Published on
1 January 2005
Based on interviews with 100 professionals (child protection co-ordinators and lead officers, representatives from the police, education, and health services) and young people in London, the research shows how child sexual exploitation takes a variety of forms, often occurring in a social context of normalised sexual violence against women.
Where sexual exploitation occurs as a result of young people making constrained choices against a backdrop of social, economic, and emotional vulnerability, there was a danger of services seeing this as a ‘free choice’ leading to a lack of protective action. Proactive approaches to early identification of sexual exploitation and intervention are recommended.
Keywords: Child Sexual Exploitation