Abstract
Young women and girls who have experienced child sex trafficking, poor identification, secondary victimization and a lack of understanding of the problem are at the forefront of their experience within the criminal justice system in England and Wales. Notable example of this would be the Rotherham/Rochdale ‘grooming scandals’ whereby girls as young as 11 were trafficked and sexually abused across the UK by gangs of men over the course of several years. These incidents caught public attention due to the absence of action taken by police and social services to protect the children, resulting in investigations of the procedures and attitudes of those agencies. Since these investigations, some changes to policy and practice have been made in localised areas; however, there is still no single, comprehensive approach to support girls who have been trafficked and sexually abused.
The research presented in this chapter aimed to understand how the approach taken in England and Wales to cases of child trafficking has evolved, focusing on police and social services using a multi-agency approach. The research utilised mixed methods, combining freedom of information requests and interviews in order to gather a comprehensive understanding of the current procedures. The results of this study demonstrated there was little consistency of practice in terms of co-location, joint interviews and information sharing, as well as continuing challenges in terms of attitudes towards women and girls and between agencies involved in the process.
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Brooks, L., Paterson, C. (2023). Strengthening Multi-agency Responses to the Trafficking of Girls in England and Wales. In: Pandey, M. (eds) International Perspectives on Gender-Based Violence. Advances in Preventing and Treating Violence and Aggression . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42867-8_7
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