Child sexual abuse not a ‘major risk’

University of Huddersfield academic Dr Bernard Gallagher, who has controversially claimed that youngsters are more at risk of domestic abuse than child sexual exploitation

The figure for children assessed as being at risk of CSE is 3.9%, whereas domestic violence (49.6%), drug misuse (19.3%), physical abuse (14%) and sexual abuse (6.4%) all score higher.

Dr Gallagher acknowledges that CSE is an extremely serious issue that needs the “most robust response possible”, but argues that “all forms or manifestations of child maltreatment should receive the same enhanced level of concern and attention that have been given to CSE.”

He adds: “There is, in my opinion, no case for escalating CSE above much more prevalent and equally harmful forms of child maltreatment as seems to have been the case in some media, political and other quarters.”

Dr Gallagher says the media furore over child sexual exploitation, and the widespread anger over alleged failings by police and social services in towns such as Rotherham, led to a surge in anxiety over, and efforts to address, the problem of CSE on the part of politicians and various agencies.

In 2015, when Prime Minister David Cameron, driven largely by the CSE scandals, announced that child sexual abuse should be seen as a “national threat”, some commentators concluded that the Government saw CSE as “equivalent to terrorism.”

Dr Gallagher expressed concern that the response to CSE has arisen at a time when resources available to tackle child maltreatment more generally are dwindling.