Break the Silence
Intra-familial abuse is child sexual abuse that takes place within the family environment. Abusers may be relatives, guardians, carers or people that victims feel are part of their family network.
Such abuse often occurs in combination with other forms of emotional, physical and psychological neglect including domestic abuse and has a devastating impact on victims and their lives.
Our Break the Silence campaign aims to raise awareness of intra-familial abuse, which is the most common form of child sexual abuse. We want to help family members and the community to recognise the signs and support victims to come forward. Children suffering from sexual abuse feel like they haven’t got a voice and only 1 in 8 will tell someone. Together we can protect children and give them the confidence to speak up.
Signs
Some of the signs of intrafamilial abuse can include children:
- Changing elements of their behaviour or personality
- Demonstrating regressive behaviours such as bed-wetting
- Having recurring trouble sleeping or nightmares
- Enacting sexual behaviours with toys
- Becoming withdrawn, depressed, anxious or overly clingy and affectionate
- Becoming secretive, fearful or unaccountably angry
- Changing their eating habits – excessive under or over-eating
- Changing their personal hygiene habits including excessive bathing or not bathing at all
- Using new or different words for body parts
- Demonstrating a sexual awareness inappropriate to their age.
Other physical signs of abuse can include children having:
- Unexplained signs of trauma such as bruising, bleeding, swelling or sores on a child’s body, face and private parts
- Unexplained bodily itching or other recurring physical aliments
- Difficulty standing, sitting or walking
- Pregnancy or sexually-transmitted infections
The behaviour of an adult in a child’s familial network may be a concern and require reporting if:
- They are overly interested in a child’s physical development
- They insist on physical play with a child
- They shower the child with excessive gifts
- They make sexual comments, innuendoes or have inappropriate conversations around children
- They seek-out alone time with a child and single them out for attention in a room or enclosed space such as a car
- They refuse to give a child privacy or make their own decisions relating to their wellbeing
- They display child-like or child-orientated behaviours to seek out attention from children.
How you can help
Anyone concerned about the behaviour of a child or adult they know has a number of options to access support.
If you are concerned about a child at immediate risk of harm, call 999 as an emergency. To make a report to us that is not an emergency, call 101.
If you’re worried about the behaviour of an adult towards a child, as part of Sarah’s Law you can access the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme (CSODS) online to ask us if someone has a record for child sexual offences.
There are also a number of organisations that can offer support, for more information please visit: Support organisations | Child abuse | Staffordshire Police
For more information on child abuse, visit: What is child abuse? | Staffordshire Police.