BRIS Report 2001

The Report
Calls and E-mails 2001

Published: February 2002

Children's Rights in Society

Contents
Summary 4
Total volume of calls to the Children's Helpline 4
BRIS.SE 6
Calls from Adults 6

BRIS in a changing society 8

Calls from children and young people 10
The spread of calls to the Children's Helpline 2001 (FIG.1) 10
The number of statistically recorded calls from children 1991 -2001 (FIG.2) 12
Number of calls from children per month (FIG.3) 13
Who calls BRIS? 13
Children's ages in calls from children (FIG.4) 14
Domestic circumstances in calls from children (FIG. 5) 14
The spread of problem environments in calls from children (FIG. 6) 15
How are problems affected by gender, age and environment? 15
Nature of the calls 16
Problem categories in children's calls (FIG.7) 17
Common themes on the Children's Helpline 18
Theme: Bullying 18
Theme: Children's relationships with their contemporaries 20
Theme: Children's development 21
Theme: The Family 22
Theme: Physical, psychological and sexual abuse 24
Perpetrators of physical abuse cited in calls from children (FIG.8) 26
Perpetrators of sexual abuse cited in calls from children (FIG.9) 27
Miscellaneous 30
Topical themes 32
Children and stress 32
Loneliness and absentee adults 32
Ethnicity 33
Disasters 34
After the call 35
Further contacts following calls from children (TABLE A) 35
Managing assignments 36

BRIS.SE 39
The BRIS-mail 39
Problem categories in The BRIS-mail replies to children (FIG.10) 41
Discussion forums 42
Web reports: Bullying on the Internet • Belief in the future 44

Calls from adults about children 47
Proﬁles of adult callers 47
Callers' relationships to the child in question (FIG. 11) 47
Problem categories in calls from adults (FIG. 12) 48
Themes: The Family • Children's development and relationships with contemporaries 48
Physical, psychological and sexual abuse • Problems with authorities
Others and miscellaneous 52
Referrals of calls from adults (TABLE B)
53

Conclusion 54

2 B R I S R E P O RT • C A L L S M A D E I N 2 0 0 1

The BRIS
Report
Calls and E-mails 2001

Gunnar Sandelin, Press Secretary
Peter Irgens, Development Secretary
February 2002
Photography: Karin Nauclér

Text: Gunnar Sandelin
Research: Peter Irgens
Photography: From various photographic agencies, un
less otherwise stated.The people in the
photographs are not the children and
young people referred to in the text.
Translation: Eqvator AB
Layout: Rolf A Olsson
Reproduction
and printing: Ålands Tryckeriet

B R I S R E P O RT • C A L L S M A D E I N 2 0 0 1 3

Summary
Total volume of calls to the Children's Helpline

During 2001 a total of almost 200,000 calls were made to the BRIS Child-
ren's Helpline, an increase of 20 per cent on the previous year, which had
also seen a rise in the total number of calls by 50 per cent.
This dramatic increase in the total number of calls in recent years is
largely due to the rise of mobile phones and the fact that BRIS has beco-
me well-known to Swedish children and young people.
Accessibility studies have shown increasing problems in actually getting
through, and this has prompted BRIS to press for the adoption of a new
digital telephone system which should improve access to the Children's
Helpline.
However, roughly nine out of ten calls fall outside our statistics becau-
se they contain too little information. For the most part, these are so-
called “test” calls in which BRIS volunteers are either subjected to pranks
or insults, or in which it can be assumed that callers are testing out whe-
ther BRIS is actually a reliable contact partner.

The statistically recorded calls to the BRIS Children's Helpline have great-
ly increased in number since the early 1990s, yet in proportion to the to-
tal number of calls received, they have decreased in since the mid 1990s,
now accounting for only 9 per cent of all calls received.
In spite of this, they still account for more than two thirds of the time
spent on calls at the Children's Helpline.
To keep up with the greatly increased number of non-statistically re-
corded calls brought about by mobile phones, BRIS is set to re-structure
the focus of its data collection in 2002, which will mean that future BRIS
reports will be increasingly able to present more material on a signiﬁcant-
ly higher number of calls.
“Since many young people ring up to test us out, we would like to know
more about these calls. It is important for BRIS to follow the trends in so-
ciety, and when children and young people need to test out the limits we
should be there for them. We know that many young people suffer from
a lack of adults who are close to them,” says Göran Harnesk, BRIS' Se-
cretary General.

In 2001 there were 17,150 statistically recorded calls from children and
young people, a fall of two per cent compared to the previous year.
No personal details are registered, yet information about the child's sex
and age, domestic circumstances and the subject of the call and the fee-
lings expressed by the child are documented. Information on the perpe-
trators of bullying and physical and sexual abuse is also registered.

Of the calls statistically recorded by BRIS, 72 per cent relate primarily
to girls and 28 per cent to boys, virtually an exact replication of the gen-
der split of all children making calls over recent years.
Most calls to BRIS concern young people of secondary school age with
an average age of 13. Most of them live in a natural nuclear family, yet al-
most thirty per cent live with lone parents or in a step family.
Problems can often be traced to the child's inner world, yet more than


50 per cent of calls describe home or school as the critical problem area. Never before have so many calls
For the most part, boys and girls call with similar concerns, yet boys' been received during a calendar year.
calls tend more towards problems such as bullying and physical abuse, One noticeable development is the
whereas girls call rather more frequently about subjects such as family increase in calls from mobile phones.
conﬂicts and sexual abuse. Girls more often than boys express low spirits,
sorrow or thoughts of suicide.
Generally speaking, at the onset of long holidays, the number of calls in-
creases from vulnerable children living in families in which neglect, abuse
and assault occur. For these children the summer and Christmas holidays
mean increased suffering since the support of adults outside the family de-
creases and much social work is carried out by a skeleton staff.

The problems children called about were:

• Bullying: 18 per cent of calls
• Family conﬂicts: 12 per cent
• Love/relationship problems: 11 per cent
• Sexual development, sexuality and pregnancy: 10 per cent
• Serious problems such as physical abuse (6.9 per cent) and sexual abuse
(5.5 per cent) were also regularly cited.

The 3,000 calls relating to bullying during the year, an increase of 13
per cent on the previous year, broke all records and continued the trend
of a major increase in the number of bullying calls in recent years.


Perpetrators of abuse
48 per cent of the bullies are boys alone, whereas 15 per cent of cases cite
girls alone and 36 per cent indicate bullies of both sexes.
With regard to physical abuse, BRIS has conducted a survey of abusers
for the sixth year running indicating that 85 per cent of abusers are part
of the family, with fathers being the most usual culprits. The gender divide
between abusers reveals that 69 per cent are men, 31 per cent women.
Where sexual abuse is concerned, men are the abusers in 84 per cent of
cases, women 14 per cent, and in 2 per cent the perpetrators are of either
sex. Children callers cited fathers as the abusers in one in four cases. Tea-
chers/school staff members and abusers of their own age were also cited.

This year we are also providing an account of Topical Themes, occasio-
ned by calls with an expressed or underlying theme which cannot be in-
cluded in our standard problem categories. Frequent subjects to which
BRIS has paid special attention during the year arise from calls relating to
children and stress, loneliness, absentee adults, ethnicity and disasters.

BRIS.SE
BRIS' new website was completed at the beginning of the year following
twelve months of intensive voluntary activity on the part of dedicated staff
at the IT company Framfab. It enables visitors to e-mail BRIS with their pro-
blems and to take part in themed discussions with people of their own age
under the supervision of a BRIS moderator. The website also presents infor-
mation about BRIS, press releases and our anti-bullying campaign, etc.
Communication with children and young people at BRIS.SE is based on
each child creating his or her own ﬁctitious identity in the form of a fan-
tasy ﬁgure, a “Mumla”, which enables them both to e-mail us and join
our discussion forums in complete anonymity.
By the end of the year BRIS.SE had recorded 170,000 hits, and more
than 10,000 “Mumlas” had been created.
The most extensive part of the website is the BRIS-mail function, which
received more than 4,000 e-mails from children and young people during
the year, the majority relating to severe problems. The young people con-
cerned write about their suffering in a variety of expressive ways. Many
of them contemplate suicide, feel misunderstood and do not know how to
go about getting to grips with their thoughts and anxieties.
The BRIS-mail enables staff on e-mail duty to follow a child's corre-
spondence, often enabling BRIS to conduct an extensive dialogue with the
child.
BRIS.SE also provides an opportunity to discuss subjects such as lone-
liness and bullying in discussion forums which are permanently open.
BRIS has also published two web reports on Bullying on the Internet and
Children's and Young People's Faith in the Future.

Calls from Adults
1,896 calls were received in 2001 from adults about children by the BRIS
During the year around 4,000 e-mail
messages were received from child- Helpline for Adults - about Children, a reduction of 11 per cent compared
ren and young people. The majority to the previous year.
of these messages were problem-rela- Calls generally tend to be made by parents (usually the mother) and
ted. other relatives. Representatives from various authorities also consult BRIS


for its experience in various serious matters relating to children. In seven Adults who call are mostly worried
cases out of ten, those who call the BRIS Helpline for Adults - about about problems regarding access,
Children are women. custody and divorce - a subject cove-
red by more than one third of calls
54 per cent of calls from adults were about girls, 46 per cent about
from adults.
boys. This is a more even gender split than we ﬁnd on the Children's Help-
line.
Compared with the children who themselves call BRIS, adults tend to
worry about younger children. The average age is exactly 10, compared
to the average age on the Children's Helpline which is roughly 13.
Adults with worries about children that are primarily related to the fa-
mily call about various problems regarding access, custody and divorce -
a subject covered by more than one third of calls from adults.
One call in four to the BRIS Helpline for Adults - about Children is con-
nected with physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Calls from adults
about sexual abuse tend to come from mothers who are worried that a
child may be at risk. Information relating to perpetrators is largely simi-
lar to the equivalent information on the Children's Helpline.
Bullying is the most common single reason for children to call the
Children's Helpline, yet on the adult helpline the subject is not nearly so
common. These calls mostly tend to refer to the failed attempts of various
schools to do something about the ostracism of certain children by their
peers.
Many adults who call BRIS are disappointed by the way they have been
treated by various authorities, most commonly the social services. Calls
may, for example, indicate that the caller feels that matters are not sufﬁ-
ciently investigated, or that a child is not being taken seriously.
In eight out of ten calls from adults, referrals are given as to how to take
the problem further.


BRIS in a changing
society
The rapid pace of change in society has resulted in advanced technology
that provides children and young people with new means of communica-
ting with the world around them. Methods of measuring and interpreting
this communication also place new and increased demands on those
adults who work with young people. For this reason, in recent years we
at BRIS have invested major resources in keeping abreast of developments,
with measures including our website, BRIS.SE and its e-mail facilities as a
vital supplement to our helplines. During 2001, some two thousand child-
ren and young people sent us e-mails about all manner of subjects ranging
from their most vexed problems to things which make them happy. Dis-
cussion forums, web chats and “mumling” are other parts of our Internet
facilities for those wishing to make contact with BRIS. (Read more about
BRIS.SE on page 39)

Right up until the late 1990s, most of the calls to the Children's Helpline
were made from land line telephones, usually in the home. Children took
the opportunity when nobody else was at home and plucked up courage
to call and speak for a few undisturbed minutes about their difficulties.
This is not the case with the average call from children today: the drama-
tic increase in the use of mobile phones has radically changed the picture.
A survey in October 2001 showed that 75 per cent of calls to the Child-
ren's Helpline came from mobile phones (and that these calls accounted
for 91 per cent of the costs). At the same time during the previous year 64
per cent of calls came from mobiles, indicating an ongoing trend for in-
creased use.
The fact that calls to the Children's Helpline are free of charge to cal-
lers means not only greatly increased telephone costs for BRIS, but also a
change in the nature of calls. One advantage with mobiles is that the child-
ren and young people who previously had to call BRIS surreptitiously can
now speak freely from anywhere they happen to be. This has resulted in
a much desired shift towards increased frankness, the extent of which we
have not previously been able to imagine. But - an ever increasing number
of the calls which our volunteer staff receive comprise what we refer to as
test calls.
Calling from mobiles also enables groups of teenagers to call up toge-
ther to test out what BRIS is all about. These test calls are fundamentally
of value in that they involve attempts at contact with an adult world
which seems noticeably absent in the lives of a growing number of child-
ren and young people.
Occasionally this involves straightforward nuisance calls in which the
callers want to make a joke at our expense, yet we often receive fairly clear
A survey in October 2001 showed signals that the test call is actually a first, rather provocative attempt to
that 75 per cent of calls to the Chil- gauge whether they really can expect some kind of sensible, confidential
dren's Helpline came from mobile
adult contact …if only you had the courage to call again when you are
phones (and that these calls accoun-
alone.
ted for 91 per cent of the costs). At
the same time during the previous With this in mind, the way we manage statistics during 2002 will deve-
year 64 per cent of calls came from lop and partially modify the way we collect data from children's calls.
mobiles, indicating an ongoing trend Now approaching 200,000, the total number of calls continues to grow
for increased use. from year to year (there were roughly 187,000 calls to the Children's


Helpline in 2001, an increase of 20 per cent compared to the previous
year. For more details, please see the next chapter). The statistically pro-
cessed calls only comprise a small part of this total, and BRIS has there-
fore decided it would be useful to obtain more information from the test
calls than has previously been possible. This is an important change which
will first be reflected in next year's BRIS report.

One facility which better equips us to deal with the children and young
people who call the Children's Helpline is the new telephone system in-
troduced at the end of 2001 in the five BRIS regional centres around Swe-
den where all calls are received by our volunteers. In recent years accessi-
bility studies of our telephone lines have shown that the previous tele-
phone system had become increasingly inadequate and unable to cope
with the load imposed by the dramatic increase in the number of calls.
Since the mid 1990s roughly every other call has got through direct to a
volunteer, meaning that a child has needed to make two calls on average
in order to make contact with BRIS. And unfortunately, line accessibility
has worsened over recent years.
Old fashioned analogue telephone technology with traditional cables
and switchboards has become inadequate. In its place a new digital sys-
tem from Telenordia, together with new switchboards, should provide a
more convenient and flexible telephone service. It will provide us with new
technological solutions, such as a queue system instead of the engaged
tone. However, as of the first quarter of 2002 there are still a number of
transitional problems which we and our partners are working to solve.
Our primary aim is for BRIS' new telephone system to form the basis
of better and more open communication with children and young people
and to substantially improve our capacity for more comprehensive and
up-to-date statistical management. During the last few months of 2001
we were already able to see that the queue system had cut down the num-
ber of straightforward nuisance calls. During 2002 BRIS also intends to
test how accessibility on the Children's Helpline can be improved through
a turnstile-based telephone system.

Another important element in meeting the demands of the 21st century
for different means of communication with children and young people is
the increased level of specialist competence which BRIS has gained over
recent years. The number of staff has roughly doubled, and currently
BRIS has some 40 permanent employees around Sweden working along-
side almost 350 volunteer counsellors. There is ongoing new recruitment
throughout our five regions of so-called BRIS representatives whose duties
include planning and managing helpline activities, and permanent posts
for in-house lawyers, project co-ordinators and national co-ordinators for
the Children's Helpline have also been created. With specialist competence

over a wide field, BRIS has set its focus on growth as an organisation to
provide support for the increasing number of children and young people
who need us.

Currently BRIS has some 40 perma-
nent employees around Sweden work-
ing alongside almost 350 volunteer
counsellors.


Calls from children
and young people
During 2001 a total of 187,486 calls were made to the 350 or so volun-
tary staff (so-called duty counsellors) who man the helplines in the BRIS
regional offices in Stockholm, Malmö, Gothenburg, Norrköping and
Umeå. This total represents an increase of 20 per cent compared to 2000,
which had also seen a 50 per cent increase compared to 1999 (see the
BRIS report: Calls to BRIS’ Helplines 2000).
The overall number of calls to BRIS has dramatically increased in recent
years, largely due to the rise of mobile phones and the fact that BRIS has
become well-known for children and young people in Sweden. Changing
habits, a new ability to talk unimpaired, increased frankness, willingness
to talk about problems and, occasionally, sources of happiness, are resul-
ting in increased pressure on our telephone switchboards. BRIS today
2 % Others/miscllers
2% H

is a conversation partner for many young people, not simply a
8% 9% helpline which they mainly called when they were exposed to
abitual

Silent Statistically assault and abuse, as it used to be.
calls recorded calls In reality the actual number of calls is probably several
ca

from children times higher than it has been possible to measure over
.

the years. For many years the increased call volume on
our switchboards has meant that roughly only 50 per
cent of calls get through direct. Accessibility appears
22 % Caller hangs up
to be constantly decreasing: a survey conducted in
May 2001, following our schools campaign aimed at
fifth grade pupils across the country, showed that ac-
cessibility was only 20 per cent. BRIS is therefore
working on a new digital telephone system which will
57 % Nuisance/test calls improve access to our lines for children and young
people. (See chapter 2: BRIS in a changing society).

Fig 1. The spread of calls to the Children's
Helpline during 2001 (n = 187,486*)
*n is the number of calls on which the figure is based

Calls during 2001 consisted of:

Statistically recorded calls are generally the longest, in which the counsel-
lor has sufficient material to fill in a statistics form. The results are present
in detail below.

Nuisance/test calls are calls in which the BRIS volunteers are subject to jokes
or insults, or those from which it can be assumed that the caller wants to
test out whether BRIS might actually provide a worthwhile contact.

Hang-up calls are those in which the caller hangs up immediately or after
a short period of silence. Silent calls involve slightly lengthier contact in
which the child still does not speak. From these calls, which constitute
roughly 30 per cent of the total, no real information at all is available.

Habitual callers: certain callers are recognised, often because they call re-


peatedly, often over a period of years, and tell the same story. (Simply ma-
king test calls several time during a counselling session does not put the
caller in the habitual caller category). BRIS has managed to achieve a dras-
tic reduction in the number of these calls during recent years.

An in-depth study in 1999 showed that boys tend to be responsible for the
non-statistically recorded calls, a reverse gender division compared to the re-
mainder of our records. In the statistically recorded calls boys only consti-
tute a maximum of 30 per cent of callers, yet here they make up 63 per cent.
In terms of content there does not appear to be any major difference
between calls from girls and boys. Sexual insults and suggestions or ques-
tions relating to the sexual experience of the person answering the call are
common.
Nonsense questions or statements are also common, together with sub-
ject matter that relates to or suggests physical assault and sexual abuse.
Worry, sorrow and sadness are very common feelings in the statistical-
ly recorded calls from children, though hardly present at all in the other
calls, where an upbeat, provocative feel tends to dominate.
Just as the statistically recorded calls to the Children's Helpline reflect
an important element of the everyday lives of children and young people,
so too do the contents of the other calls. Callers speak about themselves,
the abusive tendencies of their parents, about their friends, their love lives
and the psycho-sexual development in which they are caught up.
The difference, however, is that the attitude in these calls is expressed in
more provocative, sexually explicit language than is usual. The language
is cruder, the way of talking more antagonistic.
(See also the 1999 BRIS report, “Other calls” section. The in-depth
BRIS study no. 1/2000 can be ordered in its entirety from BRIS' head of-
fice.)

BRIS statistically recorded calls
to the Children's Helpline, 2001
The statistically recorded calls to the BRIS Children's Helpline have dra-
matically risen in number since the early 1990s. The sharpest increase
took place during the first half of the decade. In 1996 and 1997 there was
a marginal decrease in volume, followed by a steep rise in 1998, 1999 and
2000. In 2001 the volume of statistically recorded calls was broadly con-
sistent with the previous year, with just a slight drop in volume.
On the other hand, the proportion of statistically recorded calls in rela-
tion to the total number has gradually decreased since the mid 1990s and
now accounts for only 9 per cent of all incoming calls.
In spite of this, they still account for more than two thirds of the total
call time on the Children's Helpline. The statistically recorded calls have
an average length of 11 minutes, and are generally significantly longer
than the other calls.
Over the years BRIS has traditionally focused on the calls we have been
able to process in our statistics. In the year ahead, to keep up with the dra-
matic increase in other calls chiefly occasioned by mobile phones, BRIS in-
tends to shift the focus of the collection and presentation of data relating
to all the calls which involve some form of dialogue and are not simply
one-sided.


The increased use of mobile phones does provide children and young
people with an opportunity to speak undisturbed to BRIS, yet also means
that they test out the volunteer counsellors in a way which is both valua-
ble and demanding. A survey in October revealed that 75 per cent of calls
to the Children's Helpline came from mobile phones and that these ac-
counted for 91 per cent of the cost for calls.
In 2001 there were 17,150 statistically recorded calls from children and
young people, a decrease of 2 per cent compared to the previous year. A
statistically recorded call is defined as one which provides sufficient infor-
mation for a counsellor to fill in a statistics form. Personal details are not,
of course, registered, but the form does contain information on the child's
sex and age, domestic circumstances, what the call was about and the fee-
lings expressed by the child, etc. Where applicable, information about per-
petrators (in cases of bullying and other kinds of abuse), important con-
tacts for the child and details of the time of the call, the date and who re-
ceived the call are also recorded.
Throughout our publications BRIS refers to the number of calls, not the
number of children callers. Children and young people who call us are
anonymous, a fact which makes it impossible for us to know how many
children are hidden behind the statistics. We know that one child can ac-
count for many calls, but also that several children can make one call (es-
pecially from mobile phones). Previously, when we have attempted to
chart the relationship between the number of calls and the number of
children who call, results each time have shown that roughly 10 per cent
of callers come from children who have called previously.
The increase in the number of statistically recorded calls to BRIS over
the past 12 years is as follows:

17 431 17 150

14 341
12 788
12 189
11 169
10 345
9 926

6 203
4 828

3 000

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

Fig. 2. Number of statistically recorded calls from children
1991-2001

The flow of children's calls is fairly evenly spread during weekdays, when
BRIS usually receives around 60 statistically recorded calls per day during
the four-hour duty sessions on the Children's Helpline. At the weekends


the number of calls is reduced by roughly half.
Average call length during 2001 was just over 11 minutes. However,
call times vary according to gender and age: girls speak for longer than
boys, and the older callers speak on average almost twice as long as the
youngest children.

1 850
1721 1 709
1 652
1 572 1 610
1 447 1403
1 296
1185
1 066

639

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Fig. 3. Number of calls from children per month 2000
(n = 17,150)

The spread of statistically recorded calls over the months of the year varies
from roughly 600 in July to three times this amount in May. Prior to long
holidays the number of calls increases from children who live in families
at risk of neglect, physical and sexual abuse. For these children, the sum-
mer and Christmas holidays are hardly a welcome break from the every-
day, but rather a time of suffering because exposure increases as adult sup-
port outside the family is reduced, and when friends and other adults dis-
appear on holiday. In a number of discussion articles BRIS has previously
warned against removing the social safety nets and community care ser-
vices during these holiday periods.
In May BRIS runs its annual school campaign aimed at all the ﬁfth grade
pupils in Sweden, encouraging those who feel alone, bullied or ostracised
to call the Children's Helpline, something which also contributes to the in-
crease in the number of children callers.

Who calls BRIS?
All information collected and all incoming calls to the Children's Helpline
refer to the child about whom the call primarily relates. This usually
means the child who actually makes the call, but occasionally it can be
friends or siblings who call to express their concern. Calls in which the
caller was not the person to whom the call related account for roughly six
per cent of the total.
Of the 17,150 calls from children and young people which were statis-
tically recorded during 2001, 72 per cent referred primarily to girls and
28 per cent to boys. Apart from a minimal increase in the proportion of
girls, this gender division has remained the same over recent years.


Children's ages
In 2001 the average age children to whom calls related was 13.1 years.
This is exactly the same ﬁgure as the previous year, and only a marginal
deviation in the average age has been noted in recent years: for a long time
its has been between 13 and 14 years. This means that the majority of calls
to BRIS relate to children of secondary schools age.

44 %

34 %

15 %

5,9 %
0,3% 0,5 %
<7 7-9 10-12 13-15 16-18 >18

Fig. 4. Children's ages in calls from children (n=15,319)

Children's domestic circumstances
The children and young people who call BRIS and enter our statistics tend
to live in their natural, nuclear families. This has been the case throughout
the years, the percentages varying somewhat, yet clearly and constantly ly-
ing under the average proportion of children living in nuclear families in
the Swedish population at large.

Natural nuclear family 60 %

Natural lone mother 16 %

Step-family 6,6 %

Natural lone father 6,0 %

Living with both separated parents 3,8 %

Foster home 2,7 %

Accommodation of their own 1,4 %

Treatment centre/similar 1,4 %

Others 2,1 %

Fig. 5. Domestic circumstances in calls from children
(n = 9,760)
Other can, for example, mean that the child lives with a relative or in a
friend's family.


As in previous years, the ﬁgures for other types of family living are simi-
lar for children callers: 16 per cent of the children who are the subject of
calls to the Children's Helpline live with a lone mother. Almost seven per
cent live in step families, and six per cent live with a lone father.

Problem environments for children
Asking the question as to where children callers feel the heart of their pro-
blem lies, whether in their inner or outer environments, produces a wide
range of answers.
The most common answer for many years (in 40 per cent of cases) has
been that the problem can be traced to the inner environment, i.e. to the
children or young people themselves.

In almost three calls out of ten (27 per cent) the home is described as
the essential problem environment. These cases often involve serious pro-
blems, in which the child, inside the family home, may be drawn into se-
vere family conﬂicts or subjected to serious violation in the form of assault
and abuse. BRIS' studies of perpetrators as described by children over a
period of six years show that the home is the most common place for cri-
minal activity against children and young people.
School is almost as common a problem area as
the home. Virtually all children and young
people who call BRIS are at school du- Recreation
ring the daytime. The overwhelming 6,9 %
problem at school is bullying, the
problem category on the Child-
ren's Helpline which is growing
most, and is also the most com- School Personal
mon single reason to call. 26 % 40 %
The spread across the various
problem environments has re-
mained largely the same over re-
cent years. Home
27 %
Fig. 6. The spread of problem
environments in calls from
children (n = 15,719)

How are problems affected by gender, age
and environment?
Girls and boys: As in previous years, there appears to be more which unites
rather than divides the genders. Girls and boys largely call about the same
kind of problems, but the statistically recorded calls relating to boys refer
somewhat more often to bullying, sexual development and sexuality, and
to physical abuse. Girls tend to call more often than boys about issues re-
lating to relationship problems, sexual abuse and eating disorders.
Almost as frequently as girls, boys do express their basic emotional at-
titudes, but they consistently express themselves less in terms of depres-
sion. Girls express low spirits, sorrow or thoughts of suicide more than
boys.


Age groups: If we divide the calls from children into three age groups,
the largest group comprises secondary school children (13 to 15 years).
The second group comprises junior and middle school children (12 years
and below), and the third group is older teenagers (16 to 18 years). Cer-
tain differences can be observed:
Anger, worry and feelings of guilt, powerlessness and self-destructive-
ness (plus talk of suicide) increase in frequency with age, whereas low spi-
rits is a somewhat less common emotion among those who are older.
With regard to problem environments we see that school is the most
common cause of difficulties for the younger children. As in previous
years, 38 per cent in the youngest group put their major problems down
to what happens when they are at school, whereas the school environment
is a secondary worry for the older teenagers.
On the other hand, the proportion of personal problems rises with age
to more than 60 per cent in the oldest age group. The older the caller, pro-
blems with friends and bullying tend to decrease. Calls about physical as-
sault also decrease with age, whereas those relating to sexual abuse are
most prevalent among secondary school children.
If we look at the significance of problems in relation to the child's do-
mestic circumstances, we can observe that almost two thirds relate to pro-
blems in the home if the child lives either in a step family, with a lone
father or in a shared custody arrangement with parents. This overrepre-
sentation should be seen in relation to the overall total of 29 per cent of
problems in the home environment for all calls from children.
However, calls primarily relating to drug or alcohol abuse are more
common if the child lives with a lone mother.

Nature of the calls
When children and young people call the Children's Helpline, the call ge-
nerally focuses on one category, e.g. bullying, love-related problems, or fa-
mily conflicts. Occasionally the caller may touch on other problems or
more positive matters, but the statistics used in the BRIS report only re-
flect the primary subject of the call.
However, the counsellor receiving the call also notes any secondary sub-
jects of the call, e.g. the multiple risks which a number of children who
call BRIS have to live with, including physical and sexual abuse and ne-
glect. Yet this second ranking of problem categories does not involve any
major shift in the recorded division between problem categories.
It is also important to be aware that BRIS bases its confidence towards
children callers on a basic principle, consolidated over 30 years of practice,
of being the child's representative. The fact that the child can remain ano-

nymous, alongside the principle that BRIS only acts on the instructions of
the children or young people who need our help, is crucial to the rela-
tionship.
All this means that BRIS' fundamental principle since it was founded in
1971 is based on the fact that it is not a public authority. Being an NGO
and remaining separate from the work of authorities whilst acting as the
child's representative leaves BRIS free to function as a voluntary supple-
BRIS bases its confidence towards
children callers on a basic principle, ment to the Swedish authorities and the statutory responsibility which
consolidated over 30 years of practi- those bodies have. In spite of this it is a common misapprehension that
ce, of being the child's representative. BRIS is a significantly larger organisation than it actually is, and also that


BRIS is an organisation with the responsibilities of a public authority.
It is true that almost all the counsellors working on the Children's Help-
line have professional or voluntary experience of working with children
and young people, yet on the Children's Helpline they act solely as a li-
stening adult and the mouthpiece of the child.

Statistically recorded calls to BRIS from children and young people during
2001 related primarily to:

Bullying 18 %

Family conflicts 12 %

Love/relationship problems 11 %

Sexual development/sexuality and pregnancy 10 %

Problems with friends 8,8 %

Physical abuse 6,9 %

Sexual abuse 5,5 %

Drug/substance/alcohol abuse 3,9 %

Identity and “life” issues 2,8 %

Divorce related problems 2,6 %

Information 2,2 %

Psychological abuse 1,4 %

Eating disorders 1,2 %
Neglect 0,8 %
Miscellaneous 13%

Fig. 7. Problem categories in children's calls (n= 17,111)

With virtually the same ranking order, the division of problem categories
is very similar to that of last year, yet it is worth mentioning that calls
about bullying continue to increase. This has been a trend for many years,
and the bullying problem category has, among those calls which have lent
themselves to statistical processing, become established as the single most
common reason for calling the Children's Helpline.
In this year's BRIS report the statistically recorded calls from children
and young people are summarised in the text under themes, instead of
each problem category receiving separate attention as in previous reports.
The idea behind this is to show the bigger picture behind the calls, so that
BRIS will be able to spotlight the overall situation which the children and
young people who call the Children's Helpline convey.
This approach is also a lead into preparations for increased information
on the total ﬂow of calls which is due to begin during 2002, with next
year's BRIS report as its ﬁrst part objective.


Common themes
on the Children's Helpline
Theme: Bullying
The number of calls during the year relating primarily to bullying broke
all records, finishing up at just over 3,000, an increase of 13 per cent com-
pared to the year 2000. The statistics show a dramatic increase in the
number of bullying calls in recent years: from 1998 to 1999 by 32 per
cent, and between 1999 and 2000 the equivalent figure was 42 per cent.
Over the years bullying has been the single most common reason for cal-
ling BRIS, and its rise has been noticeable even during years when other
levels of calls have been constant or have marginally fallen.
The proportion of bullying calls has also increased: in 2001 they ac-
counted for 18 per cent of all in-coming statistically recorded calls to
BRIS. This compares with 15.5 per cent of the total volume in 2000 and
13.3 per cent in 1999.
Who are the bullies? From the calls relating to bullying it appears that
the majority are classmates of the victim. Classmates comprise 69 per cent
in the perpetrator profile that children callers have presented to BRIS.
Other pupils at school (15 per cent of the bullies) or other children of the
same age are also fairly widespread bullies.
Teachers or other school staff are cited in just over two per cent of calls.
This figure may seem low, yet these groups tend to appear instead as per-
petrators of sexual abuse, in which they have made up a high proportion
over the years.
In two per cent of cases, the bullies themselves actually call seeking help
to stop their bullying.
The gender split between the aggressors shows that boys alone are the
bullies in 37 per cent of cases, girls alone in 15 per cent and boys and girls
together in 48 per cent of cases.
Compared to earlier information, there is a trend which indicates that
bullying is more often being carried out by groups made up of both boys
and girls. Boys are the most common perpetrators, yet also the most com-
mon victims of bullying. In calls the BRIS, the victims often relate strong
feelings of sorrow, powerlessness and isolation, which in longer and more
serious cases of bullying can lead the victims into depression accompanied
by thoughts of suicide. The feeling of not being accepted or good enough
is a deathblow to self-confidence, as confirmed by almost all the children
who call BRIS. Sometimes their feelings also include anger, but in the over-
all context this is relatively rare. As in other cases of abuse and assault, the
only thing the children on the receiving end want to do is to put an end to
their suffering.

A girl in her early teens calls BRIS saying that she is systematically called a “slut”
by both girls and boys at school. She experiences this bullying as very aggressive
and cruel.

A boy in middle school says he has his head put down the toilet and is threatened
by a group of bullies. He now finds it very distressing to go to school.

A boys gets pushed over and smeared with dog faeces, but so far he has not dared
to tell anyone other than BRIS. He says that he feels frightened and alone.


A girl is ostracised from her group of friends because her mother is an alcoholic.
Immigrant children speak of constant racist insults. An older sister is worried because
her younger siblings are being hit by other children at school. Many calls speak of
isolation which has been painful throughout their time at school.

An 11 year-old boy says he stays off school as often as he can. He has been forced
to seek hospital treatment for the physical injuries that bullies have caused him.

A group of bullies call with feelings of regret. How can they get out of the gang
they belong to? Perhaps they should talk to the bullying committee at the school?

(Please note that the examples of calls from children in the BRIS report
are general, mixed together, or altered in some details to protect the ano-
nymity of the child.)

These are just a few examples from calls to the Children's Helpline. The
children who call often cry, are resigned, or no longer want to go to
school, and some have lost the will to live. Virtually all of them feel some
kind of shame at being selected as a victim, and many are unwilling to
burden their parents with their problems. However, it is extremely com-
mon for the children to consider that they themselves have asked for or
given signals that they need help from a head teacher, teacher or other
member of school staff, yet that the adult world does not listen or care
very much about the effects of bullying.
The action plans drawn up by schools to deal with bullying do not ap-
pear to be working in these cases, neither does the schools' responsibility
in terms of individual adults' capacity to get involved in a constructive
way. From what the children tell us, BRIS often forms the impression that
school staff would rather turn a blind eye through inability to act or a lack
of civil courage, or that they may even hide the problem through fear that
the school may receive a bad reputation.
For this reason, BRIS feels that it is important for all adults concerned to
receive training in how to deal with the problem. On a broad front, preven-
tive action against bullying in Sweden's schools is particularly important.
The fight against bullying requires systematic co-operation involving
pupils, school staff and parents. So as to promote training and to spread
information on how to fight bullying, BRIS' anti-bullying expert, AnnCha
Lagerman travels around the country providing instruction to pupils,
school staff and parents.
During the year BRIS also took part in the nation-wide Swedish go-
vernment campaign against bullying, Tillsammans (“Together”). The pro-
ject has been primarily Internet based and aimed at secondary schools
around the country. So far around half of all schools have been contacted,
and the goal for 2002 is that 80 per cent of schools will have received in-
formation and details about the people they can talk to.
At the BRIS.SE website, BRIS and the IT company Framfab have con-
ducted an information drive against bullying. The initiative is linked to the
government project and aimed primarily at children and young people
with concrete advice and tips about what they can do and who they can
talk to if they want help to put a stop to being bullied. The site also has
In May all fifth grade pu-
much to offer to adults who feel the need for support and more informa-
pils in Sweden were sent
tion about how to respond to bullying. From the website you can also e- pictures of adult celebrities
mail BRIS and discuss bullying and its effects. who had problems in their
Moreover, for the fifth year in succession BRIS ran an information cam- childhood and upbringing.


paign about the Children's Helpline aimed at all school children in Swe-
den in grade five who feel like outsiders, alone or different from others.
The campaign features pictures of children - now adult celebrities - who
experienced problems as they were growing up. Together with the adver-
tising agency TBWA, BRIS has previously received the prestigious Golden
Egg and Golden Key advertising industry awards for the campaign.

Theme: Children's relationships
with their contemporaries
We have decided to extract this theme from the statistics table, showing
the proportion of calls relating to friends and love/relationship problems.
Together they account for roughly 20 per cent of the statistically recorded
calls, meaning that one call in five to the Children's Helpline relates pri-
marily to relationships in which adults are not a source of concern.
During 2001 we received approximately the same amount of calls in
these categories as in the previous year, yet a significantly larger propor-
tion of calls than we can account for here concern children's relationships
with their contemporaries. Some of them come under the sexual develop-
ment and sexuality problem category, yet even more, unfortunately, spring
from the young perpetrators BRIS has been informed about in calls rela-
ting to physical and sexual abuse.
However, relationships of children with their contemporaries still appear
for the most part to be concerned with friendship and love and the lone-
liness and feelings of rejection which are their antitheses. Being alone,
finding friends, how to be popular. How you should behave, how you
should be treated, ethics in relationships between friends - these are im-
portant issues to straighten out. How to be yourself despite strong group
pressure, how to fit in, how to be “right” yet still true to yourself.
Naturally, issues relating to unspoken, unrequited or unhappy love are
also common, alongside questions of how to end a relationship, or what
might subsequently happen. Problems of sadness, jealousy, sometimes also
problems of forbidden love across cultural divides, and so on…
Friendship and love problems/relationships have been frequent themes
during recent years. For the younger group of callers to BRIS, relation-
ships with friends can be the most difficult to manage, whereas love rela-
ted conflicts tend to affect the older group. But life can feel equally despe-
rate if your best friend has let you down as when the person you are in
love with shows only indifference.

A girl in her late teens feels completely deserted by her girlfriends now that they
have boyfriends and a lifestyle from which she is excluded. She feels panic when
she thinks about being alone, something she experienced when she was younger.

A girl calls and says that she is in love with her best friend. She wonders if she
might be a lesbian. She is afraid to speak her feelings to her best friend, but would
still like to put her cards on the table.

An eleven year-old girl is frustrated because nothing is the same since she and her
best friend have fallen in love with the same boy. Friends in her class each have
one special friend that they go around with, but suddenly she finds herself on her
Friendship and love problems/rela- own.
tionships have been frequent themes
during recent years. A teenage boy tells us: “My girlfriend doesn't want to snog with me. All my friends


have done it, but she's so special that I'll wait until she wants to.” Another boy is
worried that his girlfriend is not so keen on him as he is on her.

A 14 year-old girl wants to break away from the neo-nazi gang she has been involved
with for a couple of years. Once she was assaulted by the gang and had to go to
hospital, but she told her parents that she had fallen and hurt herself. Now she
wants some concrete advice.

A sad 17 year-old girl cries inconsolably and no longer wishes to live. She lives with
her boyfriend who treats her with no respect and says that nothing she does is any
good.The girl says that she has no support from anybody, not even her parents.
Everyone simply tells her that she is being exploited.

Love and relationship problems are a very common reason for calling
BRIS, despite the fact that the Children's Helpline is by no means a “love”
line. The number of calls in this category increases with the age of the child
caller, making this a primarily teenage problem. There are many stories of
the delights and torments of love, but also stories which by extension in-
Love and relationship problems are
volve conflicts with friends, parents or a gang. It has also become more
primarily a teenage phenomenon.
common for boys to call about this traditionally “female” problem area.

Theme: Children's development
The heading “children's development” primarily comprises the problem
categories of sexual development, sexuality and pregnancy, identity deve-
lopment and life issues, together with eating disorders. The theme has
many crossovers with relationships with contemporaries, yet the focus is
still primarily on the child's or young person's own development towards
adulthood.
On the theme of children's development it is mainly teenagers who call,
and these calls make up around 15 per cent of the total number. Sexual
development and sexuality are mostly concerned with the classic issues of
first experiences and a lack of experience. Starting your periods, develo-
ping breasts or pubic hair. Masturbation and intercourse. Homo or hete-
ro. What is normal and what will gain acceptance?
The calls also reflect the pain of the life choices involved in having a
baby or by having an abortion, but young people also call fairly fre-
quently about existential questions relating to the pain of becoming an
adult, issues such as choosing to remain single, being abandoned, or the
meaning of life and death.

A 13 year-old boy calls who is worried about the size of his penis. It's too small, he
thinks, and now he's scared that he will be inadequate and have problems with
girls in the future.

A boy dresses up in girls' clothes and says he want to have an operation when he
can. He keeps his activities secret when he's at home, nobody knows anything
about what he does or thinks.

Another boy takes lots of tranquillisers. He says that everyone in his home town
knows he's gay, and that means his reputation has been destroyed even with his
parents. During the night he had been to the psychiatric emergency department at
his local hospital to seek help for his problems.

A girl calls who sounds somewhat lethargic. In a barely audible voice she says that


she's worthless, a nobody. She describes herself as ungrateful, feeling terrible, and
mentions that she has injured herself on a couple of occasions. Claiming that she
just puts on a front, acts a part, she asks for help.The call ended up in a discussion
of life issues and the girl finished in a better frame of mind than she had begun.

A teenage girl calls who “just” wants to talk to someone about life, about her pa-
rents difficult divorce when she was small and her subsequent strained relationship
with the father. And she has problems at school, too: what should she do when she
finishes ninth grade? At the end, she was pleased to be able to “get things off her
chest” and be given some advice from an adult.

A teenage girl with an eating disorder calls and says that she feels awful and no
longer wants to live. “Mum and Dad just think I'm a nuisance.They say I'm play ac-
ting when I faint, and that all I have to do is start eating.”

During 2001 calls to the Children's Helpline about eating disorders rose by
a third. Even though in the scale of things eating disorders are a problem area
which few cite as their primary problem, we know that issues such as ugly
and attractive, fat and thin, being the victim of bullying and other abuse, can
result in secondary problems relating to anorexia and bulimia.
Who am I? Am I good enough? Why should I carry on living? - these
are frequently recurring questions. The most serious calls to the Children's
Helpline include threats of suicide or accounts of actual suicide attempts,
and in these cases it is important to gain children's confidence to forsake
their anonymity so that emergency help can be called in.

Theme:The Family
According to calls to BRIS, the family can be anything from a danger area
to an actual scene of crime. Children and young people call about every-
thing from serious family conflicts to physical and sexual abuse commit-
ted by a family member. Almost all cases of assault are committed in the
home, as is the majority of sexual abuse. We have isolated these problems
and produced separate statistics under the assault and abuse category.
Theme: Family focuses primarily on the problem categories family con-
flicts and divorce problems, which together account for roughly 15 per
cent of calls. Family conflicts comprise a range of situations from the stan-
dard quarrels about breaking free to conflicts of a far more serious nature.
Family conflicts is a rapidly growing problem category, in which we also
encounter a number of serious culture clashes with daughters from immi-
grant families who are not allowed the freedoms to which Swedish born
children are accustomed. Information as to who is actually involved is
available in almost every call relating to family conflicts:
One call in four concerns children who are in conflict with their mo-
thers, yet a similar volume of calls concern children who are quarrelling
with both parents. Reported verbal conflicts between children and their
fathers are less common - 14 per cent of calls relate to tensions of this na-
ture. All together, 71 per cent of these calls concern conflict between the
child and an adult, and 14 per cent concern conflicts which the child
claims are going on between adults.
Calls about divorce-related problems such as access, custody and do-
mestic circumstances account for only a small proportion of primary sub-
jects in calls to the Children's Helpline, but do occur as subjects in many
calls as part of the overall situation of children callers. On the other hand,


problems arising from divorces are the single most common reason for Many calls are about children's desi-
calling the BRIS Adult Helpline - About Children (see the chapter on calls res to be able to see more of their
from adults on page 47). fathers
The children who call about divorce-related problems often feel stress,
for example, at not being able to meet one of their parents or moving
around against their will, or they may suffer from the fact that the parents
do not communicate with each other. New family groups with step-
parents and step-siblings are also an often unwelcome intrusion in the
world of children who call. The positive consequences of a more diffuse
family unit are largely imperceptible on the Children's Helpline, yet child-
ren who live in natural, nuclear families do also call the helpline because
their problems override the things that make them happy.
Many calls are about children's desire to be able to see more of their fa-
thers, and for many years BRIS has underlined the importance of a child's
right to both parents, and stressed that children's views should be granted
more weight in custody disputes.
Children may often express themselves as follows:

A 16 year-old girl tells us that she comes from a different culture. She's not allowed
to meet any boys. She has a Swedish boyfriend but has been beaten as a consequence.
The family will decide who she can marry, and now she's afraid of being assaulted.

Another girl is in a state of panic because she's been told she's to get married to a
young man in a different country.The girl wants to stay in Sweden and get an edu-
cation. She says that several of her girlfriends are in the same position, and she's
upset that Swedish society does nothing to help them.


A boy calls because he's fearful as Christmas approaches. “Does everyone have to
be happy then?” - Mum has to work, and that means Dad will bring home his drin-
king pals.The boy has spoken to his Mum and told her he wants this to stop, but
she says things will get better. “She always says that, but it never happens.”

An 11 year-old boy who lives alone with his mother calls to says the court has deci-
ded that he's not allowed to see his dad. He now believes that his mum has be-
come a lesbian. She has also changed and turned nasty. She says she works, but he
knows that she's unemployed and often goes to see the doctor. Perhaps she's ill, he
wonders.The boy will try to take things further by talking to his mum and with a
relative he trusts.

A girl has divorced parents who have shared custody. Her mum is unemployed -
“she just lies on the bed and drinks.” Dad shouts at the kids and “says bad things
about Mum.”The girl did once speak to a psychologist who told everyone what she
had said, so she doesn't want to go back. She doesn't want to move as that would
make her parents sad.

Theme: Physical, psychological and sexual abuse
The calls from children received under this heading involve the most se-
rious abuses that BRIS handles. Crimes against children account for
roughly one third of the statistically recorded calls to the Children's Help-
line. Some of these calls involve the victims of bullying, but the most se-
rious criminal acts against children are assault and abuse as they are re-
corded in this section.
The theme encompasses the problem categories of physical abuse, psy-
chological abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and drug/substance/alcohol abuse.
All together during 2001 these accounted for slightly more than 18 per
cent of the statistically recorded calls.
Throughout its 30 year history, the campaign against physical child
abuse has been a cornerstone of BRIS' activities. BRIS was founded in
1971 as a direct response to the battering to death of a three year-old girl
in Stockholm during the winter of the previous year. BRIS received sup-
port from organisations around Sweden, and the pioneers of BRIS were
known under an epithet typical of those times as “BRIS guerrillas.”
From the outset BRIS was an organisation determined to represent abused
children against authorities and a society which took no formal stand
against physical punishment until the passing of an act in 1979 banning
the smacking of children.
“The exhortation: “Call BRIS - and we'll report them” resulted in an
increase in reporting offences, and people began to realise that you actu-
ally could report child abuse,” says children's writer Gunnel Linde, who
founded BRIS together with the campaigner and debater, Berit Hedeby.
(You can read more about this in “BRIS 30 år”, a celebration of BRIS'
30th anniversary available (in Swedish only) from Riksförbundet BRIS).

Calls to BRIS and cases reported to the police have both continued to in-
crease rapidly since the mid 1990s, yet this year BRIS has detected a slight
dip which also applies to calls relating to sexual abuse. The problem ca-
Throughout its 30 year history, the
campaign against physical child abu- tegories relating primarily to drug/substance/alcohol abuse and to neglect
se has been a cornerstone of BRIS' make up just under ﬁve per cent of the calls.
activities. During the year BRIS has conducted an in-depth study of abuse, “Child


abuse in the eyes of BRIS and children themselves - re. psychological, phy-
sical and sexual abuse against children”. The study concludes in the case
B RI S
of the “multi-risk” children in Sweden that BRIS encounters daily, that ca-

fö
di e r

rdjup
BRIS fördjupningsstudie nr 3 • 2002
tegories of abuse are not “one-offs”… “those who are subjected to sexu-

tu
ningss

al abuse at home may also be bullied at school by their contemporaries,
and a parent can both physically and sexually abuse a child. And it is hard
to imagine a child being beaten or raped without this also involving psy-
Barnmisshandel
chological abuse.” ur BRIS och barns perspektiv
The study also concludes how calls to BRIS show that there are many Om fysiska, psykiska och sexuella övergrepp mot barn

ways in which abuse can be inﬂicted on a child. It can be done with slaps
and punches to the face and other parts of the body. Children get dragged
by the hair, pushed and pulled, scratched or kicked in the stomach.
“Everyday objects like carpet beaters, belts, vacuum cleaner pipes, bi-
cycle pumps, metal piping, washing up brushes and rulers are used as
weapons. Belts are the most common. Special items such as whips are
used, though not so often as knives and razorblades. A knife can also be
heated up and used to burn the victim.”
The following examples are based on notes from our counsellors over In March 2002 BRIS will be publi-
shing its third in-depth study into
the past year:
child abuse. The report will be avai-
lable (in Swedish only) from Riksför-
A girl calls saying that she is beaten and threatened every day at home. She has bundet BRIS.
bruises and is vomiting blood.The school nurse, school counsellor and teachers have
known what's been going on for a year now, but have let it pass because her mother
has told them that her stepfather (the abuser) is seeking help.The mother has said
to her daughter that she can't leave this man, even though the abuse has been
going on since the girl was eight years old.Today the mother also threatened the girl
with a knife.The girl has walked out of the home and doesn't dare to go back.

A friend calls about a girl who has been assaulted for the past nine years.The girl
is afraid to eat because she vomits when she's been hit in the stomach. She's been
raped twice, the father may have been the perpetrator.The girl takes drugs and is
also assaulted in her gang of friends.Wants to kill herself. Has said: “I might as
well jump off the bridge to put an end to it.” She tends to move around a bit, stay-
ing in different places, but her father always finds her and the abuse continues.

A 13 year-old boy says his father beats him every day. He doesn't dare to go to
school because of his bruises.The boy has no contact with his mother, but does
have an older sibling who might be able to help him.

A girl from the Middle East who is beaten by her mother. A month ago she had
concussion. Hasn't told anyone.Would really like to move to get away from her
mother, but doesn't know where to go and also does not want her mother to get
into trouble.The father has moved out already.

A girl who has reported her mother to the police for beating her since she was two
years old. Since she filed the report she's been locked away in a dark room. “Is she
allowed to do this?”The girl is now waiting to move to a foster home.

A boy of middle school age who tells us his mother is assaulted by his stepfather
is now afraid that he himself will be beaten. He doesn't dare to take any of his
friends home. His mum has said she'll get a divorce but nothing has happened.The
boy decides for himself to move in temporarily with his natural father.

The examples above conﬁrm BRIS' experience over the years: that the per-


petrators of abuse are nearly always people close to the child, people who
those children cannot easily avoid. The survey of abusers produced for the
sixth year in succession shows that this phenomenon is also true in 2001,
in which 85 per cent of perpetrators are family members, most common-
ly fathers.

Father 43 %

Mother 16 %

Both adults 14 %

Known contemporary (not sibling) 8%

Stepfather 6,6 %

Sibling 3,2 %

Teacher/ school staff 3,1 %

Other known adult 4,0 %

Others 2,1 %

Fig. 8. Perpetrators of physical abuse cited in calls from
children (n = 1,491)

“Other known adult” may, for example, be a stepmother, the head of a
foster home, or another known adult in the family. “Others” here is like-
ly to mean someone unknown, but sometimes the perpetrators themselves
are the ones who call. Contemporaries (including siblings) account for
11% of the abuse.
The picture that emerges shows that 64 per cent of perpetrators are
men, 20 per cent are women, and in 16 per cent of cases, the perpetrators
are of both sexes.
In terms of gender split for all perpetrators of physical abuse, 69 per
cent of them are men, 31 per cent are women.
Calls relating primarily to physical abuse:
• relate more frequently to children who live with lone parents
• in 80% of cases, the problem environment is the home (as opposed to
27% for all calls)
• more than in any other calls, children express fear, anxiety and low
spirits
• in two thirds of cases the victims are girls

In cases of psychological abuse the perpetrator / victim pattern is fairly si-
milar to that of physical abuse, yet both adults are more often involved in
the cruelty, fathers alone not so often. 72 per cent of perpetrators are
found in the family, contemporaries (including siblings) account for 14 per
cent. Girls are the victims in virtually three out of every four calls.

The father has a mistress. He threatens his daughter that he'll kill the dog if she
tells her mother.

A girl's stepfather continually makes rude comments to her about her appearance
and behaviour. She feels as if everything about her is wrong.


BRIS Report 2001

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BRIS Report 2001