The issue of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is firmly in the public spotlight internationally and in the UK, but just how well is it understood?
To date, many CSE-related services have been developed in reaction to high profile cases rather than being designed more strategically. This much-needed book breaks new ground by considering how psychosocial, feminist and geo-environmental theories, amongst others, can improve practice understanding and interventions.
Edited by one of the leading scholars in the field, this is an essential text for students and those planning strategic interventions and practice activities in social, youth and therapeutic work with young people, as it supports understanding of how CSE arises and how to challenge the nature of the abuse.
Introduction When we love children we acknowledge by our every action that they are not property, that they have rights –that we respect and uphold their rights. Without justice there can be no love. ( hooks, 2001 : 30) This systematic literature review will explore the significance of ‘love’ in relation to the link between looked-after children (LAC) and child sexual exploitation (CSE) within a social work context. Historically, CSE has been understood through a criminal lens that positions young people with experience of CSE as ‘child prostitutes’ and
1 1 Bringing theory home: thinking about child sexual exploitation Jenny Pearce Introduction I want this book to be an opportunity to ask why theory matters to our work with children affected by sexual exploitation. Following revelations of some of the painful realities facing children affected by child sexual exploitation (CSE), there has been a welcome recognition that CSE is one of three main national threats to the country (Gov.uk 2015) and is a form of child sexual abuse (CSA) (see DfE 2017). Alongside this, we have seen a plethora of work exploring
Introduction International awareness of online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) has increased in recent years. 1 In particular, the Philippines is documented as a principal source for the production of online child sexual abuse materials ( Hernandez et al, 2018 : 306). Environmental and structural factors such as ‘poverty, family breakdown and dysfunction, poor parenting and supervision of children’ ( Gill, 2021 : np), are identified as circumstances that have been linked to the prevalence of child sexual exploitation (CSE). Another important way to
Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is now high on the social care agenda, but what is it? How is it different from other forms of child sexual abuse? This important book puts forward the rarely heard voices of children and young people who have experienced CSE and the professionals who have worked with them to answer these questions.
Taking a critical perspective, Hallett also addresses the possibility that further problems might arise from the framing of ‘child sexual exploitation’, which can have serious implications for the ways that society responds to CSE and to the children and young people caught up in it.
Central to the discussion are themes such as youth, childhood, care and power, making for an important sociological contribution to this under-researched field.
The book challenges the dominant way of thinking about CSE and, with new and valuable practice and policy relevant insights, is also essential reading for those working or training to work with children and young people.
43 3 Child sexual exploitation, discourse analysis and why we still need to talk about prostitution Jo Phoenix Introduction A critique is not a matter of saying that things are not right as they are. It is a matter of pointing out on what kinds of assumptions, what kinds of familiar, unchallenged, unconsidered modes of thought the practices that we accept rest. (Foucault 1988:155) It is nearly 20 years since the UK started ‘doing something’ about child sexual exploitation (CSE). From our vantage point of the early twenty-first century, it seems self
11 ONE From ‘child prostitution’ to ‘child sexual exploitation’: an overview Children and young people abused through exchanging sex for something is not new. Neither is it new to societal, political or practice awareness. What is new is the current understanding and representation of the phenomena. While the introduction of ‘child sexual exploitation’ has been relatively recent,1 it is important to note that the issue is directly rooted in ‘child’ or ‘adolescent’ ‘prostitution’, and has been the re-emerging subject of policy, practice and public concern
151 8 Understanding trauma and its relevance to child sexual exploitation Kristine Hickle Introduction Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is a form of child sexual abuse which may expose children and young people to a range of traumatic physical, sexual and relational experiences. For some of these children and young people, early life exposure to abuse and neglect and/or time in public care (Scott and Skidmore 2006) represent additional traumatic experiences that have helped shape how they view themselves and interact with others (Herman 1992). Research on
193 10 Using an intersectional lens to examine the child sexual exploitation of black adolescents Claudia Bernard Introduction In this chapter I employ intersectionality as a critical lens to interrogate the ways that race, gender, class and sexuality impact black adolescents’ experiences of child sexual exploitation (CSE). In particular, the exploration will be anchored in an intersectional analysis to extend understandings of the nuanced ways in which race-constructed otherness is experienced by young black people affected by sexual exploitation. ‘Black
87 5 ‘Losing track of morality’: understanding online forces and dynamics conducive to child sexual exploitation Elly Hanson Introduction It is commonly understood that the internet and digital technologies confer both positive opportunities and risks to children and young people. This chapter is concerned with the latter, specifically exploring how the evolution, design and control of the internet and digital technology have been conducive to child sexual exploitation (CSE) – both CSE involving online elements and that which does not directly.1
