Transcript Dr Jenny J Pearce - British Association of Social Workers

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Child sexual exploitation in NI:
An Introduction
Dr Helen Beckett
Vice-Chair, BASPCAN NI Branch
Deputy Director @ ‘The International Centre: Researching Child Sexual
Exploitation, Violence and Trafficking’ at the University of Bedfordshire
[email protected]
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Child Sexual Exploitation
• Form of sexual abuse
• Under 18s
• Exploitative situations, contexts and relationships where
young people (or a third person or persons) receive
‘something’ as a result of performing, and/or others
performing on them, sexual activities
• Those exploiting the child/young person have power over
them by virtue of their age, gender, intellect, physical
strength and/or economic or other resources
(DCSF 2009 Safeguarding CYP from Sexual Exploitation)
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Relevant offences
No offence of CSE but range of offences under Part three of Sexual Offences (NI)
Order 2008:
Under 13
– Rape and other offences against children under 13 (art 12-15)
Under 16
– Sexual activity with a child (art 16)
– Causing/inciting sexual activity (art 17)
– Sexual activity in front of or causing a child to watch a sexual act (art 18/19)
– Child sex offences committed by children or young persons (art 20)
– Arranging or facilitating sexual offence (art 21)
– Meeting a child following sexual grooming (art 22)
Under 18
– Abuse of position of Trust (art 23-31)
– Familial sexual offences (art 32-36)
– Abuse of child through prostitution or pornography (art 37-41)
– Indecent photographs of child aged 16/17 (art 42)
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“I was 12, maybe a wee bit older, and I remember I was
completely blocked and I couldn’t move and my mummy run out
of drink and she says to me, there was fellas in the house and
she says to one of them to take me up the stairs and she got me
to go with this man for a bottle of vodka for her” (young woman)
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“There is a young gay male, aged 19 but with learning
difficulties. He’s meeting older men in their thirties/forties in gay
clubs and male saunas… He’s being plied with drink to make it
easier. He phoned me from a hotel this time asking me to come
and collect him. He said there was money left on the side when
the guy left. That in itself was quite concerning because the
young fella was like ‘why’s he leaving that money?” (aftercare
worker)
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“There was a guy running parties for sex. What was described to
me was someone initially looking after you, taking you out,
buying you clothes, looking after you, giving you lots of emotion
and care. Then there were parties where other girls were there
and it became a going upstairs with one person type of thing,
but then it came down to being the only girl with four or five
men and it became quite frightening. There was also a separate
pornography side to it, and they were getting pulled into that as
well” (residential unit worker)
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“She met this man outside a pub and she basically offered him a
blowjob for a tenner. She took him into an alley way, performed
oral sex on him, got a tenner, went to the off licence and bought
four litres of cider. Her and her friend decided they wanted to
come back to the area where she was from but needed to get a
taxi, so again she needed money. So she went to a pub and
approached two other men and offered them sex for the price of
the taxi home, which she did. On the way home in the taxi she
decided she wanted to keep the money she had earned from
having sex with the other two so she offered the taxi driver sex
for the fare” (police)
Quotes taken from Beckett (2011) ‘Not a World Away’
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permission from the author
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Forms of CSE in NI
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Abuse through prostitution involving third party gain
Other abuse through prostitution
‘Party house model’
Inappropriate/sexually exploitative relationships
Internet exploitation
Child abuse images
Trafficking for CSE (Beckett, 2011)
• Can be by an individual, informal networks and/or organised
network of abusers
• Can be by adults or peers
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Who is affected?
• 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
• What we know will only be the tip of the iceberg
– Media have reported 22 young people in police operation BUT this was
never intended to be a count of CSE; it was an investigation into missing
cases that found CSE to be a concern within this
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NI Research (Beckett 2011)
•
•
•
Study conducted on behalf of Barnardo’s & funded by
DHSSPSNI
Conducted 2009-2011 across NI
Particular focus on risks for children in/missing form care
•
Methods:
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–
–
–
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risk assessment (n=1102; 71% LAC = 2/3 LAC population)
case file reviews (n=29)
professional interviews (n=110)
interviews with young people (n=5)
YLT survey (n=786)
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Children known to social services
• Social workers identified CSE to be issue of concern for almost 1 in 7
(13%; n=147)
• 21% females .v. 5% males (issue of identification as well as prevalence)
• Concerns most frequently first identified aged 12-15
• Overall rate of concern for LAC not much higher than non-LAC (14% .v.
11%)
• BUT risk varied by placement type – 40% residential; 11% at home and
under 5% in foster care
• Particular issue for young females in residential care – 64%
• Concerns emerged post entry into care in 49% of LAC cases
• Going missing four times more prevalent amongst CSE cases than nonCSE cases – 1 in 5 of sample had been missing overnight or longer in
last year (60% of those in residential care)
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General youth population
• 1 in 9 reported experience of an adult trying to groom them – 1 in 7
females .v. 1 in 23 males
• Online accounts for only 27% of these cases – rest approached in
community
• 1 in 15 said they had been given alcohol/drugs and taken advantage of
sexually when under influence – perpetrated by peers in 70% cases
• 1 in 20 had been offered something in return for sexual activity
• Vast majority of cases happened under legal age of consent
• Most did not tell anyone (Beckett and Schubotz 2013)
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Where are we now & where do we go?
• Increased attention & strategic developments:
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–
–
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Police operation
Announced independent review and review by SBNI
SBNI Strategic Partnership Group on CSE
PHA Knowledge Transfer Scheme
• Opportunity to build on local knowledge base and learn from
experiences elsewhere to ensure comprehensive response within NI:
– Assume existence unless proven otherwise
– Keep young people at the centre & recognise safeguarding needs of
adolescents
– Inter-agency response
– Prevention, protection and prosecution
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