High-income countries provide the most data points on child sexual exploitation and abuse prevalence with low-income countries globally under-represented

This study used a scoping review approach to better understand the global coverage of national and sub-national studies published between 2010 and 2021.

Research findings

A total of 404 studies with 673 data points reported CSEA overall prevalence. Most of those data points come from high-income countries while lower-income countries appear to have the lowest number, followed by upper middle income countries.

These disparities could be influenced by some of the challenges faced by lower-income countries including, limited financial resources, a shortage of trained personnel, legal and awareness-related impediments, and cultural factors that may deter both reporting and the collection of data regarding child sexual exploitation and abuse.

For upper middle-income countries, the challenges to CSEA measurement may be influenced by the lack of donor and other funding to support such initiatives.

Of the total data points, only 550 disaggregated prevalence estimates by sex to include female prevalence estimates and 375 to include estimates for males. In other words, we have one-third more prevalence studies on CSEA affecting females, while several studies do not include males. Clearly, there is a need for parity in our measurement to get the full picture of how this affects all children globally.

Looking across all continents, there are more prevalence data that report female only CSEA estimates. However, South and North America and Europe had a better proportional representation of data that included both boys and girls.