A Critical Exploration of The Link Between Child Abuse, Faith & Belief.

This research project investigates the phenomenon of child abuse and its links to faith or belief in the UK context. This report focuses on this form of abuse because the main victims are often uniquely vulnerable: they are children with learning disabilities. Also, based on the most recent Children in Need Census 2017-2018, there is an increase of 11% in child abuse linked to faith or belief compared to 2016-2017 (vcf-uk.org, 2024). Therefore, research on this topic is essential given the limited quantity of data available about child abuse linked to faith or belief. Moreover, the researcher is uniquely motivated to investigate this issue, being a support worker for children with learning disabilities. This research is a desk-based review of previous data collected by other researchers; this includes the work of Eleonor Stobart (2006) and Jean La Fontaine (2009), in combination with London Metropolitan Police data. The key result of this study is that while the UK government and London Metropolitan Police recognise abuse linked to faith or belief as a serious offence, this phenomenon (the link between child abuse and faith/belief) is under-researched. More research is needed in this area to understand the scale and impact of the relationship between child abuse and faith/belief.