Description:
In 1999, the Danish Government and The National Council for Children addressed the need to improve the fight against child sexual abuse. In 2000, a cross-ministerial working group published recommendations for an interdisciplinary joint effort to combat child sexual abuse. In 2003, a national action plan to prevent child sexual abuse was devised, pointing to the need for continuous observation of the trends in child abuse. Since 2000, the National Institute of Public Health has conducted research on this topic based on information provided by different data sources that include: register data, national surveys, information from paediatrics and child psychiatrists and an audit of case material from all police districts regarding reported child abuse cases from 1998. The results were published in 2000 in a Danish report.
With financial support from The Ministry of Social Affairs (now the Ministry of Welfare), in 2002, the institute conducted a national, representative school-based survey among ninth-grade students to uncover the prevalence of early sexual activity, sexual abuse, violence victimisation and their correlations with young people’s well-being. This study collected information from 6200 youths, and enables analyses of ethnical and gender differences in young people’s health with regard to a number of risk factors.
This study is being repeated in 2008 with support from a private foundation, Trygfonden, and the National Crime Prevention Council. This survey will make it possible to assess the development in the prevalence and character of child sexual abuse over time, as well as to illuminate a possible effect of the government’s action plan for prevention of child sexual abuse from 2003.
In 2000, the institute initiated the setting up of a national interdisciplinary research network on child sexual abuse, which initiates and coordinates interdisciplinary research on child sexual abuse. The private foundation, Helsefonden, has financially supported the network. Members of the network are both researchers and practicians from relevant institutions. Every two years, a national conference is being organised by the network.