What is sexual abuse?

There are many myths around what constitutes as sexual abuse, and we understand it can be difficult to understand what may have happened to you.

You may hear or see the terms ‘sexual abuse’ and ‘sexual violence’ used across different support services or information relating to this topic. We are using the term ‘sexual abuse’ as we know that not all forms of sexual abuse involve ‘violence’.

Sexual abuse occurs when someone is forced, coerced or manipulated into engaging in sexual activity without consenting. This includes rape, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, exploitation, sexual harassment, harmful practices, and non contact sexual abuse such as grooming, taking and sharing indecent images of children, forcing someone to do sexual things to themselves, sharing sexual images of someone without their consent (revenge porn).

To be able to consent, both people must be agreeing by their choice and must have the freedom and capacity to make that choice. Consent looks different for children under 16 and the law says that a child under 13 can never legally give consent to any form of sexual activity.

Not all cases of assault and rape are violent or cause physical injury. Some offences can occur without a victim ever meeting their perpetrator. This does not mean the offence is any less serious and can still have long lasting affects on the victim.

Perpetrators of sexual abuse are often thought to be strangers, but most commonly they may be friends, partners, family members or neighbours.

Anyone can be a victim of sexual abuse, it can affect people of all backgrounds, ages and genders.

The most important thing to remember is that it is not your fault

Click here for more information on ‘what is child sexual exploitation and human trafficking’