Home AffairsWritten evidence from Howard League for Penal Reform [LCG 13]

Introduction

1. The Howard League for Penal Reform is the oldest penal reform charity in the world. We recently commissioned research on the criminalisation of sexually exploited girls and young women conducted by Professor Jo Phoenix of Durham University, who has led many studies on this issue. Professor Phoenix presented the findings of the research to the All Parliamentary Group on Women in the Penal System, chaired by the Rt. Hon Baroness Corston in July. Copies of Out of place: The policing and criminalisation of sexually exploited girls and young women have been sent to members of the Committee.

2. We welcome the opportunity to provide a submission to the Home Affairs Committee’s inquiry into localised child grooming and would appreciate an opportunity to supplement this submission by giving oral evidence when the inquiry moves to its next stage.

3. The Howard League submission focuses on the Committee’s stated intention to investigate:

The proportion of child victims in local authority care or otherwise known to social services.

The quality of data collection, data sharing and research on child victims of localised grooming.

Whether front-line agencies adequately equipped to identify victims and intervene at an early stage?

The support provided to victims and witnesses by and range of agencies such as the CPS, police and voluntary agencies.

Child victims in local authority care or otherwise known to social services

4. Research undertaken for the Howard League report Out of place: The criminalisation sexually exploited girls and young women found that many sexually exploited girls and young women were routinely in contact with social services or lived in local authority care:

For many [girls and young women] there are high levels of disaffection and disengagement with families (often marked by conflict and low parental support); with providers of care (foster placements, care homes etc.) because of issues of trust, particularly for those who have experience of sexual abuse and have made disclosures about abuse and/or exploitation and have experienced interventions in a punitive fashion. (Phoenix, 2012: 26).

5. Our research also identified that sexually exploited children share many of the same risk factors and backgrounds of those who routinely come before the criminal justice system. A significant proportion come from backgrounds marked by social and educational exclusion, experiences of local authority care, mental health difficulties and drug and alcohol misuse issues (Cusick, 2002; Harris and Robinson, 2007; Brodie et ai, 2011).

The quality of data collection, data sharing and research on child victims of localised grooming

6. In the last five years there has been a proliferation of reports from researchers, campaigning groups, children’s charities and other NGOs commenting on the UK’s crisis in protecting girls and young women from sexual abuse and grooming. These reports promote the view that the problem of grooming and sexual exploitation is hidden and growing. Barnardo’s recently stated that nearly 6,000 victims of sexual exploitation were identified by police last year (Bradford, 2011) and CEOPs stated that at a direct result of their work, last year 414 were the subject of safeguarding procedures, 513 arrests were made and 141 sexual offence networks were disrupted (CEOPs, 2011).

7. However, official statistics show that fewer than 400 individuals were charged with abuse through sexual exploitation or grooming in 2010–11 (Home Office, 2011). This gap arguably results from (i) lack of robust methods for counting sexual exploitation (ii) the political purchase that sexual exploitation has in terms of grabbing headlines (iii) broader changes to how sexual exploitation takes place (iv) changes to the way child prostitution is policed.

8. The Howard League’s research found that there were ‘no reliable sources about the extent and prevalence of child sexual exploitation and grooming’ (Phoenix, 2012: 5).This clearly needs to be addressed.

9. Lack of reliable data also raises questions about whether sexually exploited children are able to access appropriate social and welfare support and protection.

Are front-line agencies adequately equipped to identify victims and intervene at an early stage?

10. The Howard League found that front-line agencies are not adequately equipped to identify sexually exploited girls and young women. Of particular concern are the weak links between specialist services and youth justice agencies, which mean that in many cases, victims of sexual exploitation are being criminalised rather than being offered appropriate support. Indeed our research found that sexually exploited girls and young women are being criminalised at a rate that is more than 2.5 times the national average (Phoenix, 2012).

11. Our research identified ‘Bethany’, aged 14, who was being sexually exploited by a much older man. He would give her cigarettes for sex, pay her compliments and ‘romance’ her. When he dropped her for another girl, Bethany smashed up his car and was later prosecuted for criminal damage. On no occasion did she disclose to that she was having a sexual relationship with the man to any of the agencies who worked with her. If she had, she could have been identified as a victim of sexual exploitation and provided with relevant welfare support. Instead her exploitation went unidentified and she was criminalised.

12. Lack of strong partnerships between specialist services and youth justice services means that the context of law breaking like Bethany’s is not regularly taken into account. It means the work of youth justice services to reduce this group’s risk of reoffending is possibly irrelevant due to a failure to provide appropriate support in relation to the exploitation they may be experiencing. Put simply, if youth justice services are unaware a girl or young woman is being sexually exploited it is unlikely that she will provided with critical welfare support and guidance, including child protection. The Howard League is calling for the provision of joined-up, appropriate support services to specifically support sexually exploited girls and young women.

13. Providing clear guidance to youth justice agencies to ensure that specialist exploitation providers are consulted in the process of assessing risk of reoffending and the production of pre-sentence reports will ensure that victims of sexual exploitation can be clearly identified and given appropriate support. The Howard League is calling for cross-governmental guidance to support agencies working with sexually exploited girls and young women.

14. Sexual exploitation is difficult to identify. Often this is because its victims live their lives in the same way as many other socially excluded young people—that is ‘hanging out’ in parks, streets, in front of or behind taxi offices, in fast food outlets etc. This allows them to be targeted by older men who actively groom them by pretending to ‘woo’ them before having sex with them and their friends. A further difficulty for practitioners is that many indicators of sexual exploitation, for example, new mobile phones, older boyfriends, hanging out in public spaces, drinking, new clothing and going missing are facets of the lives of many girls and young women, not just those who are sexually exploited.

15. It is critical all agencies working with children and young people who have been sexually exploited are given high levels of appropriate training so they are able to identify sexual exploitation. Youth justice magistrates, solicitors and youth offending teams should also be provided with high levels of appropriate training in the links between crime and sexual exploitation.

Support provided to victims and witnesses by and range of agencies such as the CPS, police and voluntary agencies

16. Girls and young women who have been sexually exploited have often only experienced the police as law enforcers. Due to the reasons identified above, police working with sexually exploited girls and young women often face an uphill struggle to get them to disclose what has happened to them:

It was a three hander rape, she would not go to sleep. She turned up the TV to a hundred, and it was thumping. Swearing, screaming and just a barrage of abuse. But the carer in her home commented that she was wincing whilst walking and so we needed to check she was alright. She told me to fuck off, I said, if I had to come to her a hundred times I will ... (Police officer) (Phoenix, 2012)

17. It is fundamental for police and practitioners to gain the trust of girls and young women who have been sexually exploited. Time and energy must be invested to help them realise that what is happening to them is exploitative, illegal and that they are victims. In order to achieve this, police and practitioners must be given high levels of appropriate training.

18. Police, social workers and specialist sexual exploitation practitioners often work closely together to bring forward the prosecutions of those who have sexually exploited children and young people. However, in many cases the CPS makes the decision not to prosecute because their victims are not seen as reliable witnesses:

Taking offenders to court is a real problem because they [the girls and young women]just aren’t very likable because their behaviour is so bad (Police officer).

Sexually exploited young people just don’t have the support of the people around them. They don’t have the support of the community because they are seen as little slags, tramps, troublemakers (Police officer) (Phoenix, 2012).

19. Many sexually exploited girls and young women do not conform to highly gendered stereotypes of victims of sexual violence and rape and have backgrounds which mean that they are not perceived as credible witnesses to the crimes committed against them. Further, they do not conform to the normative age-related stereotypes, especially the presumption of childhood sexual innocence. This means they find it difficult to access justice. Specific governmental guidance and high levels of training are important to counter this.

20. Developing formal police diversion schemes for girls and young women charged with public order offences and court diversions schemes for girls and young women whose offending is linked with sexual exploitation will mean that fewer sexually exploited girls and young women are caught up in the criminal justice system.

21. Of further concern for the Howard League is the legal anomaly that means it is possible for children to be criminalised for activities relating to their commercial sexual exploitation. Despite government policy defining sexual exploitation as child abuse, the law stills retains the capacity to criminalise children for soliciting and loitering for the purposes of prostitution under section 16 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009—even if this is connected to their sexual exploitation.

22. There should be legislative change so that no young person can ever be criminalised for something defined in guidance and policy as abuse. Age restricting prostitution-related offences would set a clear boundary about the purpose of criminal justice in this complex area—that children must always be treated as victims and never as criminals.

References

Barnardo’s (2012) Child sexual exploitation. Available at http://www.barnardos.org.uklwhat_we_do/our_projects/sexuaLexploitation.htm

[accessed September 2012].

Brodie, I., Melrose, M., Pearce, J. and Warrington, C. (2011) Providing safe and supported accommodation for young people in the care system who are at risk of, or experiencing sexual exploitation or trafficking for sexual exploitation. Available at:

http://www.beds.ac.ukl_data/assets/pdCfile/0008/120788/SafeAccommodationreport_finaIOct2011IB_1.pdf [accessed September 2012].

CEOPs (2011) Children safeguarded from abuse in the last year. Available at:

http://www.ceop.police.uklMedia-Centre/Press-releases/2011/414-

CHILDRENSAFEGUARDED-FROM-ABUSE-IN-THE-LAST-YEAR/[accessed September 2012].

Cusick, L. (2002) Youth prostitution: A literature review. Child Abuse Review 11 (4) pp.230–51.

Department for Children, Schools and Families (2009) Safeguarding young people from sexual exploitation. Available at:

https:/Iwww.education.gov.uklpublications/eOrderingDownload/Safeguarding_CPY_f rom_sexuaLexploitation.pdf [accessed September 2012].

Harris, J. and Robinson, B. (2007) Tipping the iceberg: A pan-Sussex study of young people at risk of sexual exploitation and trafficking. Available at:

http://www.barnardos.org.ukltipping_the_iceberg_report_sept07.pdf [accessed

September 2012].

Home Office (2011) Summary of recorded crime 2002–3 to 2010–11. Available at:

http://homeoffice.gov.uklscience-research/research-statistics/crime/crime-statisticsinternet! [accessed September 2012].

Phoenix, J (2012) Out of Place: The criminalisation sexually exploited girls and young women. London: the Howard League for Penal Reform.

September 2012