Child sexual exploitation can affect any child. Sometimes there are indicators, sometimes there are none, and professionals can dismiss these as simply the behaviour associated with children and young people growing up.
Children and young people are more vulnerable to abuse when they:
- have a prior experience of neglect, physical and/or sexual abuse;
- lack a safe/stable home environment, now or in the past (due to domestic abuse or parental substance misuse, parental mental health issues or criminality, for example);
- experience a bereavement or loss;
- are socially isolated or have social difficulties;
- don’t have a safe environment to explore their sexuality;
- are economically vulnerable;
- are homeless or in insecure accommodation;
- have connections with other children and young people who are being sexually exploited;
- have family members or other connections involved in adult sex work;
- have a physical or learning disability;
- are in care (particularly those in residential care and those with interrupted care histories).
Child sexual exploitation is never the victim’s fault. Avoid suggesting young people might be making ‘lifestyle choices’ to be abused, or minimising concern because they have ‘agreed to’ or received something for the abuse. These are indicators of heightened vulnerability.
A child or young person might believe that their abusers were their ‘friends’ or ‘boy/girlfriends’. For some young people the relationship fulfils an emotional need to be loved, or a physical need such as shelter.
Just because there’s not a significant age gap or an immediately apparent imbalance of power, doesn’t mean a child or young person is not being exploited. It’s important to consider ‘capacity to consent’. ‘Capacity’ should not only include age but also developmental stages and the child or young person’s ability to understand consent. Always consider the impact of the grooming and coercion because many children do not believe they are being exploited but instead are part of a caring relationship.
Sometimes action has not been taken because there is ‘insufficient evidence to prove abuse’. The burden of proof to begin a child protection enquiry is far lower than to secure a conviction. If you have reasonable cause to suspect abuse, the local authority must investigate.
