The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham's youth offending team says it is seeing more of these cases. "Sexual offences are on the increase," says Steve Andrews, practice manager of the team. Cases that Hammersmith has dealt with in the past year include three or four boys forcing a younger girl to give oral sex, one case of indecent exposure, two indecent assaults on under-16s and one on an adult.
Andrews puts the increase down to increased detection by the police and to changes in society. "The sexualising of society inevitably has some effect in changing people's attitudes," says Andrews.
Cases can range from experimentation that unintentionally goes too far, through to serious sexual assault, although the cases that are picked up by the media tend to be more serious. "One of the unhelpful responses from the media has been to scandalise the issues of young people sexually abusing," says Simon Hackett, author of What works for children and young people with harmful sexual behaviour?
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