Understanding the Research Evidence

" I never went and asked for help, but no-one ever asked me. "
Young person (2)

This section of the Bairns Hoose practical guide provides information about the scale of child abuse in Scotland, the shortcomings of the current system, what works for children and the limitations of the current evidence.

Key messages from research

Child abuse is often hidden, surrounded by secrecy and shame, and many children will not come to the attention of professional agencies.
Efforts to strengthen the child protection system have resulted in large numbers of children being safer with significantly fewer children dying from abuse and neglect over the past thirty years.
However, even where welfare and justice systems have improved children’s safety, children often report that engagement with such systems can have unintended consequences.
Child victims’ contact with health, child protection and particularly criminal justice processes can, at times, be distressing and retraumatising.
Children’s distress and retraumatisation are linked to paucity of communication; a need to re-narrate experiences of abuse; failure to feel believed or taken seriously; protracted and unpredictable justice processes; and cross examination within an adversarial justice system.
Children and families identify the need for caring and consistent relationships with professionals in the aftermath of abuse. Key qualities that they seek from services are care and compassion; choice and control; advocacy, help to make sense of and navigate systems, and active listening and understanding.
Evidence indicates that the following factors are likely to improve justice and recovery outcomes for children: a high-quality forensic interview; access to timely therapeutic and advocacy support, services provided in a child-friendly environment, good quality information, coordination of services and a policy and legislative context which minimises children’s contact with the court.
" “He made me promise not to tell anyone and I don’t normally break promises and …he would say nobody would believe me if I told and it would ruin my family.” "
Young people with experiences of child abuse and neglect (3)

Scale of child abuse in Scotland

We don't know exactly how many children in Scotland experience abuse or neglect, but estimates indicate that abuse and neglect impact a significant number of children  (Radford et al, 2018). While there is no specific child abuse prevalence evidence for Scotland, UK estimates provide a useful indicator of the potential scale of the problem.

The NSPCC estimates that: 

  • 1 in 14 children have experienced physical abuse.
  • 1 in 20 children have experienced child sexual abuse.
  • 1 in 10 children have experienced neglect.
  • 1 in 15 children have experienced emotional abuse. (4)

Other research shows that:

  • 1 in 5 children have lived with an adult perpetrating domestic abuse. (5)
  • 1 in 8 children globally have been subjected to online solicitation in the last 12 months, such as unwanted sexual talk, which can include non-consensual sexting, unwanted sexual questions and unwanted sexual act requests by adults or other youths. (6)
  • 1 in 8 children have experienced non-consensual taking, sharing and/or exposure to sexual images and videos in the last 12 months.(7)

There is widespread recognition that any existing figures are likely to represent a significant under-representation of the true scale of harm towards children.

Abuse and maltreatment are usually hidden from view. It can be hard for professionals to identify and difficult for children to recognise or to report when they are scared and threatened. It is even more difficult for a baby, toddler or child with communication needs ‘to tell someone’.

Eighty percent of children who experienced sexual abuse did try to tell an adult and on average it took seven years from when the abuse started to the point they told an adult. (8)

Together this evidence indicates that relatively few children’s experiences of abuse or neglect will come to the attention of services.

" It was wrong but I kept quiet. I didn’t know how to tell anyone. I didn’t know how to break the silence. I didn’t know how to tell my Mum that he had been touching me.

I didn’t know how so I had to keep quiet. "
Tessa 11 years old at point of disclosure (9)

Importantly some of the difficulties inhibiting children from telling someone about hurt or harm, include their fears and expectations about how professionals and services will respond to them after abuse has been identified. (10)

This highlights how addressing these shortcomings – through introduction of improved responses through a Barnahus model can impact not only on individual children’s experiences, but also wider efforts to identify and prevent abuse.

2 Allnock, D. and Miller, P. (2013) No one noticed, no one heard: a study of disclosures of childhood abuse. London: NSPCC pg.24

3Cossar, J., et.al. (2013) 'It takes a lot to build trust’. Recognition and Telling: Developing Earlier Routes to Help for Children and Young People. London: Office of the Children’s Commissioner. pg. 42

4 NSPCC (2025) https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/research-resources/statistics-briefings

5 Radford.L., et al. (2011) Child abuse and neglect in the UK today, NSPCC: London

 6,7 Childlight (2024) Global Child Safety Institute. Into the Light Index on Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Globally: 2024 Report. Edinburgh: Childlight.

8 Allnock, D. and Miller, P. (2013) No one noticed, no one heard: a study of disclosures of childhood abuse. London: NSPCC.

9 Taylor, J., et.al. (2015) Deaf and disabled children talking about child protection. Edinburgh: NSPCC.

10 Field, N. and Katz. C. (2023)  “The Experiences And Perceptions Of Sexually Abused Children As Participants In The Legal Process: Key Conclusions From A Scoping Literature Review”. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 24, Pp. 2758–2771.