The University of Huddersfield study, to be published in May, found seven per cent of children have been victims of sexual abuse by strangers and that a range of people were behind the attacks.
Bernard Gallagher, senior research fellow at the Centre for Applied Childhood Studies at the university, said the stereotypical view of abduction and sexual abuse by a stranger is that it is carried out by a man against teenage girls.
But his research found that in 12 per cent of cases the abuse was carried out by a woman, 26 per cent was done by other young people or children and 24 per cent by groups of offenders.
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