Contemporary Developments in the Area of Non-Recent Child Sexual Abuse: Moving from what is Wrong with You and what Happened to You, to what are we Going to Do About it Now?

The knowledge of child sexual abuse (CSA)—the recognition of its prevalence and the reality of its impact—has been lost and found in repeated cycles within society and perhaps particularly within the field of mental health. A recent compendium published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS, ) provides an estimate of the prevalence of CSA. It found that one in 13 adults reported experiencing CSA, with 9% in total reporting contact CSA and 3% non-contact CSA. This represents a population level estimate of 3.1 million adults having experienced CSA in the UK.

The long-term health and social impacts of CSA are significant. In adulthood, victims and survivors of CSA are at elevated risk of an interlocking, aggregated triad of psychological, physical and social injuries (Taggart et al., 2021). These include increased exposure to a range of mental health conditions; depression (Salokangas et al. 2020), anxiety disorders (Heim & Nemeroff, 2001), psychosis (Shevlin, Dorachy & Adamson, 2007), dissociative disorders (Chu & Dill, 1990), in addition to complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Cloitre & Ford, 2016). There is also increased risk of chronic physical health conditions, including respiratory conditions (Bellis et al., 2014), diabetes (Huffhines, Noser & Patton, 2016) and premature death (Happell et al, 2017). In addition to health outcomes, there are also significant social impairments caused by CSA, including difficulties engaging with public services (Mason, Taggart & Broadhurst, 2020) and betrayal trauma (Freyd, 1996). There are social and economic costs to wider society—a recent UK study estimated that efforts linked to prevention, lost economic output, the overall health and criminal justice costs amounted to £10.1 billion in the year 2018-19 (Radakin et al., 2021).

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was established as a statutory Inquiry in England and Wales in 2015. It was commissioned b