Presentation from seminar examining meeting the challenge of child sexual abuse

1. Meeting the Challenge of Child Sexual
Abuse: From critical interrogation to
collective activism
Wednesday 13th January 2016

2. Professor Philip Brown
Making Research Count
at The University of Salford

3. • National initiative across ten universities in England
• A knowledge broker
• Bringing together academics, practitioners, carers and users to
facilitate the dissemination of social care research and theory
• The University of Salford is the regional hub for MRC in Greater
Manchester
• Support the learning needs of a range of organisations in the sub-
region
Making Research Count (MRC)

4. Professor Tony Long, University of Salford
Welcome

5. Meeting the challenge of
child sexual abuse:
From critical interrogation
to collective activism

6. Destabilising child
sexual abuse has
to be everybody’s
business
Donna Peach
Lecturer in social work

7. Opportunities
Challenges
Acceptance

8. • It makes us uncomfortable to talk about the
sexual abuse of children.
• Babies, children, young people & vulnerable
adults are subject to rape, torture, humiliation
and murder.
• Victims and perpetrators exist in every gender,
race, class, culture and religion.
Acceptance

9. Acceptance : History
• The sexual abuse of children has always
happened.
• Social, cultural and legal definitions and
interpretations have always and
continue both to inhibit and enable the
sexual abuse of children.

10. Acceptance : Prevalence
• The scale of abuse is of epidemic
proportions.
• Worldwide its estimated that 1/3 girls
and 1/7 boys are victimised.
• All children are at risk.
• Perpetrators have different modes of
operating and can target specific groups
of children.

11. Defintions can be problematic
CSA or CSE?

12. The Government definition of CSE (2013): “Involves
forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in
sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of
violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is
happening. The activities may involve physical contact,
including assault by penetration (for example, rape or oral
sex) or non-penetrative acts such as masturbation,
kissing, rubbing and touching outside of clothing. They
may also include non-contact activities, such as involving
children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual
images, watching sexual activities, encouraging children
to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a
child in preparation for abuse (including via the internet).
Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males.
Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can
other children.”

13. The World Health Organisation definition of
CSA (1999) “Child sexual abuse is the involvement of a child in
sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is
unable to give informed consent to, or for which the child is
not developmentally prepared and cannot give consent, or
that violates the laws or social taboos of society. Child
sexual abuse is evidenced by this activity between a child and
an adult or another child who by age or development is in a
relationship of responsibility, trust or power, the activity being
intended to gratify or satisfy the needs of the other person.
This may include but is not limited to:
1. The inducement or coercion of a child to
engage in any unlawful sexual activity;
2. The exploitative use of a child in
prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices;
3. The exploitative use of children in
pornographic performance and materials”.

14. Definitions can be problematic
Definition of a child being internally
trafficked for sex in the UK different for:
• Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC)
• Child Exploitation and Online
Protection Centre (CEOP),
Brayley and Cockbain (2014)

15. Category Criteria for inclusion Purpose of criteria
Offenders Child, aged 17-years old or younger
Adult, aged 18 years or older Two or more
offenders involved
To meet national and international definitions of a
child
To exclude peer-on-peer offending To ensure
consistency with the UK definition of organised
crime
Transportation Any mode of transport To include all forms of movement
Movement No minimum distance required ‘Integral’ to the
abuse process
To ensure victims are not arbitrarily excluded from
the definition To emphasise that this is deliberate
movement without which the abuse cannot occur.
Defined as movement to a location where the sexual
abuse will take place.
Abuse pattern At least one victim must be abused more
than once
To distinguish internal child sex trafficking from
other forms of child sexual abuse
Brayley & Cockbain, 2014)

16. Challenges : Prevention
• Increasing awareness and acceptance.
• The prevalence of the problem.
• Powerful and determined predatory
force.
• Helping everyone identify the role they
can play in breaking the silence.

17. Challenges : Defining Child
Rape of a child under 13
(1)A person commits an offence if—
(a)he intentionally penetrates the vagina, anus or
mouth of another person with his penis, and
(b)the other person is under 13.
(2)A person guilty of an offence under this section is
liable, on conviction on indictment, to
imprisonment for life.
Sexual Offences Act, 2003

18. Challenges : Defining Child
Rape
(1)A person commits an offence if—
(a)he intentionally penetrates the vagina, anus or mouth
of another person with his penis,
(b) B does not consent to the penetration, and
(c) A does not reasonably believe that B consents.
(2)Whether a belief is reasonable is to be determined
having regard to all the circumstances, including any steps
A has taken to ascertain whether B consents.
Sexual Offences Act, 2003

19. Challenges : Defining Child
Abuse of position of trust: sexual activity with a child
[F1(1)A person aged 18 or over (A) commits an offence if—
(a)he intentionally touches another person (B),
(b)the touching is sexual,
(c)A is in a position of trust in relation to B,
(d)where subsection (2) applies, A knows or could reasonably be
expected to know of the circumstances by virtue of which he is in a
position of trust in relation to B, and
(e)either—
(i)B is under 18 and A does not reasonably believe that B is 18 or
over, or
(ii)B is under 13.
Sexual Offences Act, 2003

20. Challenges : Conflicts
• Demonisation of victims and
perpetrators. (Exit routes)
• Misogyny
• Homophobia
• Racism

21. Challenges : Professionals views
"You can’t let yourself be in the situation where men are
abusing you it’s not right for them to be doing that“
"Massive risk taking behaviour but children who are
vulnerable are prepared to take that risk if it means a bit
of affection“
"Some of the young people that I work with are that
desperate for attention you know they, they lavish it up
instead of stopping and thinking…"
Social worker statements, from phd thesis of
Sarah Lloyd, University of Huddersfield

22. Challenges : Misogyny
"Some girls want it. They are 13-14 and they have already
slept with a man.“
""A woman showcasing herself to a man who has the
propensity to exploit. Green flag to a man, makes
exploitation more likely....take precautions, don't walk in a
seductive manner unless you attract the wrong type of
attention...I'm not saying women should wear a burka".
“There are stereotypes of victims as slags and loose
women.“

23. Women as brave protectors
"I have experienced CSE. It happened to my daughter.
When I found out what happened, I knew what to do. I
went to the police and social services and I have reported
it. Now I am watched by [the paedophile gang]. One of
the [perpetrators] was deported, but the case was
reopened because my daughter saw [him]. He was
hanging around the school and XXXXXXX. He was verbally
abusive to my daughter. She was so scared. The police
found him after we reported him and he was send to jail.
But he sent 2 guys to visit us trying to bribe me daughter
and to say that the guy is innocent. But my daughter
refused to do that. She said “Mum he has destroyed my
life….how could I let it go?” We all have suffered from
this."

24. Challenges : Constraints
• Political
• Bureaucratic
• Economic
• Cultural

25. Opportunities
• Political climate
• Education
• Role of Media

26. Opportunities
• Strengthening communities, families
and individuals
• Reducing division
• Improving services

27. Opportunities
• To make certain that every child counts.
• To reduce the occurrence of child sexual
abuse.
• To transfer learning into other areas.

28. Mahatma Gandhi

29. Contact
Email: d.peach@salford.ac.uk
Profile: https://www.seek.salford.ac.uk/profiles/DPeach.jsp
Twitter: @donna_peach
UoS Sexual abuse and exploitation research hub:
http://hub.salford.ac.uk/cypsae/
Email: CYPSAE@salford.ac.uk
Twitter: @SalfordUniCSE

30. ‘Critical narratives around CSE: race,
faith and avoiding essentialism’
Meeting the Challenge of Child Sexual Abuse:
From critical interrogation to collective
activism
MediaCity UK, University of Salford
Wednesday 13th January 2016
Muzammil Quraishi PhD,

31. Outline
• Politicising the crimes
• Racialisation, Islamophobia &
Essentialising;
• Moral Panic?
• Simplifying Complexity
• Fabricating Connections
• UK Media
• Reflection

32. Politicising the Crimes
Former Home Secretary Jack Straw:
"We need to get the Pakistani community to
think much more clearly about why this is
going on and to be more open about the
problems that are leading to a number of
Pakistani heritage men thinking it is OK to
target white girls in this way”. 8 Jan 2011,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12142177

33. Nigel Farage, UKIP
"you could argue" there are parts of the
country where the police have withdrawn
and Sharia law applied.
And he said turning a blind eye to such
issues had led to "some of the most
appalling sexual scandals that I think
we've seen in our history".
22 April 2015 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-
2015-32415913
*countering sexual offending in most 2015 party
manifestos

34. To categorise, sift and
differentiate:
the legacy of biological
taxonomies
• ‘Otherness’- embedded in Orientalist
literature, art and spread through colonial
conquests (Said, 1978)
• Images portraying visible minorities as
irrational, violent, belonging to less advanced
civilisations (Sivanandan, 2006; Kundnani,
2007; Fekete, 2009) as part of a new
landscape of racism or xeno-racism

35. Islamophobia
• RACIALISATION (Miles, 1982)
• Interaction of social processes through
which people become defined as a
group with reference to their biological
or cultural characteristics which are then
negatively reproduced by institutions
and individuals. A key feature of the
process rests upon power relations
(Quraishi & Philburn, 2015)

36. Racial Loading
Racialisation + Criminalisation = racial
loading of certain terms such as
Race ‘Riot’, Asian ‘Grooming’, Islamic
‘Terrorism’ (Webster, 2007)
NB* relation to RISK and deployment
of resources which are now focused
on particular population(s)

37. Asian Grooming: A
Modern Moral Panic?
• Sexual deviance and ethnicity linked to
Islamophobic and racist depictions of Muslims
as ‘wife-beaters, fanatics, fundamentalists,
book-burners’ which pre-date 9/11 (Runnymede
Trust, 1997)
• The coverage of Asian/Muslim/Pakistani
grooming and CSE echo anti-Semitic
constructions of Jewish populations in Europe
and South America in the early 20thC in relation
to prostitution and white slavery (Bristow, 1982;
Doezema, 1999)

38. Asian Grooming: A Modern
Moral Panic? cont
• Moral panic distorts reality/amplifies
• Official statistics on sexual offending are especially difficult to
draw firm conclusions from owing to information coming from
different sources, covering different people (victims and
offenders) and for different periods;
• Further complicated by low reporting of such offences,
historical nature and compound or multiple incidents of
offending
• Caution interpreting such statistics- complex interactions
including ‘observed ethnicity of defendants’ rather than self-
declaration
• Whilst crime stats may give impression that some crimes are
committed more frequently by particular ethnic groups-
findings from self-report studies tend to illustrate the
involvement in crime cuts across all ethnicities (Quraishi,
2012).

39. Simplifying Complexity
• Offence of ‘grooming a child for sexual exploitation’ –
definitional problems;
• Professionals disagree upon the definition;
• Some link it to paedophilia-confusing grooming with a very
specific clinical diagnosis which is not applicable to all
offenders;
• Craven et al, argue linking grooming to paedophilia is
unhelpful since it may prevent some offenders for
acknowledging their grooming behaviour- and those who
know the offender may not identify him/her because do not fit
the socially-constructed image of a paedophile (Craven et al,
2007)
• Legal definition- s15 Sexual Offences Act 2003- created a new
act but did not criminalise an act of sexual grooming per se;
an offender must meet a child following grooming for the
crime to be committed.

40. Simplifying Complexity
cont…
‘A process by which a person prepares a
child, significant adults and the environment
for the abuse of a child. Specific goals
include gaining access to the child, gaining
the child’s compliance and maintaining the
child’s secrecy to avoid disclosure. This
process serves to strengthen the offender’s
abusive patterns, as it may be used as a
means of justifying or denying their actions’
(Craven et al, 2007:297)

41. Simplifying complexity
cont…
• media coverage rarely engages with
complexities of definitions
• Nature and motivation of offenders is
couched in simple terms- perpetrators are
predators, bestial, motivated by malice,
evil- in the case of Asian,
Pakistani/Muslim perpetrators by
conflicting cultures and faith -or even
endorsed by the same-
• pathological

42. Fabricating Connections:
Input from the USA
• Significant evidence in USA of deliberate media and
institutional rhetoric linking Islam, terrorism &
paedophilia (Filler, 2003);
• Southern Baptist Convention 2002, Hate Speech?
• numerous media reports and speeches where the
link between Islam, terrorism and child sexual
exploitation are asserted which normalises the
association between them.
• Unfortunately, the counter discourse has the risk of
reifying the very connections being disassembled –
these then enter the ether.

43. The UK media…
Moore et al (2008):
• Observed decline of coverage of attacks on
Muslims or problems faced by Muslims;
• Concluded 2/3 coverage viewed Muslims as
threats (in relation to terrorism) a problem (in
terms of difference of values) or both (Muslim
extremism in general)

44. Moore et al cont…
• Dominant rhetoric projected Islam as
‘dangerous’, ‘backward’, ‘irrational’ and
references to radical Muslims outnumbered
moderate Muslims by 17 to 1.
• Visuals which accompanied many stories tended
to depict Muslims in mugshots, outside police
stations or courts.
• Muslims tended to be presented as a
homogenous group and were less likely, for
example, to be presented by their profession
and more likely to be unnamed or unidentified
especially when depicted in groups.

45. Sian et al, 2012
• 2 topics 1) Asian men accused of ‘grooming; white
girls for sex 2) sexual and violent abuse of children
in Islamic faith schools
• Sian et al, claim marked difference in the way in
which the Daily Mail and The Guardian covered these
stories
• DM reported on grooming with racialised
representations linking the ethnicity of the offenders
to the crimes- no room for critical or counter
opinions or representations of the Pakistani or
Muslim voice. Reporting by Guardian was more
balanced- and contained a caveat for readers not to
link the ethnicity or culture to the crime

46. Sian et al, 2012
• Also illustrated the political bent of the papers: the
DM quotes the Children’s minister implicating a
‘closed Asian community’ ‘turning a blind eye’. The
Guardian provides critical counter-voices warning
local authorities not to be misdirected by
stereotypes around the extent and location of such
offending behaviour within particular communities.
• Re: Faith Schools -accused DM of ‘Islamophobic’,
‘sensational’ ‘accusatory’ ‘unbalanced’ and ‘anti-
multicultural’ narrative
• Guardian coverage was more critical balanced and
inclusive
• Concluded Sun, DM and Independent- had a
tendency towards Islamophobia.

47. Children’s Commissioner Report 2012: Child
Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups
(Berelowitz et al, 2012)
• Perpetrators & victims of CSE come from all ethnic
groups;
• Significant data gaps on victims and perpetrators
so data may be biased since some agencies go
looking for CSE whilst others do not;
• Varying definitions of CSE, inconsistent collection
of data by external agencies;
• Caveat of caution about ethnicity data- but BME
children had elevated risk identified by BME faith
and voluntary groups and rarely identified by
professionals from police forces- who are more
likely to identify white British victims

48. Children’s
Commissioner Report
2012 cont…
• Believed data on perpetrators mainly from police- possible
reflects bias against those most highly visible to the police;
• When examining victim accounts, some would change the
ethnicity of the perpetrator during the course of the discussion
whilst others confused ethnicity with nationality
• The Inquiry was informed in several site visits of groups of
perpetrators described generically as ‘Asian’ but who upon
further investigation turned out to include ‘Afghan, Kurdish
and White British’ perpetrators (Berelowitz, 2012:107)
• CONCLUDED ‘it is not possible to extrapolate from this
information a definitive statement about the ethnic origins of
perpetrators’ (2012;107)
• British white males were the only perpetrators identified in all
site visits (2012;98)

49. Reflection
• CSE and Grooming needs to be set in various
contexts explored here;
• Arguments and observations here are not
apologies for CSE or distractions from worthy
victim-centred approaches.
• By illustrating the broader complexities which
underpin the injustices of Islamophobia and
racism, the falsehoods they create and
maintain may be checked.

50. Refreshments
and Networking Break

51. Professor Andrew Rowland
‘Travelling to learn and returning to
inspire: from sick kids to SicKids’

52. www.drandrewrowland.wordpress.com
@DrAndrewRowland
andrewrowland77@gmail.com

53. From sick kids to SicKids
Professor Andrew Rowland
BMedSci (Hons) BMBS (Hons) MFMLM MAcadMEd FRCEM FRCPCH FRSA
@DrAndrewRowland

54. Declarations of interest
• Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine, The
Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
• Honorary Professor, University of Salford
• Founder & Trustee, SicKids
• Board member, M’Lop Tapang
• Churchill Fellow, The Winston Churchill Memorial
Trust

55. Travel to learn; return to inspire

56. @DrAndrewRowland
@WCMTUK

59. • Child sexual abuse has always occurred and is
always exploitative
• UNICEF previously reported 1:3 girls and 1:7 boys
experience sexual violence
• 11% of children aged under 16 have experienced
sexual abuse by people known, but unrelated, to
them
• Disabled children over 3x likely to be abused or
neglected than non-disabled children

61. If you always do what you’ve
always done, you’ll always get
what you always got.

62. 1. Improve education
2. Increase employment
3. Tackle poverty
4. Decrease neglect
5. Focus on health
6. Empower girls and women; remember boys
7. ChildSafe communities with children and young
people at their hearts
Seven steps to reducing abuse

63. Improve education

67. Education is the most powerful weapon
you can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela

68. Decrease neglect

70. Society

71. The world is in greater peril from those
who tolerate or encourage evil than
from those who actually commit it.
Albert Einstein

72. @DrAndrewRowland
@MLopTapang

73. Cambodia
•Population: 14 million
•Capital city: Phnom Penh
•95% Buddhist

77. It is easier to build strong children than
to repair broken men
Frederick Douglas

78. M’Lop Tapang
M’Lop Tapang is
located in the coastal
city of Sihanoukville

79. Our Core Values:
•Respect and always consider the best interests of the child
•Love and respect children equally without discrimination
•Act as a positive role model for children, showing
compassion and empathy at all times
•Work professionally with commitment and dedication

80. Social resilience

81. M’Lop Tapang programs
• Medical care
• Child Protection
• Family support and counseling
• Reintegration of children to
families
• Drugs and Harm reduction
programs
• Non- formal education
programs
• Vocational training and job
placement
• Community awareness
• Child participation
• Advocacy

82. Risk factors for health related issues
• Poverty and family debt
• Neglect/lack of adult supervision
of children
• Lack of clean water
• Lack of basic hygiene
• Inadequate nutrition
• Poor housing conditions
• Lack of knowledge and education
• Inappropriate use of medicines/
strong cultural beliefs
• No free or safe health care
system
• Lack of advocacy on child rights
(from parents, local Government)

83. Empower girls and women;
remember boys

87. ChildSafe communities

88. Powered by Friends-InternationalPowered by Friends-International
A network of members from the community, businesses and travelers working
together to protect children from all forms of abuse
• Protecting children & youth from all forms of abuse
•Preventing children & youth from engaging in dangerous behaviors
•Influencing all tiers of society and the international community that
they can encourage positive environments for children & youth

91. Tackle poverty

95. Increase employment

103. Focus on health

105. Empowering children and
young people

106. @DrAndrewRowland
@TheNGYShow

109. No matter what anybody tells
you, words and ideas can
change the world.
Robin Williams

110. @DrAndrewRowland
@SicKidsUK

113. 1. Integrity
2. Openness
3. Fairness
4. Compassion
5. Equality
6. Social responsibility
Values

115. To relieve sickness and preserve health among
children and young people in the North West of
England and South East Asia.
Goal

119. We shape our own lives and
afterwards our lives shape us.

120. 1. Improve education
2. Increase employment
3. Tackle poverty
4. Decrease neglect
5. Focus on health
6. Empower girls and women; remember boys
7. ChildSafe communities with children and young
people at their hearts
Seven steps to reducing abuse

123. • Professor Tony Long, University of Salford (chair)
• Donna Peach, University of Salford
• Dr Muzammil Quraishi, University of Salford
• Professor Andrew Rowland
Panel discussion

124. Professor Tony Long, University of Salford
Conference Close