Kobe’s story

Figure 4: Drivers and risks table, reproduced from 2020 UNICEF report on child sexual abuse and exploitation132 Similar to other types of exploitation, identity characteristics, such as race, class and disability, also impact a child’s vulnerability to abuse. Sexual exploitation can impact girls and boys from all backgrounds. Following on from the vulnerability factors identified in the ‘Child criminal exploitation’ section of this document (see pages 18 - 20), research has found that children from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds are less likely to be recognised as victims. Additionally, there is significant research available that children with learning disabilities133 and/or those in local authority care134 are more susceptible to exploitation. The Jay Report which looked at the child sexual exploitation cases in Rotherham revealed that many of the girls who were abused were in local authority care, with perpetrators actively targeted residents’ units and services.135

Perpetrators target [girls and] women according to real or perceived vulnerability and accessibility – they can also target women who they think will be less credible to services and in a court of law.136

Victim safeguarding and support

Risk assessments have provided frameworks for practitioners to identify if a child may be at-risk, or in fact already a victim, of child sexual exploitation. The lists below have been reproduced from part of the Newcastle Safeguarding Children Board (NSCB) and the Newcastle Safeguarding Adults Board’s (NSAB) risk assessment to help frontline practitioners identify cases of sexual exploitation of children, young people and adults at risk.137 Such frameworks highlight an array of vulnerability indicators that can help identify children who are vulnerable to exploitation.138

Vulnerability factors: • Isolation, lack of strong social networks • Breakdown of family relationships • Lack of engagement / inconsistent engagement with support networks (i.e. often misses appointments) • Friends/peers are victims of sexual exploitation • History of local authority care • History of abuse (including as a child) • Low self-esteem • Susceptible to grooming • Bereavement or loss • Dependency on alleged perpetrator(s) • Substance misuse/dependency