Written question asked by Claire Curtis-Thomas (Labour) on Friday, 29 October 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 17 November 2004. It was answered by Paul Goggins (Labour) on Wednesday, 17 November 2004 on behalf of the Home Office.

Home Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has been made of the proportion of (a) sex offenders and (b) the general population who have been victims of sexual or physical abuse as children. - Including fact that information requested is not available centrally.

Answer: Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment has been made of the proportion of (a) sex offenders and (b) the general population who have been victims of sexual or physical abuse as children. [195482] Paul Goggins: The information requested is not available from the Home Office Court Proceedings Database. No information on the circumstances of individual cases or the histories of those appearing before the courts is collected. A Home Office Police Research Series Paper published in 1998 ("Sex offending against children: Understanding the risk"--number 99) reviewed a number of studies in relation to sex offending against children and found differing percentages of sex offenders who had experienced childhood sexual abuse. There is no known source of this information in relation to the general population. The information requested in relation to the general population is not available centrally.

Secondary information