Lower threshold for child abuse reports leads to ‘system overload’ but no major rise in prosecutions

23rd July 2026Sarah Gibbons, Contributing Editor, Policing Insight

A study published by a team from Finland’s Tampere University into the effect of the country’s law change lowering the threshold for reporting suspected child abuse suggests that while the number of reports have increased significantly, investigations have taken longer and there has been no corresponding rise in the number of prosecutions, highlighting tensions between ambitious legislative responses and limited institutional resources, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

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Lower threshold for child abuse reports leads to ‘system overload’ but no major rise in prosecutions

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