Identifying CSA & The Signs & Indicators

What would you like help with?

What would you like to happen now that you have told me this?

Stop and think; analyse the information shared by the child with professionals who know the child and family, and if you believe that the child may be at risk of significant harm, make a referral to children’s social care. Never say you will keep information that the child has shared confidential but do assure them that you will help them to be safe.

You should also go back to the young person once safeguarding action has been taken to ask them whether this was the response they were hoping for, or if they hoped for something different.

This was highlighted within the Dorset LCSPR report ‘The Siblings’ (August 2022). This review reinforces the fact that anyone who works with children and young people should be able to respond effectively if a young person says that they have been sexually abused , or ‘tests out’ the professional’s response by sharing some of their concerns or worries, or by displaying behaviour which could indicate that they are being sexually abused.

Further learning can be found from this helpful Summary of risk factors for improved practice around harmful sexual behaviour, learning from case reviews.

The signs of child abuse are not always obvious, and some signs on their own may not indicate that a child is being sexually abused, and so it is often about professionals being able to build up a cumulative picture of their concerns. Professionals should also build a picture of signs and indicators of a suspected perpetrator of child sexual abuse. The CSA Centre also provides Typology of child sexual abuse offending focussing on the contexts offering guidance on Sexual abuse which takes place within family environments often remains hidden and is the most secretive and difficult type of abuse for children and young people to disclose. It may be particularly difficult to disclose abuse by a sibling. 
Many children and young people do not recognise themselves as victims of sexual abuse – a child may not understand what is happening and may not even understand that it is wrong especially as the perpetrator will seek to reduce the risk of disclosure by threatening them, telling them they will not be believed or holding them responsible for their own abuse.
Where sexual abuse is being perpetrated on one or more family members, it may be possible to identify by patterns of referrals or presentations to different agencies in their local community over time. There may be a range of signs, but any one sign doesn’t necessarily mean that a child is being sexually abused; however, the presence of number of signs should indicate that you need to consider the potential for abuse and consult with others who know the child to see whether they also have concerns.

In the long-term people who have been sexually abused are more likely to suffer with depression, anxiety, eating disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They are also more likely to self-harm, become involved in criminal behaviour, misuse drugs and alcohol, and to commit suicide as young adults.

These signs do not necessarily mean that a child is being abused, there could be other things happening in their life which are affecting their behaviour, so it is important we provide children with opportunities to talk about their home life. You should obtain a good understanding of relationships the child has with those that are in the home, who visit, or they visit regularly or people who might look after them or they stay with. To assess the behaviours and understand the level of risk to a child or young person you can utilise the Understanding harmful sexual behaviour/Hackett continuum. 

These tool helps practitioners assess what would be deemed to be healthy sexual development and would need to be considered against children’s developmental and cultural milestones. It is important to stress that these tools should be used to inform professional decision-making, rather than determine it.

Although as practitioners it might seem obvious to us that it is never the child’s fault they were sexually abused, it is important to reiterate this with the child, and explain that they are not in trouble. For some children who have been groomed it is likely the perpetrator will have told them that it was because they (the child) wanted the abuse to happen, or that their family/non abusing parent will not believe them, or it is their fault, all of this is often compounded with confusion and shame. All these issues will impact on children telling a professional or trusted adult about the abuse they are experiencing and will be important to remember when supporting a child who you believe may have been sexually abused or has told you that they have been. There are practice considerations/guidance issued further on in the toolkit for those working with children who tell a professional that they have been abused and then later say that nothing happened, which may be another effect of grooming.