Peer-to-peer abuse: Victim's parents call for changes to guidelines

[LangCleg]

BBC reporting on the terrifying and increasing levels of sexual assault in our schools. Extract (but do read the whole thing):

The parents of a six-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by classmates have called for a record to be set up showing all sex abuse between children.

Bella - not her real name - was abused by two boys at her London school almost every playtime for six weeks

The government said schools should be reporting peer-to-peer abuse and Ofsted inspectors should be highlighting if the school did not do so.

But Ofsted said it would be impossible to judge if incidents were being noted.

Statutory guidelines introduced by the Department for Education (DfE) last year and updated for this September said all teachers and staff must read part of the Keeping Children Safe in Education Guidance, which explained what peer-on-peer abuse was and the types of sexual violence of which staff should be aware.

But no reporting mechanism was introduced to make sure each teacher read the guidance and no timescale by which that should have happened.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-49084906

Safe Schools Alliance have put out a Twitter thread on this story:

twitter.com/safeschools_uk/status/1160841197616803840?s=21

Safe Schools Alliance UK support calls for a register to be set up to record all incidents of sexual abuse between children.

It is imperative that these records accurately record the age and sex of both the perpetrator and victim. Accurate record-keeping is essential to effectively inform policy.

We reject the terms ‘peer-on-peer’ & ‘child-on-child’ regarding sexual abuse. The vast majority of this abuse is perpetrated by male children against female children. It is also often young girls being harassed by older boys. Policy must acknowledge this reality & tackle it.

We believe that it has become necessary for OFSTED to monitor this situation, perhaps with the addition of relevant question(s) regarding sexual harassment to pupil/parent/staff questionnaires.

Safe Schools Alliance also support mandatory training of all school staff on recognising and tackling sexual harassment and abuse as part of any in-school child protection training.

We acknowledge that teaching staff are under increasing pressure to take on additional responsibilities outside of their teaching duties and so schools must make sure that systems to support teachers to challenge sexual abuse and harassment are robust and effective.

Safe Schools Alliance UK would like to thank the mother and daughter in this article for their bravery in speaking out about such a traumatic issue. If this policy change is made, it will help to protect children in future.

I reckon this could do with being posted on the education boards or a general one.

What happened to this girl and the way it was handled was completely indefensible. That's an excellent comment from Safe Schools Alliance.

I think child on child or peer on peer is fine. Doesn’t matter that minority of victims are boys, they can still be victims and calling it boy on girl will just tell boys not to bother reporting because they “can’t” be a victim.

Too, in single sex schools there is girl on girl and boy on boy abuse as well. You can’t erase minority incidents. It would be like defining rape as only man on woman....ignoring that it can go woman on man, man on man and woman on woman.

Does say a 14 year old abusing a 6 year old count as peer-on-peer crime? What is the cut off? I don't understand this, I mean I literally don't understand what is happening in the world.

I understand that peer on peer / child on child is inclusive and highlights that abuse can happen to any child. BUT, there is currently a wholesale cover up of assaults on women and girls by removing the ability to identify incidents and collate data by sex. And we must not allow that to happen.

I agree that “peer-on-peer” abuse should be rejected as a term, but not sure what to suggest instead. “Abuse against girls?”

But boys can be victims too.

Legally, yes.
Same as if a 68yr old man sexually abused an 18yr old woman.
There is age and power differential but they are both legally adults.

For 14 yr old on 6yr old, the higher age would be accounted for in the 14yr olds sentence in terms of awareness of right and wrong. But the crime is still a juvenile crime.

I understand that peer on peer / child on child is inclusive and highlights that abuse can happen to any child. BUT, there is currently a wholesale cover up of assaults on women and girls by removing the ability to identify incidents and collate data by sex. And we must not allow that to happen.

Precisely this. We need the data and not to be NABALTing what is predominately a problem for girls.

Girls are nameable.

I'll say it again: girls are nameable. The vast majority of the victims are girls. We can name them. It's not mean. Girls are nameable.

It would be like defining rape as only man on woman....ignoring that it can go woman on man, man on man and woman on woman.

Rape is defined as man on woman/man on man. Rape is specific to 'sexual assault with a penis'. Only men and boys can commit this specific crime.

I take your point that boys can be victims of sexual assault too, but they are mostly the victims of other boys. It is vital that the sex difference in sexual predation is highlighted.

I agree the sex of perpetrator and victim should be recorded. But we should keep the umbrella term of child in child or peer on peer abuse.

@ArnoldWhatshisknickers
“Rape is defined as man on woman/man on man. Rape is specific to 'sexual assault with a penis'. Only men and boys can commit this specific crime. ”

Nope, rape is defined as sexual assault with penetration. You don’t need a penis to do this. Women can rape and have been convicted of rape.

All this inclusive language obscures two facts:

1. 98-99% of all sexual offences are committed by males.

1. 91% of the victims are female.

In the UK, rape can only be committed by males.

Other jurisdictions are different.

In England and Wales, it is penetration with a penis. But maybe you’re elsewhere?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RapeinnEnglishlaw

Not in English law, which is what the majority on this board will be referring to (and in particular this topic as it's country specific)

Women have been convicted as accessories to rape.

AngelasAshes

No, it is specific to penises in English law.

Penetration with other objects is 'assault by penetration'.

Women have only ever been charged with rape in cases of joint enterprise.

I know Wiki isn't a great source but they are correct on this point

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_English_law

'Peer to peer' is decidedly problematic as it implies an equality of power. This is not the case when the children are of different sex and/or age.

'Minor on minor' might be more accurate?

Here's a definition of 'peer'

a personon^ who is the same agege^ or has the same socialal^ positionon^ or the same abilitieses^ as other peoplele^ in a groupup*^

Ugh, sorry, didn't realise that c&p included embedded links

Females can be sex offenders and predators.
There was a thread about a young boy who had pushed over a girl by shoving her away who was forcibly kissing him even after he said no. The boy was considered to be troublesome and told off for pushing the girl. The girl was comforted and told the boy was wrong for pushing her.
Nothing was said about the fact that the girl actually was sexually assaulting the boy and he was defending himself.
We have blinders on when it comes to girls.

“All this inclusive language obscures two facts:

1. 98-99% of all sexual offences are committed by males.

1. 91% of the victims are female.”

Although meta studies in numerous countries have shown that the victimisation surveys show a rate six times higher for males than the above “official rates”. So, rates of 11% of perpetrators are female.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093854816658923?journalCode=cjbb

Sorry about rape thing, I’m an expat and in the US it was updated to penetration and approx 4,000 women have been convicted of rape. I did not realise the U.K. was behind on this and stuck in the 50s.