A study by the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse found that despite increasing awareness of child sexual abuse, in part due to high profile cases, measuring the precise scale of the crime remains challenging.
The report said improvements in data collection are essential if the problem is to be tackled more effectively, and calls for government to conduct national prevalence surveys at regular intervals.
Researchers found that limitations with data on the frequency, duration and location of child sexual abuse meant professionals are unable to "see the whole picture", with decisions being made "in a fog" as a result.
The study reveals a widening gap between the respective levels of child sexual abuse being recorded by police and children's services. Police recorded child sexual abuse offences more than tripled between 2004/5 and 2016/17. However, the number of children subject to a child protection plan for sexual abuse in England reduced from 6,400 to 2,900 between 1993/4 and 2016/17 and in Wales from 331 to 120.
The report said this is a result of the fact that in many areas only one primary concern relating to a child can be recorded for child protection plans, with this concern often not updated if sexual abuse emerges at a later stage.
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