Splintered Lives - Barnardo's

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chapter
11 Child protection responses
There are two central problems which currently hinder the development of a child
protection and child welfare framework on sexual exploitation.
Firstly, the majority of child protection training, guidelines and published work focuses
on abuse in a familial context. This is in turn reflected within explanatory frameworks,
accepted modes of intervention and support services. The individual case work
approach is ill-suited where many children are involved, where abusers are organized
and may be linked into criminal networks. Whilst some police officers have skills and
knowledge which enable a different form of response, few social work departments and
child welfare organisations do.
Secondly, and in some ways as a consequence or by product of the first issue, much of
the police work, especially in relation to prostitution, is located within 'vice' sections or
crime desks, and referrals are seldom made to child protection sections of the police, let
alone other agencies. A Children's Society paper (1994a) pointed to ways in which girls
were being "punished and labelled prostitutes rather than protected as victims of sexual
abuse" (p1). These under 16's were not being dealt with by police under the Children
Act, but soliciting legislation. Home Office figures analysed by the Children's Society
revealed an increase of 35% in girls under 16 cautioned during the years whilst the
Children Act was being implemented. These young women are being cautioned for
soliciting when, in law, they are not deemed old enough to consent to sex. They were,
and continue to be, treated differently to under 16 year old girls where sex occurs in the
'private' context of home or care/educational institution.
Organised abuse cases involve communities, networks of relationships, and
considerable efforts are made to protect rings and networks, so that even if it is exposed
only elements of it are broken. We have already highlighted the additional costs of
disclosure to a child/young person. Peter Bibby (1991) uses a spider's web analogy,
pointing out that if only one strand is broken others will continue to entrap those within
it, and the whole web can relatively easily be rebuilt. Children and young people are
only really protected and provided with other options if almost all the strands in the web
are broken. The experience of Social Services Departments (SSDs) who have been
involved in large scale sex ring cases reveal the need for different forms of investigation
and evidence gathering and different forms of support for children and young people. In
some of the more complex and extensive networks what may be needed are similar
levels of organisation to that of the abuse networks themselves. In some instances we
are talking about individuals who have abused many children, and children and young
people who have been repeatedly abused in variety of ways and contexts. Goldstein
(1984) provides some chilling figures from offenders: a 52 year old man said he had
molested 5000 boys; a 42 year old more than 1000; and a 62 year old executive a boy a
day for 30 years.
Don Redding (1989) reflects on what was learnt in 'Operation Hedgerow', an
investigation of a ring in Brent which resulted in 14 men being convicted of offenses
against boys. 150 boys were interviewed and 653 separate allegations made. The boys