Link – Child victims of violent and sexual crimes ‘not being taken seriously’
We still don’t want to acknowledge what is happening. We’d rather pretend that these stories of horrific abuse are made up, or a child’s imagination. They aren’t, and they need to be taken seriously.
Child victims of violent and sexual crimes are not being taken seriously when they report offences, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales has said.
In a review into young victims of crime, Lady Newlove says children who seek help from criminal justice agencies are often not believed, made to feel like criminals and accused of wasting police time.
The report, published on Wednesday, concludes that despite high-profile inquiries into child abuse in Rotherham and the Jimmy Savile scandal “lessons are still not being learnt about believing young victims”.
