Can you help us to Break the Silence?

Can you help us to Break the Silence?

Today we are launching a new campaign, Break the Silence, to raise awareness about the signs of intra-familial child sexual abuse.

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.

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Becoming withdrawn, depressed, anxious or overly clingy and affectionate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.

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. A link to this scheme in Staffordshire is Sarah's Law (Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme) | Staffordshire Police.

You can also report suspected abuse via the charity the NSPCC and the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

To support those who need help and advice on the topic, officers from our Child Protection Team will be hosting an online chat event from 6pm-8pm on Monday 19 May. You can get involved, or view the questions posed by others during the live chat by using this link: https://app.sli.do/event/2ZxUcV4kgXdySAqpkkjTV3

For more information about the campaign, visit our website: https://bit.ly/42nhFbs

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Message Sent By
Emma Ray
(Staffordshire Police, Communications Officer, Staffordshire)