Splintered Lives - Barnardo's

PAGE 50
chapter
8
The impacts of sexual
exploitation on children
In this section we also draw on published research and personal testimonies, but since
it is limited we have not created sub-headings for British and international sources.
There is some careful research on the impacts of involvement in sex rings, and some on
prostitution, but minimal evidence has been collected on involvement in pornography.
Given the connections between sexual abuse and exploitation we have already referred
to, it may be impossible to isolate impacts in this way, especially since being used in
pornography is likely to be one aspect within ongoing abuse. We suggest, therefore,
that we view the impacts of sexual exploitation as additional elements to the evidence
we already have on the impacts of all sexual abuse. Our task, therefore, is to identify
what the additional issues children have with cope are, and what the consequences
may be.
The first point which needs to be made here is that there is no single pattern of impacts
either in the short or long term to sexual abuse. Where abuse is ongoing, its direct
effects are the outcome of both the forms of sexual violence used and the ways in
which the abuser justifies it. Over time this also combines in many varied and complex
ways with the coping strategies children and young people develop to survive (Briere,
1992; Herman, 1994; Kelly, 1988).
In any discussion of the impacts of sexual abuse one has to retain both a generalised
and individual perspective. Clearly the impacts are not fatal in the average, but can be
in the particular. Impacts include physical, emotional and social costs to each child at
the time and over time and emotional and social costs for that child's friends, relatives
and supporters.
In terms of physical costs, we know that the younger and smaller children are, the more
likely sexual abuse will result in physical damage. Children who are repeatedly raped
by a variety of men are also more likely to contract a range of sexually transmitted
diseases. A mythology exists amongst men interested in abusing children that sex with
children is 'safer' than with adults. In fact, HIV transmission may be more likely with
children since any form of intercourse is likely to result in tissue damage.
The extract below from a conversation between Robin Lloyd and a man who regularly
sought out children to abuse reveals some of the immediate impacts of abuse and what
has become known as the 'distorted thinking' of abusers.
... He was recommended by another young friend of mine - Steve. And Steve was
right about one thing. That kid did everything in bed ........ and I mean everything. But
while we were lying there and I was doing the work, I heard this strange whimpering
sound like a lost puppy. I looked up and his eyes were closed tight. He was sucking
his thumb like a baby and making this whimpering sound. It completely turned me
off and left me with this guilty feeling. I didn't come down to the street for three days.
(1976, p235)
Whilst only a short account, it is revealing in a number of ways: the man refers to the