Facing the challenges: Identifying and engaging with young

people to prevent Sexual Exploitation

Jenny J Pearce

Not to be reproduced without permission from Jenny.Pearce@beds.ac.uk

What are we preventing?

2

UN Violence Against Children• “Children are at times blamed for what has happened, coerced to

keep it a secret and often stigmatized and marginalised by their families and communities”,

• Children are the most vulnerable yet they are the least protected.

• Violence against children is preventable. Investing efforts and resources in prevention is the most effective means to reduce violence against children.

Marta Santos: UN Special representative secretary general on violence against children: address to The Council of Europe Launch of the ‘One in five ‘ campaign (www.coe.int)

3

Sexual abuse and sexual exploitation

– Police in England and Wales recorded a sex crime every 20 minutes in 2010

– More than 23,000 offences, including rape, incest and gross indecency were logged in 2009-10: most reports concerned children aged 12 to 15

– Girls continue to be 6 times more likely to known victims of sexual assault (NSPCC 2011)

– 56% of victims of sexual offences in NI are under 18– 613 recorded sexual offences against 12-17 year olds in NI in

2010/11 (stats cited in Beckett 2011)

4

Prevalence/ CSE• Prevalence data difficult to capture:

– Low levels of reporting by young people– Variable levels of awareness & confusion around definition– Inadequate intelligence gathering & information sharing– Inconsistent recording

• Existing counts:– 1875 cases localised grooming (CEOP 2011)– 2409 confirmed victims over 14 month period; 16,500 at risk (OCC 2012)– 3000 CSE service users (NWG 2010)– CSE issue of concern for 1 in 7 young people known to social services in

N.Ireland; 1 in 5 at significant risk (Beckett 2011)

5

Prevention is acknowledging there is a problem

• This child has a very vivid imagination. I’m not even going to record a lot of our conversation because it’s clearly not true.

• I know that she's been in front of a jury and told a story about being raped over there. I know she wasn't believed.....I mean we are asking the court to believe a 15 year old girl against four or five adults.

(Pearce, Hynes and Bovarnick 2009)

6

There are financial benefits to developing preventative interventions

(cost/benefit analysis) (Puppet on a String / Cut them free, Barnardo’s 2011)

7

What do we want to prevent?The bigger picture!

• Violence in the home• ‘Normalised’ sexual violence between

peers• A culture of ‘disbelief’ and ‘blame’• Fear and demonization of teenagers• Gender blind responses • Criminalising children for their reaction to

abuse

8

What do we want to prevent?The bigger picture!

• The ‘Hot potato’ effect • Poor information sharing between sexual

health and child protection • Schools turning their back on exploitation• Child protection services turning their back

on vulnerable adolescents

9

How?: An Integrated Strategy • Identify

• Engage

• Disrupt

• Prosecute

10

Identify

Why don’t young people come forward ?

11

‘What Works for Us’ 2010

• ...they question you a lot and say ‘did you try to run away?’ and they think you didn’t try to get away. They think you wanted it. They doubt you.

• They lump us all together. Generalise’.

• People's stereotype is ‘girls like that, that’s what they do’

12

• They looked at me like I was dirt when I came to my case review’

• A lot of their attitude is ‘you’re just a little slapper – a slapper who likes sleeping with older men’ – they think it’s just kids coming onto older men

13

Young people voting with their feetWarrington 2011

...with my other counselling - I didn’t want it– I went once... they said yeah Yeah - you’ve got to go to appointment. I went and didn’t like it so I didn’t go again. But here I like it so I come all the time me.

14

So how do we identify sexually exploited children and young people?

15

Data Collection, awareness raising and training

• High value of local scoping exercises

• Data collection and awareness raising go hand in hand (Jago et al 2010)

• Follow up with ‘Action Plan’: need an implementation strategy with an ongoing data recording update

16

But? Identified data: the ‘true’ and ‘changing’ picture?

• ‘Lazy’ knowledge or sensationalism to be guarded against

• Incomplete data should be constantly under review – Of 1065 identified: Average age 15, Boys 8.6% of cases , Of

1040 (79%) were white victims (Jago et al 2011).

• Victim and perpetrator representation to be addressed

• Local, regional and national demography to be considered

17

Data and awareness raising • 33 agencies responded: 25 NGOs, 22 of whom were

Barnardo’s, Only 8 returns from statutory agencies (Jago et al 2011)

• Similar experience as CEOP (2011): ‘Out of mind, out of sight’ : reasons for poor response– lack of resources/ time/ knowledge or awareness of problem

and – different understandings of CSE/ different thresholds

OCC Inquiry 2011-13 much higher return

18

Training and awareness raising

• Current social work training does not identify or address CSE

• 24 areas identified as active in preventing CSE ran training and awareness programmes: – 72% reported training for LSCB staff– 60% reported awareness raising for other

practitioners – 44% reported awareness raising with children and

young people – 38% reported awareness raising with parents /carers(Jago et al 2011)

19

And? We are probably already working with the families

– Of 479 cases living with families (Jago et al 2011): 42% had been identified as a child in need prior to the risk to child sexual exploitation having been identified.

– DV noted in 223 of the 1065 identified CSE cases (20%); Witnessing domestic violence was the most frequent experience (100 of 223)

– 67 of 461 cases (15%) had Special Educational Needs (Compared to 2.8 % pupils across all schools in England had statements of SEN)

– All 147 cases identified in NI research known to social services

20

And? with those ‘Looked after’

21% of sample in Local Authority Care (Jago et al 2011);

34.7% of CEOP’s (2011) CSE sample in LA care (compared to fewer than 1% of children in care in England)

54% of whom in residential care (Jago et al 2011) (compared to under 20% of in care population in residential care)

Beckett 2011 : Not a world away

Ofsted : 9th May 2012: children’s homes: 4,840 children, 1,800 girls, 631 suspected cases of being sold for sex

21

And? With those offending and missing

36% of 427 reported going missing over 10 times

Of 341 cases where crime was noted : 56% were known victims of other crimes, 9% were both victim and perpetrator of crime

UCL 2011: 40% of one case load committed ‘symptom related offences’

(Jago et al 2011 Similar links confirmed in Beckett 2011, CEOP 2011, UCL 2012, OCC 2012)

22

Identifying through The ‘Whole School’ Approach

• Health and Safety : would you ever have only one safe room or one safe subject?

• The ‘Whole School’ trains the kitchen staff, caretakers, gardeners, all support staff, governors, teachers, parents, children

23

The role of the school and community

• The journey to school as important as school itself.

• Having staff/practitioners recognise the existence of CSE and related abuse shifts issue from an individual problem to a general problemShared problems are easier to talk about

• Having a clearly identifiable referral pathway

24

Engaging

with sexually exploited young people once they are identified

25

Young People need to see that engaging is meaningful (‘What Works for us’ 2010)

• Since May last year I’ve been raped three times. Groomed. ….I’ve been in police stations five or six times doing interviews, line-ups’– ‘I put so much effort in on these cases..he still walks around town’

• ... If a case gets dropped again... If I get raped again I’m just not going to bother’ [reporting it] ‘

It’s just too intense -  and all that for a court case that will probably be dropped’

•Fear of seeing perpetrator in court – ‘No way I can face him again’

26

Research and evaluation: what we know about engaging with exploited young people

• Chicken and egg: where there is a service there are young people

• Engagement takes time, trust • Therapeutic, assertive outreach essential: holding the

child in mind• Support needed for victims at every stage: through court

and beyond • Multi agency work: good information sharing is the

foundation to sustained engagement

27

Showing the young person there is a point in engaging: The Dual Integrated Strategy

• ‘I would tell you if I thought there was something you could do’

• Less than ¼ of 100 LSCBs demonstrate strategies for dual approach

• Only 1/3 knew of support for the young person during court (Jago et al 2011)

28

Engaging with HealthSexual Health;CAMHS;A and E; LAC nurses.

• Engage in child centred work: the voice of the young person Health advocates making messages accessible (Association of young People’s Health)

29

Engaging with the peer group/community issues

• The role of the whole school

• Supporting local communities: families, carers, faith groups, community leaders

• Supporting local workers: a ‘network’ or ‘reference point’ for foster carers, youth workers, teachers, health workers

30

What now? • Conceptual shift: from just safeguarding younger

children inside the home to also Safeguarding Young People outside the home

• Link strategies to identify, engage, disrupt and prosecute

• Multi -agency response

• Engage with young people in research, policy development and practice delivery

• Challenge ‘Condoned Consent’

31

A reminder

What are we preventing?

32

UN Violence Against Children• “Children are at times blamed for what has happened, coerced to

keep it a secret and often stigmatized and marginalised by their families and communities”,

• Children are the most vulnerable yet they are the least protected.

• Violence against children is preventable. Investing efforts and resources in prevention is the most effective means to reduce violence against children.

Marta Santos: UN Special representative secretary general on violence against children: address to The Council of Europe Launch of the ‘One in five ‘ campaign (www.coe.int)

33

Young people’s definitions

Its when you don't know your choicesthat other people have all the power

Taken from 'Out of the Box: young people's stories' written by youngpeople from Doncaster Streetreach and NSPCC London projects

34

Further reading• Barnardo’s (2012) Cut them Free• Beckett (2011) Not a world away: the sexual exploitation of children

and young people in Northern Ireland• Beckett et al (2012) Gang-associated sexual exploitation and sexual

violence: Interim report• CEOP (2011) Out of mind, out of sight: breaking down the barriers to

understanding child sexual exploitation• Jago et al (2011) What’s going on to safeguard children and young

people from sexual exploitation?• Melrose, M and Pearce J (2013) Critical Perspectives to Child Sexual

Exploitation and Related Trafficking. London, Palgrave • Pearce (2009) Young people and sexual exploitation: it’s not hidden,

you just aren’t looking• Office of the Children’s Commissioner (2012) Interim report of Inquiry

into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups

35

Preventing Child Sexual Exploitation

Jenny J PearceNot to be reproduced without permission from

Jenny.Pearce@beds.ac.uk