“Perpetrators of CSE are usually male but may belong to any socio-economic, ethnic group or culture.” Is this statement true or false?

[Brokenness]

This question was part of the assessment at the end of an online course for school staff about child sexual exploitation. I selected "true", which was marked as incorrect. Of course perpetrators can be female, but I'm not convinced that "usually male" is untrue.

[GlummyMcGlummerson]

I think "almost exclusively Male" would be more accurate.

[GCGayDad]

What’s CSE?

[Brokenness]

CSE = child sexual exploitation

[Binterested]

Of course it’s true .

Which bit is wrong ?

[Hirsutefirs]

They didn’t want the factual answer.

[TheProdigalKittensReturn]

They'd have to be using a rather unusual definition of "usually" for that statement not to be true.

[Goosefoot]

Yes, I'd say it's true.

[Brokenness]

I can't find specific statistics for CSE, but I've seen the figure of 99% male for sexual offences in general.

[MargotEmin]

I would challenge it through your safeguarding or L&D lead, could just be an error.

[RuffleCrow]

Of course it's true! Arm yourself with some stats and go challenge it.

[TheProdigalKittensReturn]

If it had said "exclusively" then fair enough. There seems to be a drive in this direction in general, I think it was initially an attempt not to make victims of CSA whose abuser was a woman feel overlooked but it's resulted in a significant and unhelpful overcorrection.

[Brokenness]

I'll email the course provider and ask for clarification

[SquishySquirmy]

It sounds true although I do not have stats to hand.
If they had said "always male" this would of course be wrong.
Most sexual offences are committed by men, but women perhaps have easier access to children which may have an impact on CSE figures. But I would still be surprised if women made up anything close to 50% of perpetrators.

Was there anything in the content of the online course which would contradict that statement?

[CatTangle]

I went on a child safeguarding course rin by an ex policewoman about eight years ago, so probably out of date, but I was told that it was a 50/50 split between men and women committing CSA (child sexual abuse) - I don't know if this would be the same for CSE, or if it has changed since.

[BeetrootRocks]

But it's not true that 50% is committed by women

The stats all point to it being overwhelmingly male

If they are thinking that hardly any done by women gets reported then they are basing that on a guess/ assumption with no evidence to support it, and it's being done for reasons I can only guess at.

[Binterested]

50:50 split is clear nonsense. Both anecdotally and looking at criminal justice figures. Someone has been trying to hoodwink us....

[Goosefoot]

I think usually is perfectly reasonable. It is usually, but it's not always - saying always would be false. If you tell people that it is always, they may well miss actual cases of abuse because it's a woman involved - for that kind of thing usually is likely a good word, accurate but it won't stop people from considering that something different might be going on in a given situation.

Abuse can also involve people who aren't directly sexually involved, too - trafficking, selling children, taking photos, etc.and women I think are more likely to be involved in this part than in the direct abuse.

[R0wantrees]

Is this from NWG?

www.stop-cse.org/what-is-cse/can-you-spot-the-abuser/

Its noticeable the failure to acknowledge that there are sex-based differences both for perpetrators & children who are victims (except for section about potentially under recognised abuse of boys)

[stillathing]

This doesn't make sense. Are crimes against children included in the over 90% figure?

[Freespeecher]

Was it a comprehension-type question based on preceding text? That's all I can think of here.

(Unless it was incorrect because such men don't belong to just any culture which opens a whole new can of worms. Lots of moving parts to this question, don't like it).

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Course it's fucking true. This shit boils my piss.

[TabbyStar]

Unless it was incorrect because such men don't belong to just any culture which opens a whole new can of worms

I wondered that, but it's phrases in such a way that it doesn't say proportionally, so you would only need one person from any socioeconomic or cultural group. Interested in what the answer is supposed to be.

[R0wantrees]

Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse:

2018 'Characteristics and motivations of perpetrators of child sexual exploitation: A rapid evidence assessment of research'

by Kate Walker, Claire Pillinger and Sarah Brown,
Coventry University

(extract)
p10 "In summary, the demographic characteristics
identified are very broad, highlighting the range
of offenders who sexually exploit children. At
best, this rapid evidence assessment identified
that perpetrators are generally male, white and
aged 18–85 years; a high percentage work
in professional jobs, many of which include a
position of authority.

These findings may not be truly representative.
For example, it has been argued that female
perpetration is widely underdetected and
underreported, and that the quality and
accuracy of official records is questionable
(Bourke et al, 2014). However, given the
relatively small number of studies that have
examined this, and the fact that a large
proportion of CSE goes unreported, it is not
possible at present to quantify the extent of
female-perpetrated CSE."

www.csacentre.org.uk/documents/characteristics-motivations-cse/

[MrsTerryPratchett]

The thing is there's a massive amount of places where people share information about CSE. I worked in rehab and people were sharing all the time, everything. Still the vast majority of victims were saying men were the perpetrators. And this is a place where people share things they would never ever share anywhere else.

There is an issue with women who have sex with teenage boys, underage. It is abuse and it does have a dreadful effect on a lot of them. And it should be recognised. Men talk about it in rehab. But there are more men doing it even at that age. It is vanishingly rare for a woman to sexually abuse a prepubescent child.