Splintered Lives - Barnardo's

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chapter
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(Wolpert Burgess et al, 1984) is presented. Creating a ring requires access to children,
and this can occur through either the adult or one or more children. Initiation into the
ring is usually careful and indirect, moving into pressure and coercion when required.
Pornography frequently plays a part in the early stages of entrapment. Further
strategies used to entrap children and maintain secrecy include; stressing the
consequences for themselves and others if they tell; rewards including alcohol, money,
drugs and cigarettes; valuable gifts; peer pressure, especially that others do not want to
loose their 'rewards', and/or fear exposure too. Parents had range of responses to
discovery of the abuse, as did the children. In three rings the offenders plea bargained
offenses when the case came to court; a further two knew the police were involved and
left town, and in one the two men skipped bail.
In reporting on a later series of cases all 12 rings were found to have used adult
pornography as instruction for the children and eight rings also produced it. Half of this
eight sold material commercially, and children received some payment. For example:
Pornographic materials found in the home of one 31 year old ring leader included
videotapes of three teenage boys doing pornographic commercials, 22 photographs of
a 10 year old boy undressing, and hundreds of photos of young boys kissing and
fondling one another while dressed as women. (1984, p657)
In this series more boys were abused than girls (49 compared to 17).
The ongoing research resulted in a typology of sex rings, which has been used in
subsequent work. The authors distinguish between solo rings (a single abuser and more
than one child), transition rings (more than one abuser and more than one child) and,
and syndicated rings (multiple abusers and many children with high levels of
organisation and some commercial profit). In both transitional and syndicated rings
connections between pornography and prostitution were evident.
The authors also raise the following important point:
We also suspect that incest and sex initiation rings increase the risk for the next level of
ring operation, youth prostitution. Incest victims and children of sex ring
victimization have learnt that sex involves an exchange process: thus, if money is
needed, sex can be provided. (1981, p118)
Further studies have also explored these connections. James and Myerling (1977)
highlight the association for some young women between sexual abuse and adolescent
prostitution; 65% of their sample of adolescents working as prostitutes had been sexually
abused, and 85% of these incidents occurred before they were 16. They note:
"early, traumatic sexual objectification may be one factor influencing some women
toward entrance into prostitution" (p40). Mimi Silbert and Ayala Pines' research (1984)
with 200 current and former sex workers in San Francisco, confirms this connection and
extends it to include pornography. Just under two thirds of the women working
currently in prostitution were 16 or under. The study used both questionnaires and more
informal conversations. They comment that the study found: