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Disturbing research into the extent of child sexual abuse has found almost one in six Australian men have sexual feelings towards children and teenagers, and almost one in 10 acknowledge having committed child sexual offences, despite few being caught.
One in 15 men admit they would have sexual contact with a child aged 14 or younger, if no one would find out.
Fifteen out of 100 Australian men report sexual attraction to children and teenagers.Credit: Jamie Brown
The research by the University of NSW and Jesuit Social Services involved a nationally representative random survey of more than 1900 men aged 18 to over 65. The findings are consistent with peer-reviewed comparative studies from the US and Britain, and previous research on survivors.
The lead author, UNSW Associate Professor Michael Salter, will present the research on Monday to an audience of about 80 police, public servants, survivors and psychologists in Sydney.
Salter said this was the first Australian study to focus on undetected offenders, and his goal was to improve prevention and early detection of child sexual abuse.
“The aim of this study was to flip the script and really bring to visibility the men in the community who are harming children who never come to the attention of the criminal justice system,” Salter said.
The profile of the undetected offender was “the classic person who you’d never suspect”, Salter said. In the anonymous survey, one in 20 men had sexual feelings towards children and admitted to offending, and they were more likely than other men to be married, earn higher incomes and work with children.
Despite superficial success, the men were more likely to report anxiety, depression and binge drinking, and to have had adverse experiences in childhood. They were also more likely to be active online, including on social media, encrypted apps and cryptocurrency, and to consume pornography with violence or bestiality.
Salter said the study focused on men because female perpetrators were less common, and usually co-offenders.
The Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) led by the Australian Federal Police, the Office of the eSafety Commissioner, and the National Office for Child Safety in the federal Attorney-General’s Department helped design the survey.
eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant.Credit: Martin Ollman
The research classed men as offenders if they admitted to at least one of the following as an adult: deliberately viewing pornography featuring underage people; flirting or sexual conversations online, using a webcam in a sexual way or in-person sexual contact with a minor; and paying for online sexual interactions, images or videos involving a person under 18. Young adults were among those surveyed, but most offenders were older.
It found 15.1 per cent of respondents have sexual feelings towards children and teenagers, based on if they acknowledge that directly, or say the lowest age they typically find attractive is under 18, or admit they would have sexual contact with a child under 14 if no one would find out.
Among them were 10.2 per cent of respondents who had sexual feelings for children but said they had not acted on them.
Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
About 4.2 per cent of men had offended despite no sexual feelings towards children and were demographically similar to non-offenders. Salter said the triggers could be alcohol and drugs, entitlement or misogyny, desire to inflict pain or exert control, and the ease of offending online.
Speakers at the event include eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant and former Australian of the Year Grace Tame.
Tame said the research backed up the reports of survivors, including herself, about the profile of child sex offenders and how they operate.
“They deliberately cultivate personas of alleged good character and ingratiate themselves with respectable institutions to strengthen their networks and cover,” Tame said.
Inman Grant said the research was “sobering and distressing” and highlighted the role of technology in contemporary child sexual abuse.
The research was funded by Westpac’s Safer Children, Safer Communities program, which required release of the public report before academic publication. The authors are preparing multiple articles for peer-reviewed journals.
The AFP, which has responsibility mostly for online child sexual abuse crimes, committed to review the findings. Last financial year the agency received more than 40,000 reports of online child exploitation, arrested 186 people for federal child sexual abuse crimes and referred 545 cases to other Australian law enforcement bodies.
A spokesperson said there was a growing number of “sextortion” cases – where a child is tricked or coerced into sending sexual images or interacting sexually online.
The most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that in 2019, police recorded 8068 reports from victims of sexual assault aged under 15, and another 3764 reports from people were under 15 at the time of the assault but delayed reporting.
The ABS personal safety survey published in March found 11.3 per cent of women and 3.6 per cent of men had been sexually abused by an adult before the age of 15.
The Australian Child Maltreatment Survey of 8500 Australians published in the Medical Journal of Australia in April found one in five boys and one in three girls – or 28.5 per cent overall – experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18. This included cases where the offender was also underage.
Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000; Stopitnow.org.au 1800 01 1800
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