The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has today published a report on child sexual exploitation of children by organised networks.
The report makes a number of key findings, including:
There have been “extensive failures” by local authorities and police forces to keep pace with the pernicious and changing problem of the sexual exploitation of children by networks. This not a rare problem confined to a small number of areas with high-profile criminal cases. It is a crime which involves the sexual abuse of children in the most degrading and destructive ways, by multiple perpetrators.
There is “denial and downplaying” of the scale and gravity of child sexual exploitation by organised networks. This is for a number of reasons, including the “fundamental flaws” with the collection of data on child sexual exploitation by the police, local authorities and others. The Inquiry criticised the data it had received as “confused and confusing”.
There is “a flawed assumption that this form of child sexual abuse is on the wane,” the Inquiry found, with some areas not wishing “to be labelled as ‘another Rochdale or Rotherham’”.
In a damning finding, the Inquiry stated, “Child sexual exploitation has been a designated strategic policing priority since 2015, giving it the same significance as terrorism and serious organised crime. Despite this, the Inquiry’s findings indicate that less is now known and understood about the prevalence of this appalling crime than was the case prior to 2015.”
CWJ was a core participant in this investigation strand. A public hearing took place over two weeks in September and October 2020. CWJ, a legal charity whose focus is on holding the state accountable around violence to women and girls, participated in the Inquiry in order to seek to ensure complainants’ voices were heard and institutional witness evidence was properly tested.
CWJ made detailed submissions to this investigation, and ensured that the voices of victims and survivors were heard, including those from black and minoritised communities, whose experiences have been made invisible by a media narrative that portrays ‘grooming gangs’ as largely Asian men abusing white girls.
The report acknowledged some key issues which were highlighted by CWJ, including:
Some children, despite being victims of sexual exploitation, have themselves been charged with or convicted of criminal offences which were closely linked with their sexual exploitation;
Professionals sometimes failed to identify and respond in a culturally sensitive manner to child sexual exploitation in ethnic minority communities;
The failure of police to implement existing tools which are designed to stop offending.
While the report is positive in some respects, the Inquiry has not properly engaged with the failure of the criminal justice system – in particular the Crown Prosecution Service – to tackle child sexual exploitation by prosecuting these crimes.
Harriet Wistrich, CWJ Director, said: “Whilst CSE by organised groups has been identified as a horrifying crime – most recently in the coverage of the Ghislaine Maxwell trial in the US – in the UK, it is very rarely identified, let alone investigated or prosecuted. So as long as there is a state failure to tackle this problem, we know it will persist.
“Far too often, as is implicit in the report, we see children and young women who have been sexually exploited, being criminalised as easy targets instead of tackling the much more insidious organised abusers targeting the vulnerable.
“From CWJ’s point of view, the report is helpful in identifying the need to name and understand the problem properly which includes the proper collection of data. We are also pleased that the Inquiry has recognised the need for culturally sensitive support services, having heard evidence – at CWJ’s request - from frontline BME women’s organisations, the Angelou Centre and Apna Haq.
“However, today’s report overall represents a huge missed opportunity. There is a lack of hard-hitting recommendations which will result in real change. This crime will continue as long as perpetrators think they can get away with it which – in the current system – they do, due to the appallingly low number of effective criminal investigations or prosecutions.
“The only concrete recommendation made by the Inquiry around the criminal justice system is to increase sentencing for child sexual exploitation. There is little point if there are hardly any prosecutions.”
You can read CWJ’s detailed closing submissions to the Inquiry here.