Commercial and sexual exploitation of children and young people in the UK—a review

This paper reviews recent information and data relevant to the commercial sexual exploitation of children and young people in the UK. Three main aspects of exploitation are addressed: abuse through prostitution; abuse through pornography; and the trafficking of children and young people to and through the UK for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. Most published research in this area relates to young people exploited through prostitution. The review explores the range of vulnerability factors, the processes used to engage young people in prostitution and the types of support strategies for those being exploited. Rather less information is currently available on the scale of child pornography, or the links between the use of pornography and other forms of sexual abuse. The internet as a modern technology for proliferating child pornography is discussed, alongside its role in providing opportunities for paedophiles to access and ‘groom’ children for sexual purposes. Finally, the review provides a summary of research on trafficking of children to and through the UK for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and demonstrates the limited knowledge about this topic. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The gender neglect and textual abuse of children in the print media

In recent years the relationship between the media and child abuse has been subjected to closer scrutiny. Research at Monash University into the media portrayal of child abuse has led the researchers to examine the language used by the print media to represent both children who have been abused or neglected and the offences committed against them. This paper presents two findings from this research. The analysis firstly found that a child who has been abused or neglected may be objectified in print media language even when the child’s gender is previously identified. Secondly, the analysis found that the language used to describe the sexual abuse of children may serve to reduce the seriousness of offences. These phenomena, termed ‘gender neglect’ and ‘textual abuse’, are highlighted by examples from UK and Australian print media. The authors argue that ‘critical language awareness’ is important for children, just as it has been identified in research that examines the representation of women in print media. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

UK Paramedics Confidence in Identifying Child Sexual Abuse: A Mixed-Methods Investigation

United Kingdom (UK) paramedics are in a prime position to identify children and young people who are victims or at risk of sexual abuse. Paramedics have access, by phone, or in person, to unprepared homes and communities which other health professionals such as social workers may not. Little research exists however, investigating UK paramedic confidence in identifying child sexual abuse. This mixed-method explanatory sequential investigation used the self-reported confidence levels of 276 UK paramedics to inform the design of seven semi-structured focus groups with 25 UK paramedics from a large ambulance service with operating models similar to all UK services. Multiple factors contribute to a lack of confidence in identifying child sexual abuse, child sexual exploitation, and female genital mutilation, including a perceived lack of exposure to sexual abuse, the perceived hidden nature of sexual abuse, and the lack of physical symptoms and examination. An overarching lack of knowledge is the most significant contributor to a lack of confidence which in turn perpetuates misinformation surrounding prevalence, location, and the signs and symptoms of sexual abuse. These findings suggest a lack of sufficient training and a need for further research evaluating the content of current training and its method of delivery.     

Forging the links: (de)constructing chains of behaviours

This paper will discuss an article by Becker and French (2005) in this Journal which proposed the general acceptance of correlations or the ‘links’ between child abuse, animal abuse and domestic violence. Becker and French claim this topic has ‘seen a growth of interest’ (p. 399) over the past two decades and they suggest that organizations across the UK should ‘institutionalize the “links” within policy and practice’ (p. 410). In this paper we question the appropriateness of linking different forms of violence in such a mechanistic and predictive way by drawing on and extending arguments we have made elsewhere. We consider the proposed ‘links’ in terms of assumptions, de?nitions, methods and logic, and raise concerns for a prospective practice which is based on retrospective (and ?awed) research. We aim to appeal to in?uential doubters (social workers, child care workers, animal welfare workers, vets, educators and policy‐makers) in a language of ‘reason’, and we propose that the identi?ed reluctance of professionals in the UK to adopt the rhetoric of ‘links’ can be viewed as an informed and re?ective response. Throughout, we offer a corrective commentary to the ?awed assumptions of the ‘links’ argument and seek to encourage others to remain sceptical about these claims and the suggested implications for practice. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigating the Victim Pseudomaturity Effect: How a Victim’s Chronological Age and Dress Style Influences Attributions in a Depicted Case of Child Sexual Assault

Three-hundred and seven members of the UK public read a hypothetical child sexual abuse case in which the victim’s chronological age (12 versus 15 years old) and dress style (sexualized versus nonsexualized) were experimentally manipulated before completing 22 assault severity and blame attribution items. It was predicted that the 15-year-old and the sexually dressed victim would be blamed more for her own abuse. In addition, males were expected to be more blaming generally, but especially of the older and/or sexually dressed victim. Results were generally in line with predictions, highlighting the role seemingly controllable victim characteristics play in blaming child sexual abuse victims. Findings are discussed in relation to defensive attributions, gender stereotyping and the newly suggested victim pseudomaturity effect. Criminal justice, victim welfare, and rape myth implications together with methodological issues and ideas for future research work are also considered.     

Assessment and intervention in cases of suspected ritual child sexual abuse

Agency workers have been heavily criticized over their handling of alleged ritual child sexual abuse cases, particularly in respect of their assessments and interventions. However, a study of referrals to police and social service departments revealed that agency workers raised suspicions of ritual abuse in respect of both child ‘victims’ and adult ‘survivors’ very rarely. Furthermore, they did this only after an assessment which showed the cases to possess a number of ‘troubling’ features. While agency workers believed that all the child ‘victims’ had been subject to serious sexual abuse, virtually all of them were circumspect as to whether this had occurred in a ‘ritual’ context. Initially, agency workers were generally open-minded as to the experiences of adult ‘survivors’, but by the end of their assessments, they tended to be more concerned about their mental health and less concerned about issues of ritual abuse. Finally, agency workers appeared to act appropriately in terms of the types of intervention they used and the way in which they applied these. These results suggest that there should be more confidence in the ability of agency workers to respond to cases of alleged ritual abuse. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When images matter: Internet child pornography, forms of observation and an ethics of the virtual

The arrest of Pete Townshend, lead guitarist for The Who, for downloading and possessing Internet child pornography and the publicity surrounding the case provides an initial point of discussion concerning the emergence of an ethics of the image that is not predicated on the actual evidential status of that image but on more virtual forms of observation. The discussion in this article focuses on three substantive aspects of this event - legislation in the UK and the US, expert psychological discourse, and public discussion in the UK press - in order to present a particular and situated rendering of forms of virtual observation. The context to this discussion concerns the notion that digital imaging technology presages a need for new legislation, law enforcement and social analytical frameworks for understanding and tackling the production, distribution and consumption of images of child sexual abuse.     

Incest,paedophilia, pornography and prostitution: making familial males more visible as the abusers

In this paper I return to the survivor case study and sex offender data I used in my paper on conceptual models of the relationship between pornography and child sexual abuse in Child Abuse Review in 1997. Here I use them to show how paedophile typologies and sex offender classifications contribute to constructing the invisibility of the normal, ordinary, heterosexual family men who sexually abuse their own and other people's children on a very substantial scale. I also use it as the basis for developing a typology which constructs the connections between incest, paedophilia, pornography and prostitution in the form of a ‘Continuum typology of child sexual abuse and the characteristics of child sexual abusers’, and captures the crossover of victims and perpetrators and the overlap of intrafamilial and extrafamilial child sexual abuse and exploitation. This, in turn, becomes the basis for constructing a ‘Nosology of child sexual abuse classification’ which genders the abusers and takes account of both the overlap and the dominant discourse currently of policing and policy, in which ‘paedophilia’ and ‘child sex offending’ have become synonymous, and incest abusers are invisible. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘This is Not Just About History…’ Addressing the Disconnect in Historic (Non‐Recent) Child Abuse Investigations

• Historic (non‐recent) child abuse investigations need to consider the effects of investigative processes on victims and survivors.
• Such investigations include those undertaken by the police and by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
• Victim and survivor accounts need to be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly in order for victims/survivors not to feel let down by, and disconnected from, criminal justice and IICSA processes.

‘Historic (non‐recent) child abuse investigations need to consider the effects of investigative processes on victims and survivors’

In response to the then chancellor George Osborne's announcement in 2014 that the UK government would set up an independent inquiry into the handling of historic child abuse cases, then shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper made a statement that highlighted:

‘This is not just about history, this is about the need for proper strong systems of child protection for the future, so that we get both justice for victims in the past but also a system that is strong enough to protect young people going forward.’ (The Guardian, 2014 )

The government held good to its promise and set up the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) ( https://www.iicsa.org.uk ) in 2014, announced by then home secretary Theresa May. Its objectives would not only be to investigate claims of a cover‐up of an alleged paedophile ring said to have operated in Westminster in the 1980s, but also to investigate broader institutional failures. Today, the IICSA aims to ‘examine the extent to which institutions and organisations in England and Wales have taken seriously their responsibility to protect children’, and to examine allegations of child sexual abuse involving ‘well known people’, that is, those in the media, politics and other areas of public life (see https:// www.iicsa.org.uk ). Its remit also includes collating testimonies from child abuse victims and survivors through its Truth Project (via private interviews and in writing) (IICSA, 2017 ). But for the victims/survivors of abuse, it is at this intersection – between holding to account both public and private institutions over child abuse, and listening to and believing victims – where a disconnect occurs, that is, between past and present; between the abuse itself and the reporting process; and between expectation and outcomes of the investigative process.

‘For the victims/survivors of abuse… a disconnect occurs… between the abuse itself and the reporting process’

This short report considers progress to date on the IICSA drawing on evidence from the inquiry itself, from press reports and from the author's personal experience of reporting historic abuse to the police and to the IICSA's Truth Project.

‘Considers progress to date on the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA)’

A ‘Legacy’ of Failures

In August 2016, after Theresa May launched the ‘new‐look’ inquiry in 2015 with new statutory powers, its chair, Dame Lowell Goddard, resigned. In her resignation statement, Goddard cited family reasons for going but perhaps more tellingly, the fact that the inquiry was ‘not an easy task, let alone one of the magnitude of this’, she added, ‘Compounding the many difficulties was its legacy of failure which has been very hard to shake off’ (BBC News, 2016a ). And it is some legacy. In its first year, the IICSA saw two of its chairs, Baroness Butler‐Sloss and Dame Fiona Woolf, step down over questions about their links to key establishment figures prominent in the 1980s. Since 2014, a number of lawyers supporting the inquiry have also either resigned or been dismissed. Historic or non‐recent child abuse has been at the centre of public, political and media debate since allegations against TV presenter and DJ Jimmy Savile emerged in 2011. This led to the setting up of Operation Yewtree in 2012 (and, down the line, to the IICSA), now just one of many separate similar operations currently being run by police forces across the country. Indeed, such is the scale of the problem that there is now a central hub – Operation Hydrant – to oversee all of these separate police investigations.

‘[Since Savile] historic or non‐recent child abuse has been at the centre of public, political and media debate’

Without a doubt, some of these have been successful in bringing to justice well known figures and ‘celebrities’ such as Rolf Harris, Stuart Hall and Paul Gadd (Gary Glitter). But other investigations have failed to establish the extent of child abuse allegations said to have been committed and subsequently covered up at Westminster, at Dolphin Square in Pimlico (Operation Midland), Elm Guest House in London (Operation Athabasca) and others, some of which have closed and others still being investigated by the police, a number of them linked to prominent public and political figures. At the same time, the police themselves are also under scrutiny as part of the IICSA and the Independent Police Complaints Commission is currently investigating 187 claims of police and establishment cover‐ups involving 18 forces (The Independent, 2016 ).     

Ritual,and child sexual abuse,but not ritual child sexual abuse

Central to the controversy over ritual (satanic) child sexual abuse have been claims concerning agency ‘diagnoses’ of cases. Specifically, it has been alleged that agency findings of ritual abuse have been erroneous and are the product of poor practice. There is, though, little systematic information regarding agency assessment of suspected ritual abuse cases. This paper presents two cases where there was evidence both of child sexual abuse and ‘ritual’ but where agencies adjudged that these aspects occurred independently of one another and were not indicative of ritual child sexual abuse. The existence of these cases underlines the need for a broader and more balanced debate in respect of ritual abuse in general and the agency handling of these cases in particular. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Elder abuse in the United Kingdom

In recent years there has been an increased emphasis on violence and abuse within society generally. Following a focus in the United Kingdom (UK) on child abuse in the 1970s and domestic violence in the 1980s, in the 1990s the abuse and neglect of older people began to elicit concern. The initial focus of interest was of situations arising in the domestic setting. More recently, however, much needed attention has shifted to situations involving institutional settings. This paper will discuss abuse and neglect occurring in the UK. It aims to provide a brief overview of the status of current knowledge concerning abuse of older people followed by a discussion of some of the issues relating to the prevention of abuse and neglect from a UK perspective. An exploration of some of the issues involved will contribute to our understanding of abuse and neglect of older people in the UK.     

Working systemically following abuse: exploring safe uncertainty

This paper explores systemic practice and ‘safe uncertainty’ in work with parents who do not accept responsibility following child abuse. The prevailing view has been that little positive work can be carried out with families where responsibility is denied. Our work is offered to add to the small yet growing number of publications which challenge the dominant discourse relating to child protection work. A case study is illustrated within which the issue of assessment versus therapy emerges. The Legal Department of the Local Authority Social Services requested an assessment from child and family psychiatry. Concern developed regarding the point at which assessment ended and therapy began. The authors offer a systemic model in exploring the importance of a safe multi‐disciplinary framework within which uncertainty can be tolerated and therapy/change work can be affected. A framework within which parents can be supported in developing skills to meet the needs of children is presented. These issues are central to the professional and legal systems relating to child protection in the UK. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Elder Abuse in the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

In recent years there has been an increased emphasis on violence and abuse within society generally. Following a focus in the United Kingdom (UK) on child abuse in the 1970s and domestic violence in the 1980s, in the 1990s the abuse and neglect of older people began to elicit concern. The initial focus of interest was of situations arising in the domestic setting. More recently, however, much needed attention has shifted to situations involving institutional settings. This paper will discuss abuse and neglect occurring in the UK. It aims to provide a brief overview of the status of current knowledge concerning abuse of older people followed by a discussion of some of the issues relating to the prevention of abuse and neglect from a UK perspective. An exploration of some of the issues involved will contribute to our understanding of abuse and neglect of older people in the UK.     

Voices of Healing and Recovery from Childhood Sexual Abuse

Child sexual abuse continues to occur for a significant number of children, often having deleterious consequences for survivors’ physical and mental health. Research has thoroughly explored various consequences as a result of child sexual abuse, but scholars and practitioners know less about the healing processes from survivors’ viewpoints. Using a constructivist grounded theory design, this study examined perceptions of healing in 10 female survivors of child sexual abuse. Results conclude with a theoretical model of healing, capturing the significance of supportive relationships, internal characteristics, turning points, and sources of active healing. Important sources of active healing include therapy, informal and formal education, compassion and empathy, blame attribution to abusers, and confronting abusers. Limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Mental Health,Sexual Risk Behaviors,and Drinking Patterns Among Latino Men Who Have Sex With Men

One in five Latino men who have sex with men has experienced child sexual abuse. Although concerning in itself, child sexual abuse may increase an individuals’ likelihood of depression and risk-taking in adult life, including engagement in HIV risk behaviors and alcohol and substance use. It is therefore urgent that researchers and practitioners better understand the long-term effects of child sexual abuse. We utilized logistic and linear regression to assess associations between child sexual abuse (operationalized as forced or coerced sexual activity before age 17) and depression, sexual behaviors, and drinking patterns in a sample of 176 adult Latino men who have sex with men from New York City. Over one-fifth (22%) of participants reported child sexual abuse. In multivariable models, participants with histories of child sexual abuse were significantly more likely than participants without such histories to screen for clinically significant depressive symptoms and heavy drinking and reported more anal sex acts, male sexual partners, and incidents of condomless anal intercourse in the previous three months. These findings confirm a high prevalence of child sexual abuse among Latino men who have sex with men and associations between child sexual abuse and adulthood depressive symptoms, high-risk alcohol consumption, and sexual risk behaviors. We recommend that providers who serve Latino men who have sex with men incorporate child sexual abuse screenings into mental health, HIV prevention, and substance use treatment programs, utilizing approaches that are inclusive of resilience.     

Fit for Purpose? Post-Qualifying Social Work Education in Child Protection in Scotland

Recommendations for post-qualifying training and education in child protection social work consistently form part of the political response to child abuse scandals. The influence of child abuse politics upon the push towards post-qualifying training and education has been consistent across the United Kingdom. Within Scotland educators have been quick to respond to the market demand for programme provision and there is now a growing number of academic programmes being offered by higher education institutions. Yet despite post-qualifying training and education achieving the status of ‘panacea’ there is little in the way of a national dialogue about what post-qualifying training and education in social work child protection should look like. The parameters of this have not been subject to any kind of national debate and the Scottish academic community has not entered into a professional dialogue on these issues. More crucially, educators have not engaged in any level of identifiable evaluation of their provision and there is an absence of engagement with the scholarship of teaching child protection at the post-qualifying level. This paper connects with these issues to question whether the post-qualifying training and education delivered by Scotland's universities can be considered fit for purpose.     

Impact of Perpetrator Type on Attributions of Mother Fault in Child Sexual Abuse

Blaming nonoffending mothers for child sexual abuse has substantial negative consequences for both the mother and child victim. Although perpetrator type has been shown to influence how much blame and responsibility is placed on nonoffending mothers in child sexual abuse cases, research to date has focused primarily on perpetrators who are strangers to the child or the child’s biological father, ignoring the effect of other father-figure perpetrators. The current study examined how differences in perpetrator’s relationship to the mother impacted blame, responsibility, cause, and prevention as separate constructs. One hundred and eight participants from an online community sample were randomly assigned to read a vignette describing a child sexual abuse situation with a female victim and one of two perpetrators: the victim’s biological father or the mother’s boyfriend. Participants assigned significantly higher levels of fault for CSA to the mother when the perpetrator was the mother’s boyfriend. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Exploring the link between sexualized behaviour and sexual abuse in a clinical setting

This study examined the issue of sexualized behaviour in children as an indicator of sexual abuse. The purpose was to develop alternative explanations for sexualized behaviour if sexual abuse was not confirmed or suspected. Other possible explanations explored were the presence of frequent disruptions to family life, previous unresolved exposure to sexual abuse or contact with a sexualized child. Data were collected on 81 cases of sexualized behaviour referred to a specialist child protection assessment unit over a 7‐year period. It was found that in very few cases was sexual abuse considered an explanation for the sexualized behaviour. Of the remaining cases, a substantial number showed evidence of family disruption, which could lead to sexualized behaviour developing as a comforting response for the child. Furthermore, a number of children also had experienced sexual abuse in the past, which might have been unresolved for the child, or had contact with another sexualized child, and this might have accounted for their behaviour. It would appear that many of the children were facing difficulties in their lives and might require therapeutic intervention, even if concerns about recent sexual abuse had been allayed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.