A landmark report into child sexual abuse has said that authorities must routinely record the ethnicities of suspects to tackle grooming gangs.
Police failure to record such data about child abusers and their victims means it is impossible to identify if people from certain backgrounds are overrepresented in grooming gangs, the official report has found.
Systematic targeting and sexual abuse of teenage girls by groups of men who were largely of south Asian origin have been uncovered over the past decade in towns and cities across the country.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse report into organised networks today criticises the failure of police and local authorities to record ethnicity.
It found: “It is unclear whether a misplaced sense of political correctness or the sheer complexity of the problem have inhibited good quality data collection generally and on ethnicity more specifically.”
The inquiry recommends that all police forces and councils in England and Wales collect data of sex, ethnicity and disability on all cases of known or suspected child abuse.
The Times exposed a network of predominantly British-Pakistani men abusing white girls in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in 2012. The investigation led to multiple prosecutions and similar cases in towns and cities including Rochdale, Rotherham, Oxford, Telford, Burnley, High Wycombe, Leicester, Dewsbury, Peterborough, Halifax and Newcastle upon Tyne.
The inquiry report concluded: “Some of the high-profile child sexual exploitation prosecutions have involved groups of south Asian males.
“There has been heated and often polarised debate about whether there is any link between ethnicity and group-based child exploitation.
“Poor data collection on the ethnicity of perpetrators and victims makes it difficult to identify if there is any such link. It also hampers the ability of police and other services to provide culturally sensitive responses, interventions and support.”
The inquiry said the Home Office has published data on the ethnicity of perpetrators and victims for 20 years but does not break down the figures to include offences against children who have been sexually exploited.
Children in care are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation by networks, with increased risk to those sent away from their home area and 16 and 17-year-olds in unregulated accommodation, the inquiry found.
It said such accommodation should be banned “without delay” for those older teenagers who are already victims or at risk of sexual exploitation.
Boys and young men are particularly at risk from social media and dating apps, often while they are exploring their sexual orientation, the inquiry found. Several victims said they had been exploited after contact with them was initiated via Grindr, a leading gay dating app.
Six of the eight male victims who were case studies for the inquiry said online abuse had progressed to contact. One victim said he was sexually abused aged 15 by a man in his late twenties he met on Grindr. Another said he was raped aged 17 by a Grindr contact.
The inquiry has recommended the law should be amended to make the sexual exploitation of a child by two or more people an aggravating factor when they are sentenced. It also said that officials must stop referring to children being “at risk” when there are clear signs they are already being sexually exploited.
Professor Alexis Jay, head of the inquiry, said: “The sexual abuse of children by networks is not a rare phenomenon confined to a small number of areas with high-profile cases.
“We found extensive failures by local authorities and police forces in the ways in which they tacked this sexual abuse.
“There appeared to be the flawed assumption that child sexual exploitation was on the wane, however it has become even more of a hidden problem and increasingly underestimated when only linked to other forms of criminal behaviour such as county lines [exploitation by drug gangs].”
Victims and experts blamed the inquiry’s decision not to examine mass offending in Rotherham and Rochdale on a “cowardly” reluctance to look at a pattern of group crimes in which men of Pakistani heritage have been overrepresented.
The inquiry focused on areas that have not witnessed a major prosecution of a south Asian sex-grooming gang: Durham, Swansea, Warwickshire, St Helens, Tower Hamlets and Bristol.
It’s interesting that mods feel this topic needs to be restricted.
Police recording facts in criminal investigations.
Seems mildly odd.
Anyway, carry on.
It’s strange to me that 2 reports commissioned to look into the police have came back and said the police are Racist and the other says that the police aren’t recording ethnicity in child sexual abuse perpetrators out of a fear of looking racist
A lot of cases have been swiped under the rug because of fears of coming off as racist when the perpetrators are of a certain ethnic and cultural background. It is utterly disgraceful that a child’s well being goes completely ignored and the criminals get away with such actions.
If you look at the wider issue, including abuse by priests, abuse in children’s homes and orphanages, abuse of recruits in the armed services, Savile and the rest of them, abuse by foreign aid workers, and many more I have missed – there is clearly not one specific group who are responsible.
It seems much more to be a set of circumstances that allow some to commit the abuse, and force others to remain silent about it.
The circumstances are often some combination of a group (usually mainly men) who have some bond of loyalty, with access to vulnerable victims who are cut off from family and other support, who are perhaps protected by an employer who prefers to turn a blind eye to avoid scandal, and for one reason or another are ignored by the police.
We should not be afraid to shine a light on any and all of these groups.
5 comments
A landmark report into child sexual abuse has said that authorities must routinely record the ethnicities of suspects to tackle grooming gangs.
Police failure to record such data about child abusers and their victims means it is impossible to identify if people from certain backgrounds are overrepresented in grooming gangs, the official report has found.
Systematic targeting and sexual abuse of teenage girls by groups of men who were largely of south Asian origin have been uncovered over the past decade in towns and cities across the country.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse report into organised networks today criticises the failure of police and local authorities to record ethnicity.
It found: “It is unclear whether a misplaced sense of political correctness or the sheer complexity of the problem have inhibited good quality data collection generally and on ethnicity more specifically.”
The inquiry recommends that all police forces and councils in England and Wales collect data of sex, ethnicity and disability on all cases of known or suspected child abuse.
The Times exposed a network of predominantly British-Pakistani men abusing white girls in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in 2012. The investigation led to multiple prosecutions and similar cases in towns and cities including Rochdale, Rotherham, Oxford, Telford, Burnley, High Wycombe, Leicester, Dewsbury, Peterborough, Halifax and Newcastle upon Tyne.
The inquiry report concluded: “Some of the high-profile child sexual exploitation prosecutions have involved groups of south Asian males.
“There has been heated and often polarised debate about whether there is any link between ethnicity and group-based child exploitation.
“Poor data collection on the ethnicity of perpetrators and victims makes it difficult to identify if there is any such link. It also hampers the ability of police and other services to provide culturally sensitive responses, interventions and support.”
The inquiry said the Home Office has published data on the ethnicity of perpetrators and victims for 20 years but does not break down the figures to include offences against children who have been sexually exploited.
Children in care are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation by networks, with increased risk to those sent away from their home area and 16 and 17-year-olds in unregulated accommodation, the inquiry found.
It said such accommodation should be banned “without delay” for those older teenagers who are already victims or at risk of sexual exploitation.
Boys and young men are particularly at risk from social media and dating apps, often while they are exploring their sexual orientation, the inquiry found. Several victims said they had been exploited after contact with them was initiated via Grindr, a leading gay dating app.
Six of the eight male victims who were case studies for the inquiry said online abuse had progressed to contact. One victim said he was sexually abused aged 15 by a man in his late twenties he met on Grindr. Another said he was raped aged 17 by a Grindr contact.
The inquiry has recommended the law should be amended to make the sexual exploitation of a child by two or more people an aggravating factor when they are sentenced. It also said that officials must stop referring to children being “at risk” when there are clear signs they are already being sexually exploited.
Professor Alexis Jay, head of the inquiry, said: “The sexual abuse of children by networks is not a rare phenomenon confined to a small number of areas with high-profile cases.
“We found extensive failures by local authorities and police forces in the ways in which they tacked this sexual abuse.
“There appeared to be the flawed assumption that child sexual exploitation was on the wane, however it has become even more of a hidden problem and increasingly underestimated when only linked to other forms of criminal behaviour such as county lines [exploitation by drug gangs].”
Victims and experts blamed the inquiry’s decision not to examine mass offending in Rotherham and Rochdale on a “cowardly” reluctance to look at a pattern of group crimes in which men of Pakistani heritage have been overrepresented.
The inquiry focused on areas that have not witnessed a major prosecution of a south Asian sex-grooming gang: Durham, Swansea, Warwickshire, St Helens, Tower Hamlets and Bristol.
It’s interesting that mods feel this topic needs to be restricted.
Police recording facts in criminal investigations.
Seems mildly odd.
Anyway, carry on.
It’s strange to me that 2 reports commissioned to look into the police have came back and said the police are Racist and the other says that the police aren’t recording ethnicity in child sexual abuse perpetrators out of a fear of looking racist
A lot of cases have been swiped under the rug because of fears of coming off as racist when the perpetrators are of a certain ethnic and cultural background. It is utterly disgraceful that a child’s well being goes completely ignored and the criminals get away with such actions.
If you look at the wider issue, including abuse by priests, abuse in children’s homes and orphanages, abuse of recruits in the armed services, Savile and the rest of them, abuse by foreign aid workers, and many more I have missed – there is clearly not one specific group who are responsible.
It seems much more to be a set of circumstances that allow some to commit the abuse, and force others to remain silent about it.
The circumstances are often some combination of a group (usually mainly men) who have some bond of loyalty, with access to vulnerable victims who are cut off from family and other support, who are perhaps protected by an employer who prefers to turn a blind eye to avoid scandal, and for one reason or another are ignored by the police.
We should not be afraid to shine a light on any and all of these groups.