By Emily Gibson, Russell Knight, Annie Durham and Imran Choudhury

The Inquiry has heard that LGBTQ+ children face specific challenges that make them vulnerable to child sexual abuse. We also heard that LGBTQ+ victims and survivors can face barriers which make it difficult to disclose child sexual abuse, access support and form adult relationships. Society’s views of LGBTQ+ victims and survivors are often built on harmful myths and stereotypes. Although social and political attitudes have improved, we live in a heteronormative and cisnormative culture, with a deeply homophobic history. We heard that many people, including professionals, continue to believe and act on harmful myths and stereotypes about LGBTQ+ victims and survivors. For example: ● Some victims and survivors were told that their gender identity or sexual orientation resulted from the child sexual abuse they experienced, which severely damaged their self-identity and mental health. ● Some victims and survivors were told that they were sexually abused because of their sexual orientation or gender identity (‘you brought it on yourself’), including vulnerable LGBTQ+ children using online spaces to explore their sexuality. ● We also heard the myth that ‘people who have been abused go on to abuse’ can stop both gay and straight men from reporting or disclosing having been sexually abused because they fear being thought of as ‘paedophiles’. LGBTQ+ victims and survivors experience distinct barriers to disclosing and reporting child sexual abuse. We heard that because LGBTQ+ people are seen as ‘different’ from the norm, it can be more difficult to disclose and report child sexual abuse, which has led to under-reporting of child sexual abuse by LGBTQ+ victims and survivors.

London: Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, 2022, 53p.

By HM Government (UK)

The publication of the Rape Review in 2021 demonstrated a commitment to improving the Criminal Justice System process for victims, and to more than double the number of adult rape cases reaching court by the end of Parliament. Now, two years after its publication, we are making strong progress towards the Rape Review’s ambition to return volumes of cases being referred by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS); charged by the CPS; and going to court, to at least 2016 levels. The data shows us that 2016 marked a key point in time where the system faltered: well-documented issues regarding the disclosure of evidence combined with strained relationships between criminal justice agencies, inconsistent support for victims, and ultimately a decline in the number of charges and prosecutions for rape cases. We have made clear our intention to continue reversing these trends. Having delivered on the vast majority of milestones set out by our Action Plan’s eight levers, we are pleased to report that we have already met two of our ambitions and remain well on-track to meet the one that remains, with a strong upward trajectory. Whilst we know that there is much more to do, this shows that our Action Plan is working.

London: HM Government, 2023. 40p.

By Richard Wortley And Stephen Smallbone

From the foreword by Graeme Newman: “…We see from the authors' outstanding review of who the offenders and victims are and how they are connected through the Internet and other technologies that Internet child pornography is the quintessential global crime, bringing with it the increasingly familiar problems of policing-crimes defined differently across multiple countries and jurisdictions, the labyrinthine and decentralized nature of the Internet, the capability to transmit images across borders around the world instantaneously, and the availability of smartphones and other mobile devices to children and those who would exploit them. They remind us that at the shocking end of the continuum of child pornography, it is essentially local because the actual, original production of child pornographic images most often results from contact sexual abuse by adults with close familial or social relationships to the children. It is the international distribution and con- sumption of images that convert the local crimes into global ones…”

NY. Praeger. 2012. 165p.

Edited by Gillian Abel, Lisa Fitzgerald and Catherine Healy

New Zealand was the first country in the world to decriminalise all sectors of sex work. Previous criminal or civil laws governing sex work and related offences were revoked in 2003 and sex workers became subject to the same controls and regulations as any other occupational group. This book provides an in-depth look at New Zealand's experience of decriminalisation. It provides first hand views and experience on this policy from the point of view of those involved in the sex industry, as well as people involved in developing, implementing, researching and reviewing the policies. Valuable comparisons pre- and post-decriminalisation are made, based on research in the sex industry prior to decriminalisation. Presenting an example of radical legal reform in an area of current policy debate this book will be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduates in criminal justice, political science, sociology, gender studies and social policy as well as policy makers and activists.

Bristol, UK: Policy Press, 2010. 280p.

By Philip M Stinson, Zachary J. Calogeras, Natalie L. DiChiro, and Ryan K. Hunter

This report was prepared at the request of the California Research Bureau. The data are from a larger study on police crime in the United States. Police crimes are those crimes committed by sworn law enforcement officers given the general powers of arrest at the time the offense was committed and/or at the time when the officer was arrested. These crimes can occur while the officer is on- or off-duty and include offenses committed by state, county, municipal, tribal, or special law enforcement agencies. Police crimes damage the occupational integrity of police officers, the organizational legitimacy of the employing law enforcement agency, and the overall authority and legitimacy of the law enforcement community. According to Stinson’s (2009) typology of police crime, nearly all crime committed by sworn law enforcement officers is alcohol-related, drug-related, sex-related, violence-related, and/or profit-motivated. This report focuses on the sex-related police crime arrests of sworn law enforcement officers in the State of California during the years 2005-2011.

Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University, 2015. 25p.

By Hannah Ford

Until recently, the topic of female sexual offenders remained under-researched, and many incorrect assumptions and beliefs still surround the subject. This book is organised into five parts around eleven chapters. It provides a comprehensive overview of the latest research in this often overlooked area and discusses both adult female offenders and adolescents/younger children who commit sexual offences against children. After an in-depth evaluation of research literature, the author then considers a range of treatment approaches and directions for future research.

Chichester, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2006. 204p.

By André Nolte.

This paper studies the effects of the introduction of a new mass medium on criminal activity in Germany. The paper asks the question of whether highspeed internet leads to higher/lower sex crime offences and murder. I use unique German data on criminal offences and broadband internet measured at the municipality level to shed light on the question. In order to address endogeneity in broadband internet availability, I follow Falck et al. (2014) and exploit technical peculiarities at the regional level that determine the roll-out of high-speed internet. In contrast to findings for Norway (Bhuller et al., 2013), this paper documents a substitution effect of internet and child sex abuse and no effect on rape incidences. The effects on murder increase under the instrumental variable approach however remain insignificant. Overall, the estimated net effects might stem from indirect effects related to differences in reporting crime, a matching effect, and a direct effect of higher and more intensive exposure to extreme and violent media consumption. After investigating the potential channel, I do find some evidence in favor of a reporting effect suggesting that the direct consumption effect is even stronger. Further investigation of the development of illegal pornographic material suggests that the direct consumption channel does play a significant role in explaining the substitution effect.

Mannheim: ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, 2017. 60p.

By Harald Dern, Roland Frönd, Ursula Straub, Jens Vick and Rainer Witt.

“The perpetrator isn’t from here!” This claim is an understandable defensive response exhibited by local people following a sexual homicide,1 particularly in cases involving a child victim. The contention is grounded more in belief than in knowledge, however, as very few of the perpetrators who are later identified travelled a great distance to the crime scene. One occasionally encounters this notion in police circles as well, and it often makes the process of identifying the perpetrator even more difficult. When cases of this kind remain unsolved, the investigating unit in charge frequently requests the appropriate operational case analysis unit to perform a case analysis.2 As a rule, such cases analyses include the development of an offender profile containing, to the extent possible, statements about the unidentified perpetrator’s probable age, prior criminal record and place or region of residence. These criteria within the offender profile are of utmost importance to local investigative authorities. On the basis of a combination of these criteria, which can be researched in databases, analysts can, for example, identify a group of potential suspects and/or establish a scale of priorities within a known group of suspects (keyword “profiling”).

Wiesbaden: Bundeskriminalamt , 2005. 101p.

By Howard B. Woolston.

Prior to the entrance of the United States into the world war. “The plans for the study of prostitution in the United States were made before our country entered the world war, and before many important agencies which were la- ter developed by the government had begun to function. The greater part of the field work was done in the first half of the year 1917. The task of putting this and other material connected with the study into shape was inter- rupted by the author's war service. When it was possible to resume the preparations for publication and the matter on hand was reviewed in the light of war efforts, public and private, for the control of commercialized vice, it became evident that we had passed through a transition period. The termination of the war marked the end of the old order of things in the United States and the beginning of a new era characterized by more extensive and concentrated efforts on the part of the government. It was, therefore, decided to divide the study into two parts. In this first volume we will present an account of the conditions of commercialized prostitution, and of the more important agencies developed to meet the situations as they existed prior to and at the time of our entrance into the world war.”

New York: Century Company, 1921. 360p.

By the Newark New Jersey Citizens’ Committee.

“The Prostitute.—It is said that there is no prostitution in Newark. It is true that there are practically no bawdy houses. But there is prostitution. The principal streets, railroad stations, post office and other public buildings, many places of amusement, many cafes and backrooms of saloons scattered over practically the entire area of the city are frequented by prostitutes. There are at least 400 of these women who ply their trade in Newark. Many of these belong to the city, but there are many others who come and go, from Harrison, the Oranges, Paterson, Elizabeth, New York and many other nearby towns and cities. Of the more than 1,300 saloons in Newark, the investigators made a special study of ninety-three. They found sixty-four of these which have backrooms where prostitutes were found soliciting or frequenting habitually. The indications- appear to show that these women are paid a commission upon the drinks they induce men to buy.”

Newark, NJ: Citizens' Committee, 1914. 176p.

By Jane Addams.

“Published in 1912 on the heels of Twenty Years at Hull-House and at the height of Jane Addams's popularity, "A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil" assesses the vulnerability of the rural and immigrant working-class girls who moved to Chicago and fell prey to the sexual bartering of what was known as the white slave trade. Addams offers lurid accounts--drawn from the records of Chicago's Juvenile Protection Association--of young women coerced into lives of prostitution by men who lurked outside hotels and sweatshops. Because they lacked funds for proper recreation, Addams argues, poor and socially marginalized women were susceptible to sexual slavery, and without radical social change they would perhaps be "almost as free" as young men. In addition to promoting higher wages and better living conditions, Addams suggests that a longer period of public education for young women would deter them from the dangers of city life. Despite its appeal to middle-class readers eager for tales of sexual excess and the rape of innocence, the press and prominent intellectuals criticized A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil for being disproportionately hysterical to its philosophical weight.”

New York: Macmillan, 1912. 219p.

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By Rudolph Blackenburg.

Report on Existing Conditions with Recommendations to the Honorable Rudolph Blackenburg Mayor. “Our report is addressed to sane, serious minded men and women who desire to better conditions in our own city; it is not addressed to those who take no interest in the subject, who think the least said and done the better, or who flippantly dismiss it.”

Philadelphia: The Commission, 1913. 179p.

By Increase Mather.

Or, a sermon (preached at the lecture in Boston in New-England the 18th day of the 1 moneth 1674, when two men were executed, who had murthered their master) wherein is shewed that excesse in wickedness doth bring untimely death.

Boston: John Foster, 1879. 25p.

By The Committee of Fifteen

With special reference to conditions existing in the city of New York. . “In the fall of 1900, the city of New York was startled by discoveries in regard to the spread of the Social Evil in certain districts, and as to the extent of flagrant offences against public morality and common decency. A meeting of citizens was held at the Chamber of Commerce in November, as a result of which the Committee of Fifteen was called into existence. The objects which the Committee of Fifteen undertook to accomplish were thereupon stated as follows : (1) To institute a searching inquiry, uninfluenced by partisan considerations, into the causes of the present alarming increase of gambling and the Social Evil in this city, and to collect such evidence as shall establish the connection between existing conditions and those who, in the last analysis, are responsible for these conditions. (2) To publish the results of such investigations in order to put our fellow-citizens in possession of facts, and to enable them to adopt such corrective measures as may be needed. (3) To promote such legislation as shall render it less difficult to reach offenders, and as shall put an end to the shifting and division of responsibility in the local administration of the laws relating to vice and crime, to the end that public officers and their subordinates may be held to a strict accountability for their acts. (4) To suggest and promote the provision of more wholesome conditions and surroundings, in order to lessen the allurements and incentives to vice and crime.”

New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1902. 188p.

By William W. Sanger.

Its Extent, Causes and Effects Throughout the World. “The history of prostitution around the world from the earliest Egyptian Courtesans to those night houses or street vendors of the late to 19th century. Arguments are unnecessary to prove the existence of prostitution. The evil is so notorious that none can possibly gainsay it. But when its extent, its causes, or its effects are questioned, a remarkable degree of ignorance or carelessness is manifested. Few care to know the secret springs from which prostitution emanates; few are anxious to know how wide the stream ex tends; few have any desire to know the devastation it causes. Society has formally laid a prohibition on the subject, and he who presumes to argue that what affects one may injure all; he who believes that the malady in his neighbor's family to-day may visit his own to-morrow ; he who dares to intimate that a vice which has blighted the happiness of one parent, and ruined the character of one daughter, may produce, must inevitably produce, the same sad results in another circle ; in short, he who dares allude to the subject of prostitution in any other than a mysterious and whispered manner, must prepare to meet the frowns and censure of society.”

New York: The Medical Publishing Co., 1899. 709p.