The effectiveness and impact of the child protection and criminal justice systems in cases of intrafamilial child sexual abuse

The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings from a study commissioned by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) in England, concerning intrafamilial child sexual abuse (IFCSA)/incest. Specifically, it aims to explore the evidence about child protection and criminal justice responses to victims of IFCSA in the UK and where the gaps in these approaches lie.

A Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) was used, the function of which is to: search the literature as comprehensively as possible within given time constraints; collate descriptive outlines of the available evidence on a topic and critically appraise it; sift out studies of poor quality; and provide an overview of the evidence. Over 57,000 documents were scanned, and 296 ultimately systematically analysed.

It was found that children may be re-victimised by various aspects of “the system” and professionals within it, including social workers, police officers, and lawyers.

A REA is not a full systematic review, differing in the scope and depth of the searches and depending almost exclusively on electronic databases, not accompanied by searching journals by hand.

The findings of this research provide the evidence-base for a new two-year inquiry into the subject of IFCSA by the OCC.