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Author: Aisha K. Gill, Professor of Criminology, Centre for Gender and Violence Research, University of Bristol
Original article: https://theconversation.com/i-research-child-sexual-abuse-we-need-action-to-help-victims-not-another-inquiry-247003
A decade-old scandal involving the grooming, trafficking and abuse of girls and children in England has gained renewed attention following criticism from tech billionaire Elon Musk.
In a series of recent posts on X, Musk accused the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, of failing to address these crimes during his tenure as the country’s top prosecutor, labelling him “complicit in the rape of Britain”. Musk also accused the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, of being a “rape genocide apologist” and has called for her imprisonment. Musk’s statements have prompted widespread debate over whether a new government inquiry into the cases is necessary.
However, Musk’s allegations risk distracting from the real issue at stake. This is how to address the systemic failures that leave child sexual abuse and exploitation victims unprotected and unsupported.
In 2014, a report by Professor Alexis Jay estimated that 1,400 girls had been sexually exploited in Rotherham, Rochdale and Oldham by gangs of “known perpetrators” of Pakistani heritage. Jay’s report found that authorities had hesitated to address the ethnic dimension of the crimes because they feared accusations of racism, and local officials had deemed some instances of the abuse to be consensual sexual activity.
In 2022, Jay, as chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA), released a subsequent report. The report engaged with 7,300 victims and survivors and processed two million pages of evidence. It concluded by offering 20 recommended actions.
These included a single core dataset on child abuse and protection, the mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse by people in certain jobs, and a national financial compensation scheme for abuse victims. None of these recommendations have yet been implemented.
Jay has called for the recommendations to be implemented rather than for another inquiry to be carried out.
The portrayal of victims
My research has explored child sexual exploitation, the grooming scandal and child sexual abuse cases over the past decade.
The authorities and the media took differing approaches taken to the cases. While authorities were worried about the implications of accusing south Asian men as predators, they were more likely to view the victims through a judgemental, moral lens. The media, on the other hand, viewed the girls as victims – but also emphasised the ethnicity of the perpetrators.
Many of the professionals who worked with the young victims viewed them as having made a “lifestyle choice” by freely engaging in sexual activity involving Pakistani men. Some labelled the girls as “prostitutes”.
The Mail Online quoted Caitlin Spencer (a pseudonym), who said she faced intense interrogation from the police when she told them about being abused by a grooming gang and was refused their protection. “For that reason, I never took it further. The police told my mother that I was a known prostitute and to leave me to it, that I’d stop when I was ready,” she said.
Prostock-studio/Shutterstock
The public discourse has tended to focus on political correctness as the main deterrent to conducting a full investigation of these offences: an unwillingness to accuse men who belonged to a minority community. But these experiences show how perceptions of the victims also lead to failures in justice.
Women and girls are often viewed in society through a moral lens that emphasises respectable sexual behaviour and gender presentation. In this case, a woman or girl’s failure to maintain specific sexual standards results in her being labelled a “prostitute”.
The media portrayal of victims, on the other hand, was overwhelmingly sympathetic. But this was often accompanied by a portrayal of south Asian men as dangerous sex offenders.
The dangers of this are numerous. The over-identification of south Asian men as sexual predators directly linked to a surge in far-right, Islamophobic and anti-immigrant discourse.
These negative media characterisations and the prevailing cultural Islamophobia that underpinned them present a significant problem in terms of how south Asian men and communities are perceived by the wider population.
Furthermore, giving disproportionate attention to a minority of offenders distracts from child sexual abuse as a whole. What data we have suggests that the majority of child sexual abuse cases involving grooming gangs in England are carried out by white men. But opportunities to identify and address these cases may be lost in the polemic discourse over south Asian men.
Many of these cases are already likely to remain hidden because of the tendency for these crimes to go unreported. Victims are often unlikely to disclose because they fear retribution from the offender, as well as the stigma of sexual abuse and embarrassment. They have legitimate concerns that they will not be believed and that the legal system will not bring them justice.
Time for action
Ceding to the pressure for a new inquiry will only delay already overdue action. The government should prioritise responding to the evidence in the IICSA report and urgently implementing its recommendations.
This is critical to improving support for child and adult survivors of child sexual abuse and to addressing the systemic failures exposed by Professor Jay’s 2014 and 2022 reports. For too long, piecemeal and uncoordinated responses have allowed agencies to individually and collectively deny accountability, both for their actions and failures to act.
Disjointed and dysfunctional practices will continue, even if there are positive legislative changes, until effective and consistent training of the police, social workers, health workers and youth and community workers is provided. This should educate these groups about the issues facing children at risk of exploitation.
Furthermore, moral outrage over the issue of child sexual abuse and exploitation should not include racial stereotyping. This is helpful to no one, least of all the victims of such crimes. We have a collective responsibility to improve our understanding of the cultural contexts and institutional barriers that stop victims speaking up. Only then can we enable prevention and support.