Key data gaps and priorities for data development
Accurate and timely statistics play a vital role in developing and implementing effective policies. A strong evidence base will improve our understanding of how best to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse in Australia.
There are a number of measures under the Framework which currently have no identified data source. New data development is required to address these data gaps.
This chapter explores the work currently under way to fill data gaps, and discusses the opportunities to strengthen existing data and develop new data sources.
Key data gaps
As outlined in the Data sources and quality chapter, the key information gaps under the Framework include:
- Child safe cultures and processes:
There is currently limited data available on organisations’ capacity and progress implementing the National Principles and/or organisations sharing information to improve child safety and wellbeing. - Victims and survivors:
Victims and survivors experience shame and stigma, creating a barrier to disclosure. This means that child sexual abuse is often underreported, limiting the data available on victims and survivors. There is currently limited data available on:- barriers faced by victims and survivors when disclosing child sexual abuse
- victims and survivors’ experiences accessing justice, health, welfare and other support services – including unmet needs.
- Children and young people who have displayed harmful sexual behaviours:
There is currently no data available on:- children and young people’s access to services to prevent or respond to harmful sexual behaviours including the effectiveness of these services
- workforce capability and capacity to identify and respond to children and young people who have displayed concerning or harmful sexual behaviours.
- Offending prevention:
There is limited data available on the effectiveness of programs that aim to prevent offending before it occurs and to reduce repeat offending. - Priority groups:
There is currently limited data available to understand how child sexual abuse impacts the priority groups, and whether services effectively respond to this child sexual abuse. Where collected, this data may not be suitable for publication due to reliability and confidentiality issues associated with small sample sizes.
What is being done to address these gaps
The Australian Government is undertaking a range of new data development projects under the National Strategy’s First Action Plans that will help to build a strong evidence base to understand how to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse. The new data developed from these activities will be incorporated into future iterations of the Framework.
National Action Plan Activity 23 – Child Safety Research Agenda
The National Office is developing the Child Safety Research Agenda (CSRA) in partnership with Commonwealth agencies, state and territory governments, the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse and non-government research organisations.
The CSRA aims to deliver a world-leading research agenda that nationally coordinates research on child sexual abuse victimisation and offending in Australia. The agenda will identify research gaps, assess child sexual abuse offender programs, guide the development and improvement of policy and program interventions, and inform future preventative and response measures.
The CSRA will be integral in:
- building evidence on the risk, extent and impact of child sexual abuse
- identifying and exploring the causes and nature of child sexual abuse offending
- guiding and informing the development, expansion and improvement of programs that aim to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse
- assessing the efficacy of programs that prevent and respond to child sexual abuse
- identifying areas for action and further research for future National Strategy action plans.
National Action Plan Activity 24 – Baseline analysis of specialist and community support services responding to child sexual abuse
The National Office and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) are conducting a baseline assessment of specialist and community support services responding to child sexual abuse. The scope of this research includes an assessment of the feasibility of developing a nationally consistent minimum data collection for specialist and community support services for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and children and young people who have displayed harmful sexual behaviours.
National Action Plan Activity 27 – Evaluation Framework on the implementation and effectiveness of the national principles for child safe organisations
The National Principles Evaluation Framework will be developed in 2024. It will establish a nationally consistent set of indicators and data sources to assess the effectiveness of the National Principles themselves, as well as the effectiveness of how organisations are implementing the National Principles.
National Action Plan Activity 28 – Second wave of the Australian Child Maltreatment Study
The results from the first Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS), released in April 2023, provide new information about how many Australians have experienced child maltreatment and the physical and mental health impacts these childhood experiences have. This new information about child sexual abuse form baseline evidence for the Framework.
Whilst the ACMS provides important and comprehensive information about child maltreatment in Australia, it was not designed to provide detailed information about whether and how experiences of maltreatment differ for the National Strategy’s priority groups.
The second ACMS aims to build upon and improve the first ACMS by:
- identifying and measuring any changes in how many Australians have experienced child maltreatment over time
- providing new information about how many Australians in the National Strategy’s priority groups have experienced maltreatment, including, First Nations people, people with disability, and culturally and linguistically diverse people (CALD)
- collecting new information that was not able to be measured in the first ACMS – for example, new information on protective factors for child maltreatment
- improving the information collected in the first ACMS – for example, improved measurement of Australian’s experiences of online sexual victimisation.
National Action Plan Activity 29 – Australian Child Wellbeing Data Asset
The AIHW is developing a Child Wellbeing Data Asset (CWDA) that is an enduring and linked data asset, with children and young people at the centre. The aim of the CWDA is to improve outcomes for children and young people by supporting the Australian governments’ ability to measure the impact and success of activities, implement evidence-based policies and practices, and inform investment in better services.
The CWDA will house data collections that can be linked to measure various wellbeing outcomes, provide insights on the elements of wellbeing and the conditions children and young people need to thrive. Through linked data, the CWDA will provide information to answer persistent questions on how children and young people transition through major development stages, interact with services and move through different systems.
Commonwealth Action Plan Activity 31 – Australian Sexual Offences Statistical Collection
The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) is establishing the Australian Sexual Offences Statistical Collection (ASOS). The ASOS collection brings together data on sexual offences, alleged offenders and victims and survivors to support operational agencies and policy makers respond to and prevent sexual offences.
The ASOS collection will deliver support to operational agencies and policy makers in the justice, women’s safety and social service sectors by providing an objective statistical basis for
early intervention programs, law enforcement operations, and desistance and recidivism programs.
Commonwealth Action Plan Activity 32 – Survey of Adult Offenders
The AIC has developed the Survey of Adult Sexual Offenders to address gaps about offender characteristics. The survey aims to inform child sexual abuse prevention programs and policies in Australia by collecting information about this offence type directly from offenders.
The survey will be administered in 2024 to adult offenders convicted of child sexual abuse. Participants will be recruited through offender registers managed by state and territory police agencies. The questionnaire comprises of structured questions with fixed response categories for quantitative analysis, and semi-structured questions to collect qualitative data. This will include information about participants’ offending behaviours, life course trajectories, thoughts, opinions and the strategies or modus operandi offenders use to approach or access children.
Further information on the implementation of the above National Strategy activities can be found in the National Strategy’s First Annual Report.
Other related data development projects
The following data development projects are not activities under the National Strategy, but may contribute new data towards the Framework in future.
The National Crime and Justice Data Linkage Project
The National Crime and Justice Data Linkage Project aims to link administrative datasets from across the criminal justice sector, including police, criminal courts, corrective services, and juvenile justice. Once fully established, this data system could provide insight on how perpetrators of child sexual abuse move through the criminal justice sector, including corrective service outcomes for offenders.