- Ella Cockbain, Matthew Ashby and Helen Brayley
- Sexual Abuse (2017)
Most CSE services are targeted towards young women rather than young men and there is limited knowledge about gender and its importance in understanding and responding to CSE. This study highlights differences in how girls and boys come to be referred to Barnardo's CSE services.
Policy and practice context
In recent years, CSE has increasingly been recognised as a serious child protection and crime prevention concern and its profile has increased in the media. Police and local authorities have been heavily criticised for failing to identify and respond adequately to CSE and demands have been growing nationally, and internationally, for improved responses to CSE (for examples see Appleton, 2014 and the home affairs select committee, 2013).
There is no internationally agreed definition of CSE and it is argued that accepted national definitions may inadequately delineate exploitation from abuse more broadly. In the UK, CSE is not a distinct offence defined in criminal law and prosecutions are made under a range of offences. Professionals work to the definition found in government safeguarding guidance. In 2017, the Department for Education published new guidance for practitioners, local leaders and decision makers working to protect children from CSE, which included a definition of CSE. Research in Practice has published an evidence scope by Eaton and Holmes on working effectively to address CSE.
This study involved a large-scale exploration of differences and commonalities between boys and girls accessing Barnardo's CSE support services in the UK. This included children who had been sexually exploited, children implicated in sexually abusing other children and those at risk of either.
This study is among the first in-depth comparative analyses of gender and CSE. Around 9,000 cases (one third of which were boys) across 28 different services in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were examined between 1 April 2004 and 1 November 2013. The dataset was limited by missing data, notably higher for boys than girls.
Study key findings
For both girls and boys, referrals came from a variety of agencies but social services were the most frequent referrer. Very few referrals for either gender came from education or health agencies, potentially indicating a lack of awareness of CSE among those working in health or education, or potential issues with referral processes. Corresponding with other studies, findings suggest a substantial over-representation of looked-after children as CSE service users in comparison to the general youth population.
While the relationship between CSE and service user's gender is not straightforward, there are some key findings in relation to variation between gender these include:
Sources of referral: Boys were significantly more likely than girls to be referred by certain agencies, in particular criminal justice agencies, and less likely to be referred by others, in particular social services (see graphic).
Reasons for referral: Boys were more likely than girls to be referred because of concerns related to going missing. Girls were four-times more likely than boys to be referred following direct disclosure of CSE, although direct disclosure was rare across the sample as a whole. This is consistent with findings from other studies that practitioners are more likely to identify signs of CSE in girls than in boys.
Other factors: In comparison to girls, boys were more likely to be several months younger on average, have recorded disabilities, criminal records, and less likely to have peers also thought to be affected by CSE.
Implications for practice
- All agencies working with children have responsibility for the identification of CSE given the lack of self-disclosure by young people.
- A lack of referrals from education and health to Barnardo's CSE services suggests that there is a need to raise the awareness of the availability of these services as well as deal with any issues inhibiting these agencies making referrals.
- The over-representation of looked-after children in Barnardo's CSE cases suggests that those caring for looked-after children have an important role to play in identifying signs of CSE. However, there is no study that has looked in detail on a large scale at how being looked after and experiences of CSE interact.
- Differences between male and female service users suggest that female-centric approaches to policy making, victim identification and service provision may not be serving boys adequately and that gender should be factored more effectively into the design and delivery of research, policy and practice.
The research section for this special report is based on a selection of academic studies which have been explored and summarised by Research in Practice, part of the Dartington Hall Trust.
