to 3,200, The Guardian reported on Thursday.
Official figures obtained by UK Home Secretary Yvette Copper from about 40 police forces in the UK based on a freedom of information request show that the child sexual abuse caseload has more than doubled over the past four years.
“This is a national scandal. This isn’t a problem just from the past. It is a problem the government should be confronting right now,” Copper told The Guardian.
Child sexual abuse experts cited by the newspaper say official figures tend to underestimate the scale of the problem, because of the common reluctance of the victims’ families to report attacks to the police.
According to the figures, the biggest increase in reported cases has taken place in South Yorkshire. Yorkshire police have seen a 577% increase in cases, from 74 in 2011 to 501 in 2014, reflecting revelations of the large-scale Rotherham scandal.
According to the UK National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, one out of 20 children in the United Kingdom have been sexually abused. The most recent statistics for 2012-2013 show approximately 23,000 cases of child sexual abuse have been reported and registered.
