The University of Bedfordshire has been awarded £120,000 to fund critical research into child abuse. The research will look at the experiences and perspectives of children and young people who have been sexually abused in a family environment.

Existing research indicates that the majority of children that experience sexual abuse in a family environment are not known to services as victims (or survivors). At any one point, there are approximately 2000 children, who are known to services, to be victims of sexual abuse. However, recent inquiries show that there are significantly more children who suffer from this abuse but do not come forward.

Partnering with the NSPCC, and funded by the Office of the Children's Commissioner (OCC), the research will seek to close critical gaps in understanding the experiences and perspectives of children that have been sexually abused in a family environment.

One of the key outcomes of the research will be to identify possible routes (and barriers) for reporting sexual abuse in an effort to understand why young people do not disclose abuse; leading to more abused children being known to services.

Dr Helen Beckett, senior research fellow and deputy director of the International Centre for Researching Child Sexual Exploitation, Violence and Trafficking, will be heading the research and had this to say:

"The International Centre is delighted to have been commissioned to undertake this research, which builds on a substantial body of work already undertaken within the Centre around how to improve responses to children experiencing sexual exploitation and other forms of sexual abuse, and it is great to have the opportunity to utilise our participatory and ethical research expertise within this important piece of work."