Facing the challenges: - PowerPoint Presentation

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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.ukSlide2

What are we preventing?

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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There are financial benefits to developing preventative interventions

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

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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

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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

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How?: An Integrated Strategy

Identify

Engage

Disrupt

Prosecute

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IdentifyWhy don’t young people come forward ?

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‘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’

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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

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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.

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So how do we identify

sexually exploited children and young people?

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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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 problem

Shared problems are easier to talk about

Having a clearly identifiable referral pathway

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Engaging

with sexually exploited young people once they are identified

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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’

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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

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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)

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Engaging with Health

Sexual 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)

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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

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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’

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A reminder

What are we preventing?

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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)

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Young people’s definitions

Its when you don't know your

choices

that other people have all the

power

Taken from 'Out of the Box: young people's stories' written by young

people from Doncaster Streetreach and NSPCC London projects

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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

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Preventing Child Sexual Exploitation Jenny J Pearce

Not to be reproduced without permission from

Jenny.Pearce@beds.ac.uk