NGO urges binding child sexual abuse sentencing guidelines in Hong Kong, as most jail terms fall ‘far below’ maximum

Researchers have urged Hong Kong authorities to establish binding sentencing guidelines for perpetrators of child sexual abuse, saying that most jail terms are too low to reflect the gravity of the offences.

In the past 35 years, jail sentences handed down for the six gravest penetrative offences involving children ranged between 4.6 and 9.8 years, despite the crimes carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, according to TALK Hong Kong.

The NGO announced findings from the research, carried out by the Law and Social Justice Clinic at the University of Hong Kong (HKU)’s law faculty, at a press conference on Tuesday.

The clinic examined 401 publicly available judicial decisions for child sexual abuse cases delivered between 1968 and 2025, looking at cases involving victims 16 and under – the age of protection for most serious sexual offences against children under Hong Kong law.

Life imprisonment sentences were only imposed twice, both more than 50 years ago – in 1968 and 1972.

In particular, researchers focused on the period from 1990 to 2025, zeroing in on offences that could involve child sexual abuse victims and which carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, of which there are six.

They include incest by men, rape, non-consensual buggery, homosexual buggery with or by a man under 16, buggery with a girl under 21, and intercourse with a girl under 13.

The average sentence for all six offences was less than 10 years. Intercourse with a girl under 13 saw the shortest average sentence of 4.61 years.

The longest average jail term was for rape, at 9.82 years.

“Sentencing for the 6 offences consistently fall on the low end, far below the statutory maximum, largely failing to reflect the gravity of these sexual crimes against children,” the research report stated.

Sentencing framework

Speaking at the press conference on Tuesday, Puja Kapai, an associate professor at HKU’s Faculty of Law, said the research’s recommendation was not that all sentences should be harsher.

“It does not mean that every case should result in a maximum… [the question] is what circumstances actually move a case substantially up the sentencing spectrum?” Kapai said.

“Are we sufficiently clear and consistent about the weight attributed to relevant aggravating circumstances?”

Kapai said Hong Kong could consider setting up a body that develops binding sentencing guidelines similar to the UK’s Sentencing Council. The council has guidelines setting out the range of sentences for each type of sexual offence, as well as the relevant aggravating and mitigating factors that could see a penalty increased or lowered.

The professor said that such a council in Hong Kong could come up with a framework that requires a judge to account for circumstances such as the vulnerability of the child victim owing to dependency on the perpetrator, communication difficulties and cognitive impairments when sentencing a defendant.

Standards should be applied consistently and transparently across cases, Kapai said, while still preserving the ability of judges to respond to individual circumstances.

The report also recommended that sentencing frameworks attribute less weight to the role of purported consent from children.

Children’s developmental immaturity, dependency on adults and susceptibility to manipulation limit their ability to give meaningful apparent consent, the report states.

Prevention platform

An earlier study by TALK Hong Kong estimated that 96 per cent of child sexual abuse cases in Hong Kong go unreported.

“If the overwhelming majority of victims of harm never even enter the criminal justice system at all… we cannot make children any safer simply by becoming better at sentencing,” Kapai said.

Taura Edgar, the founder and chairperson of TALK Hong Kong, said the focus should be on preventing harmful behaviour and protecting children.

She said her NGO had recently launched a self-help platform, called Stop it Now HK, for people who might be “concerned about their own thinking towards children.”

Edgar said people with thoughts about harming children would likely not tell anyone about them.

“We need to have some outlets for [those] people… to help themselves,” she said.

Stop it Now HK is based on a UK NGO, the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, that works with people who pose a risk to children and diverts them from causing harm.

Edgar added that the NGO has been in touch with the Correctional Services Department and the police about the platform. It is currently in English only, but the NGO hoped to roll out a Cantonese version soon.

Like other similar platforms around the world, Stop it Now HK will work with websites like PornHub to display notifications directing users to self-help resources when they access child-related content locally, Edgar said.

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