Becoming a serious social issue in the United Kingdom, child sexual abuse as a prevalent social phenomenon in the country has surfaced in a governmental inquiry.

The UK government has vowed to fully respond to an inquiry published Thursday that shed light on the failure to address "endemic" child sexual abuse across state and non-state institutions. 

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse came to a verdict after 7 years of interviewing victims and survivors across England and Wales, concluding that "inadequate measures were in place to protect children from the risk of being sexually abused" and that "sometimes there were none at all."

"We have already taken action to tackle this abhorrent crime and learn from the lessons of the past, but I know there is much more to do. This is the start of a new chapter in our efforts to put an end to this terrible crime," said Home Secretary Grant Shapps in a response to the inquiry. 

Within 6 months, the government will be responding to the inquiry's recommendations; the UK pledged $5 million in funds to organizations supporting victims of child sexual abuse. 

According to the inquiry, girls were three times more likely to be a target of sexual abuse.

In 2020, the UK statistics office revealed that over 3.1 million adults had experienced sexual abuse before the age of 16. 

Pedophilia has been more prevalent at religious institutions, residential schools, young offender institutions, care homes and foster care facilities. 

In addition, disabled children were twice as likely to described their experiences as non-disabled experiences, in other words, relating to others who do not have cognitive, physical or mental impairment, while those living in care homes were four times more likely have experienced sexual abuse. 

"Individuals and institutions often thought children were lying when they tried to disclose what was being done to them… Victims were frequently blamed as being responsible for their own sexual abuse," the inquiry said.

Furthermore, a probe into the Roman Catholic Church in both England and Wales has revealed a long history of whitewashing of sexually abusive protests. Between 1970 and 2015, there had been 3,000 complaints against more than 900 individuals in the Church. Only 177 have been prosecuted, and 133 have been convicted. 

Brandon Lewis, the Secretary of State for Justice, said that the inquiry "laid bare the horrors that many children suffered as a result of historical institutional failings."