One in six Australian men have reported sexual feelings towards children.
That’s according to the largest ever child abuse perpetration prevalence study by the University of New South Wales.
Researchers studied almost 2,000 men to shed light on sexually abusive behaviours.
Listen to today’s episode of The Briefing here:
On today’s episode of The Briefing, Katrina Blowers is joined by Professor Michael Salter who worked on the study to unpack what was revealed.
Mr Salter said the study identified the men who had said they had experienced sexual feelings towards children all presented similar attributes.
“These were men who would superficially look pretty respectable,” he said.
“People like them, people trust them, they’re in positions of authority. They’re often working with kids.
“They’re more likely to have a child in their households as well.”
He said these findings the need for more government intervention into protecting children.
“It’s a really clear message from us to government, which is we have to invest in child safety and child protection, not only for the safety of this generation, but it also ensures the safety of future generations.”
You can hear more about the study’s findings and what Mr Salter believes Australia should be doing going forward to protect children in today’s episode of The Briefing.