Once a victim, always a victim, child study shows

Children who suffer assaults or other crimes are likely to become serial victims, according to new research, with 59 per cent becoming victims once more within the next year. The study, which tracked 1,500 children between the ages of two and 17 for two years, found that exposure to one type of crime increases the risk of becoming a victim of all others.

Children who had suffered sexual abuse were seven times more likely to be attacked again within the next year compared to those who had not been sexually abused.

The results indicate that children who are victims become less able to protect themselves, according to Professor David Finkelhor, the lead author of the study and director of the Crimes Against Children Research Centre at the University of New Hampshire.

"Some of the kids are affected psychologically by the victimisation," he said. "They get depressed, discouraged, feel powerless and have symptoms that cloud their thinking and their judgment."

The study also concluded that abused children who are later involved in traumatic experiences, such as natural disasters, illnesses and accidents, are at a high risk of future abuse and that exposure to one type of crime increases the risk of becoming a victim of all others.

The findings, published in the Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect last month, raise concerns over the psychological health of victims and the need to do more to protect them after an initial incident, say researchers.

Children who are assaulted or criminalised are often in a harmful environment, such as living in an abusive family or an area with a high crime rate.

According to Professor Finkelhor, one of the most effective safeguards against children becoming serial victims is through having strong support from a group of friends. "It may be that when [victimised children] have other kids around with them, they can read the social world for them and say, 'Hey, don't hang around with that guy, he's bad news'," he said.

He hopes the study's findings will encourage agencies that work with children to target high-risk youths and give them extra support to reduce the risk of children becoming victims over and over again.

The news of this research comes as concern is growing over the way in which children in Britain live today. The health and well-being of an entire generation of children are at risk because the Government is failing to uphold their rights to safety, equality and privacy. A dossier of evidence from 380 campaign and welfare groups, the most extensive ever into children's rights, reported in last week's The Independent on Sunday, reveals that more than 40 child-protection safeguards are being breached in the UK. The Children's Rights Alliance for England is to hand over the evidence to the United Nations and accuses the Government of "wilful neglect" over its repeated failure to implement the international treaty protecting under-18s, the Convention on the Rights of the Child.