Splintered Lives - Barnardo's

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Child prostitution �� having to limit/control their sense of shame and/or humiliation in order to do it; �� having to 'expose' themselves in order to work; �� knowing that it is their vulnerability, the fact that they are a child, which is 'attractive' to punters; �� cutting off from their own emotional responses, and the shame of sexual abuse being replaced and/or overlaid by the stigma of sex work. Some commentators have suggested that it is harder for children and young people who have been sexually exploited, especially those involved in prostitution, to see themselves as victims, since they 'seek' custom. However, we know from children and adults who have experienced other forms of sexual abuse that abusers often go to great lengths, and are very successful, in making children take on responsibility for the abuser's behaviour. On the other side one defence against feeling totally powerless is to create a version of reality in which one believes there are other options. The logic of this position is that one has chosen, and is therefore, responsible for sexual exploitation. Whilst this is form of 'dissassociative defence' (Herman, 1994), for some children/young people there is a form of 'choice' involved; in the face of minimal or no other options they choose sexual exploitation for which they get paid rather than personalised sexual abuse done in the name of love. Both the conditions of sexual exploitation and the ways children and young people find to survive it can result in them being unwilling, and at times unable, to talk about their experiences. They are frequently seen and/or treated as 'unco-operative' witnesses in investigations, where professionals have limited understanding of the issues involved. The research evidence to date Wolpert Burgess et al (1984) have explored in some detail the impacts on children involved in sex rings, and theirs is the most substantive work to date which we can draw on. In this series all the rings used pornography, and it was produced in over two thirds of them. Some aspects of the rings have strong parallels with prostitution, and several were involved in commercial child prostitution. Part of the entrapment process involved the recognition and temporarily fulfilment of children's emotional and physical needs. The fact that this is the case often results in strong ambivalence amongst children/young people. Interviews were conducted with the children and their parents/carers two years after disclosure. All of the children had very strong traumatic responses including: intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, vivid memories and dreams; almost all became increasingly isolated and withdrawn from others. Other 'symptoms' reported two years later for many included: hyperalertness; aggressive behaviour; and 'hypermasculine risk taking' PAGE 55 chapter 8
PAGE 56 chapter 8 (p660). Childhood stress responses like bed wetting, disturbed sleep, and mood changes were also common. They develop a typology of adaptional responses (how the children and young people are making sense of and coping with abuse), based on the different current situations of the children. Integration is where the child neither avoids nor is unduly preoccupied by talking about their experiences. They are able to attribute responsibility to the adults involved, and can look towards and think about the future. Slightly more than a quarter of the children were in this group. Avoidance is where the child still denies aspects of what happened and is still afraid of the offender/so They live in the present, and many of their relationships with others are strained. A further quarter of the children were in this group. Repetition involves ongoing chronic distress, which is either a cumulative reaction to prior abuse or the outcome of subsequent abuse (three boys and three girls in this group were currently involved prostitution). These children are anxious, blame themselves, and cannot control intrusive memories or thoughts. They are oriented towards the past and feel hopeless about the future. Again, further quarter were in this group. Identification with the exploiter, here children attempt to impersonate the aggressor, transforming themselves from the one threatened to the threatener. They exploit others, minimise the abuse in the past and present, and resent interference from others. They often maintain emotional, social and economic ties with the offender and will be sorry and/or angry about their exposure or conviction. They are orientated only to the present. Slightly less than a quarter were in this group. Five had abused other children, and six were known to have committed other indictable crimes; three were working as pimps, and two had joined fascist-type organisations. The length of involvement in the ring significantly connected to outcomes: "Children involved... for less than a year had about a 50% chance of integrating the experience or avoiding the event two years later, while children in the rings more than a year had a three to one chance of remaining symptomatic or identifying with the exploiter" (p661). Being involved in the production of pornography increased the likelihood of identifying with the exploiter, especially when it was coupled with more than a year's involvement. Michael Hames said that in his experience the main additional consequence for a child of involvement in pornography is fear and anxiety that it is in the world and that others will be watching it. Some live in terror that they will be recognised, and most are preoccupied by where the material has gone. Hunt and Baird (1990) confirm this, whilst noting the limited work to date on the impacts of child pornography on the children used in it:
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Splintered Lives: Sexual exploitati
Page 4 and 5:
Foreword Chapter One: Chapter Two:
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our eyes to the way pornography is
Page 8 and 9: abuse at the hands of the males emp
Page 10 and 11: odies adopt a form and content whic
Page 12 and 13: �� [To] further develop knowled
Page 14 and 15: pictures of (usually) white childre
Page 16 and 17: oth for consumers and producers. Th
Page 18 and 19: former will limit the definition be
Page 20 and 21: have devised a wide definition of c
Page 22 and 23: abuse, including that in the family
Page 24 and 25: Figure 1 chapter 5 PAGE 21
Page 26 and 27: enjoying it - and that a significan
Page 28 and 29: their membership was estimated as 5
Page 30 and 31: forms of sexual abuse, stressing ch
Page 32 and 33: Britain Recent case examples 1986:
Page 34 and 35: I increases and decreases within au
Page 36 and 37: and 334 children (296 girls and 38
Page 38 and 39: my bedroom of pornographic literatu
Page 40 and 41: imagery. Whilst the Unit had not se
Page 42 and 43: had abused (O'Grady, 1992). 1992/3/
Page 44 and 45: American research Trudee Able-Peter
Page 46 and 47: I ...stunning amounts of sexual abu
Page 48 and 49: y an in-flight card which was provi
Page 50 and 51: Two days later she died - aged 11/1
Page 52 and 53: PAGE 49 chapter 7
Page 54 and 55: oy ”doing everything", whilst at
Page 56 and 57: their experience, for example, badn
Page 60 and 61: ...they are able to understand that
Page 62 and 63: There are a variety of ways in whic
Page 64 and 65: Maggie O'Neill's (1995) action rese
Page 68 and 69: 1 (1) (a) "It is an offence to take
Page 70 and 71: Japan: is similar to many other sta
Page 72 and 73: were drawn from a local community,
Page 76 and 77: Detached Intervention Team) a Barna
Page 78 and 79: working group comprising those who
Page 80 and 81: The COE also supports moves to make
Page 84 and 85: �� Recognition that so long as
Page 88 and 89: Cantwell, Nigel (1995) 'Internation
Page 90 and 91: Finkelhor, David, Meyer Williams, L
Page 92 and 93: Kelly, Liz and Scott, Sara (1993) '
Page 94 and 95: Osanka, Franklin and Johann, Sara (
Page 96: PAGE 93
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Splintered Lives - Barnardo's

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