Child abuse and sexual orientation

You asked

​I am writing in request for statistics on child abuse and sexual molestation.

I would like to know :

1. How many people charged of child sexual abuse committed acts

   a. That were exclusively homosexual

   b. That were exclusively heterosexual

   c. That were both homosexual and heterosexual

   And for this information to be broken down by sexuality and sex of the offenders

2. How many adoptive and foster parents

   a. Committed homosexual acts of child sexual abuse

   b. Committed heterosexual acts of child sexual abuse

   c. Were in same-sex relations and committed acts of child sexual abuse

3. The ratio/percentage of adoptive and foster parents that are either heterosexual/homosexual or in heterosexual/homosexual relations

We said

​Thank you for your request.

We publish statistics on crime from the Crime Survey for England and Wales and Police recorded crime data for England and Wales.

Unfortunately, we do not hold information on charging decisions or on the characteristics of people charged with crimes. Statistics on charging decisions and offender characteristics are held by the Crown Prosecution Service who may be better placed to answer your questions about people charged with sexually abusing children. They can be contacted at enquiries@cps.gov.uk.

We also do not hold information on adoptive and foster parents. Information about the foster care system in England has been published by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), most recently in their report Fostering in England 2018 to 2019: main findings. The data from the report is published here and includes information on the number of allegations of sexual abuse that were made against foster parents. Ofsted can be contacted at enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk.