Australia news This article is more than 2 months oldOne in 10 Australian men report having sexual interactions with under-18s, study finds
This article is more than 2 months oldUNSW study finds nearly one in six men over the age of 18 had sexual feelings towards under-18s
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Francene Reo’s stepdad told her it was therapy. In 1976, the Newcastle supreme court found it was child sexual abuse.
At that time, charging someone for incest was so unusual “they didn’t even know how to word the charges”, she said. Reo’s stepdad spent five years behind bars for his years of severe offending, which took place for 10 years when she was aged six to 16. She didn’t speak about it for decades.
“I felt that if I’d gone public in those days, that I would have been seen as a nutcase,” Reo said.
“People were so unable to discuss their own sexuality, let alone confront little children being sexually abused.”
At the time paedophilia was believed to be rare. But according to University of New South Wales research published on Monday, there is nothing rare about the sexual abuse of children.
Described by its authors as the largest study of its kind ever undertaken globally, the study, titled Identifying and understanding child sexual offending behaviour and attitudes among Australian men, surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,945 Australian men and found 9.4% endorsed at least one of five behaviours that the report authors characterised as sexual offending. That would equate to about one million Australian men.
The figure includes online behaviour such as those who reported having had online sexual conversations with children (4.3%) or deliberately watched pornographic material containing people below the age of 18 (2.5%).
The study found 3.2% of men said they had had sex or sexual contact with a person below the age of 18 when they were over 18. The age of consent in Australia is 16 or 17, depending on the state, but the researchers used 18 as their benchmark for “offending” to align with studies measuring similar behaviour in other countries. While acknowledging this as a “limitation” of the research, the authors argued it did not materially affect the findings.
They said the rate of offending was consistent with other studies worldwide.
“People really need to ask themselves, we’ve got so many victims in the community, we’ve got so many lives that are impacted by child sexual abuse, but we have comparatively few men in prison for this offence. So who’s responsible for all of this damage?” asked Michael Salter, an associate professor in criminology at UNSW, who helped develop the study. “And that’s what our survey’s highlighting.”
The report found nearly one in six men (15.1%) had sexual feelings towards under 18s.
It reported that child offenders are also prolific consumers of deviant or violent adult pornography, signalling to Salter that “the overall porn-saturated online environment does have a role to play in sexual harm to children”.
“Unfortunately, the commonwealth government has kicked the can down the road when it comes to age verification for adult content, and I think our survey signals [the] need to revisit that decision.”
The findings add to groundbreaking research into victims of child abuse published in April. The landmark Australian child maltreatment study found that about 23.7% of Australians had experienced child sexual abuse; about 8.7% had been forced into sex. More than one in three Australian girls experience child sexual abuse, it found.
The UNSW research found two distinct cohorts of child sex offenders: “One which is motivated by sexual interest in children, and a second group who may be offending for situational or opportunistic reasons.”
It also revealed the existence of a large group of undetected men who Salter called “specialist” offenders: otherwise pro-social, well-liked, high status men who repeatedly groom and then abuse children without detection. The study showed they tend to have higher incomes, are more likely to be married and are more likely to work in a field giving them access to kids.
He said governments – and social media providers – need to do more to uncover their offending.
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“We have commercial products that are actively facilitating child sexual exploitation,” he said.
The study also found that perpetrators were also more likely to have been themselves the victim of sexual abuse or had adverse experiences as a child, to have anxiety, depression and binge drinking.
Stop It Now! Australia, the country’s only helpline for people sexually attracted to children, helped develop the study. It found that about one-third of men with sexual feelings towards children wanted help.
Georgia Naldrett, clinical manager at the helpline, called for governments to invest in initiatives that address boys and men who report “troubling thoughts and behaviours”.
Now 77, Reo spent years fighting for compensation even after proving the offending took place.
She said the offending had lifelong deleterious effects on her, but urged victims to seek therapeutic support and guidance.
“You can get through it, and you can live a normal life. You can get it into perspective to the point where … you don’t relive it and … you’re not having nightmares any more,” she said.
The headline and text of this article were amended on 20 and 21 November 2023. An earlier version said that 9.4% of Australian men had reported “having offended” against a child; this should have referred instead to sexual interactions, to reflect the fact that not all sexual contact involving under-18s in Australia is a criminal offence.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
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