Missing from Discourse: South Asian Young Women and Sexual Exploitation

Abstract

The literature on child sexual exploitation (CSE) has been criticised for remaining implicitly centred on young white women, with research presenting these young women as a homogenous group, assuming similarities across racial and ethnic boundaries (Ward and Patel, 2006). This chapter addresses the neglect of black and minority ethnic young women in the dominant discourse of CSE in the UK. It does this by exploring ‘going missing’ as a recognised indicator of CSE vis-à-vis South Asian young women seeking to exit the threat or reality of forced marriage.