Exclusive: Extent of child sexual abuse in England and Wales begins to become clear as inquiry passes on 100 cases a month
Archive for May 25th, 2016
Survey finds conflict between government attitudes and people: Most people want to accept refugees…
Posted on: May 25, 2016
Survey finds conflict between government attitudes and people:
Most people want to accept refugees,
Hummus For Thought shared this link
“A new survey of 27 countries found that significant majorities of people would welcome refugees into the country and even consider taking them into their home.…
The study, commissioned by Amnesty International, says four in five people would “welcome refugees in their country, community or home.”
It’s a statistic, the rights group argues, that shows how governments turning their backs on refugees are “badly out of touch with reality.””
New research from Amnesty International has identified China as the country with the most welcoming attitude to refugees.
The country scored higher than the 26 other nations surveyed in terms of positive attitudes held by members of the public towards refugees fleeing war or persecution.
The research looked at a number of attitudes including whether refugees should be given asylum, whether national governments were doing enough and how much help people would consider giving refugees themselves.
How do attitudes compare?
The Refugees Welcome Index ranks countries on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 represents all respondents saying they would refuse refugees entry to their country and 100 represents all respondents saying they would accept refugees into their neighbourhood or home.
Image: Globescan/Amnesty International
Germany and the UK follow closely behind China with positive attitude scores in the 80s.
The United States scores 60% while France scores 56%.
Russia is at the bottom of the list of countries surveyed with only 18% of respondents saying they would welcome refugees in their neighbourhood or home.
Image: Globescan/Amnesty International
Should governments be doing more?
Globally, two out of three respondents agreed that their national government should do more to help refugees fleeing war or persecution.
Again, agreement is highest in China at 86% followed by Nigeria (85%) and Jordan (84%). Agreement is particularly low in Thailand and Russia, at under 30%.
In Turkey, India, Thailand and Russia, majorities think that their national government should not do more to help refugees fleeing war or persecution.
Who is most likely to think refugees need more help?
The report found that support for increased government action increased by 5% among those with a higher level of education. Support was also 6% higher amongst those with higher income levels.
Finally, those living in cities were 10% more likely to agree with the need for increased government action to help refugees.
Have you read?
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Europe’s refugee crisis: what you need to know
Which country has hosted the most refugees?
Refugees should be seen as an investment, not a burden
Yes, the comparison between Syrian and Jewish refugees matters
Police expect 30,000 new child abuse reports from Goddard inquiry
The scale of child sexual abuse in England and Wales is being exposed by evidence from thousands of victims, with cases being passed to police at a rate of 100 a month by the public inquiry set up following the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Simon Bailey, head of the national coordinating unit Operation Hydrant, said his team was expecting to be given 30,000 reports of new child sexual offences by the end of the Goddard inquiry, and predicted the rate of referrals of allegations of abuse would increase.
Sandra Laville. 19 May 2016
Reports of child abuse to forces across the country are continuing to rise, said Bailey, who is the chief constable of Norfolk. He calculated that the continuing increase would mean that by 2020 police across the country would be investigating 200,000 cases of child sexual abuse.
Bailey added: “It is fair to say I am surprised by the extent of abuse being exposed, it is shocking. In trying to get a message across to the public about the scale of this, it is important to remember that behind each of these figures there is a victim.
“We are seeing a significant rise in the number of referrals each month from the Goddard inquiry, and these allegations relate to abuse in a range of institutions from the church, to schools, the scouts and hospitals.”
Justice Lowell Goddard is running 13 investigations into institutional abuse, which include inquiries concerning Westminster, the Catholic Church, Church of England, and Lambeth borough, and concerning grooming and sexual exploitation in Rochdale, Devon, Cornwall, Oxford and Rotherham, and at the Medomsley detention centre in Durham.
Another 12 investigations will be pursued during the inquiry. Most of these 25 investigations will lead to public hearings.
Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive officer for the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: “We have lifted the lid on a hidden problem, now survivors are coming forward in large numbers. These people were failed by institutions in childhood. They deserve to be heard now. Why were signs of child abuse ignored, unrecognised or unreported?
The insight survivors have is vital in shaping how our institutions protect children in future.”
On Thursday, the Goddard inquiry opened new offices in Manchester as part of its nationwide “truth project”, which invites victims of abuse to give detailed testimony of their experiences. In many cases these experiences have stayed unspoken about for decades.
Two thousand victims have already contacted the inquiry to give details about experiences of child sexual abuse, and about 600 have already indicated that they would give their full testimony to the truth project.
In Australia where a royal commission into child abuse is being held, the numbers of people who have come forward has surpassed predictions. Bailey said that the same would be true of the Goddard hearings.
Referrals to Bailey’s team on Operation Hydrant stem from allegations made by victims contacting the inquiry and through the investigations being carried out by the inquiry team.
“These referrals are allegations which are new to the police,” said Bailey. “Where there are criminal investigations they will be passed to the relevant police force.
What we are seeing is that the face of crime has fundamentally changed and it means we have had to move our resources to crimes against the vulnerable [and concerning] child abuse, adult abuse and rape.”
The huge increase in reports of child abuse to the police – a rise of 80% between 2012 and 2015 – was continuing, Bailey added. At this rate of increase, police will be investigating 200,000 cases by 2020, he predicted.
Police forces across England and Wales investigated 70,000 cases of child sexual abuse last year and 25% of the investigations were into non-recent abuse.
The chief constable said that the rise in investigations was due Not just to increased reporting but to more children being abused, with the internet acting as a facilitator for paedophiles to contact children. He has commissioned research in an attempt to establish whether this is correct.
The enormous draw on police resources of these investigations comes as a severe spending squeeze on police budgets continues.
Last week Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, issued new guidance to remind police that her lawyers would not make charging decisions in relation to dead perpetrators, implying that police were not aware of the ruling that the dead could not be charged with criminal offences.
Bailey defended the police from criticism.
“It is vital that the police investigate allegations of child sexual abuse thoroughly and proportionately, whether the alleged crimes took place last week or many years ago,” he said. “Victims who report abuse by someone who is now dead have the same expectation that their allegations will be taken seriously and that they will have recourse to justice.
Police also need to determine whether the alleged offender may have worked with others who are still alive and could pose a risk today.”
He added that age was no bar to people committing child abuse, citing examples of cases in which men in their 90s were under investigation for abuse.
This week, Theresa May, the home secretary, spoke out against those who said police should only concentrate on current crimes.
“Perpetrators must never be allowed to think that their horrific acts will go overlooked or go unpunished … Victims and survivors … deserve to be heard now, just as they should have been years ago, and they deserve justice, just as they did then,” she said.
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