This can’t be accurate, can it? The article says they arrest 800 people a month, whereas the US only convicts 1,600 people a year. What causes these discrepancies?
https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-pu...
[0]https://www.statista.com/statistics/303514/child-cruelty-abu... (can't find a graph like that on sexual abuse cases but there's been constant growth too)
• It's a bit higher than the percentage indicating they have that interest in responses to sexual desire surveys, but such surveys are often underestimates.
• It's much lower than the percentage of women who report being victimised when they were minors, but one criminal can have many victims.
• It's really difficult to prove the offence in a court.
• A common argument for harsh punishments is that the legal system is supposed to have punishments severe enough to act as a deterrent (as in not just rehabilitation, compensating victims, or keeping dangerous people out of society). Quite a lot of other crimes, say possession of heroin which IIRC carries a 7 year prison sentence even without intent to supply, also have far more offenders than the entire UK prison population (3x in the case of heroin).
>whereas the US only convicts 1,600 people a year. What causes these discrepancies?
Difficulties detecting the offending and the enthusiasm for prosecution.