On Grooming Gangs
It has been hard to witness the vitriol poured out online against Jess Phillips, Labour MP for Yardley and Government Safeguarding Minister, who has done so much for the fight against domestic abuse and VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls): she has our gratitude and whatever support we are able to muster.
The issue has got lost in the furore, and through it all, no-one in the media has really stopped to explain a vital question: what is grooming?
What is Grooming?
Grooming is forming a relationship with someone with hidden intent, to which the target would not (or could not) consent had they known the truth.
There are two elements:
intent (the abuser is deliberate)
consent (the target would not have consented had they known the truth).
Grooming Gang Victims
In the case of currently publicised grooming gangs, like Rotherham and Oldham, many of their victims were children. As children they were unable to consent to sex, so lets call this what is is: rape.
We understand that the victims were not, however, all legally children. Neither were they all from council houses or from care settings. Neither were they all white.
When we frame this issue as being about white working class girls, about kids from poor homes with absent parents or kids in care, we do a massive disservice to the many victims who fall outside of that stereotype. Point in this direction and ask for a better social services system, by all means. Structural reform and investment in these areas would doubtless save money in other parts of the system and save a whole lot of heartbreak.
But the truth is, that like all victims of grooming, they were people who wanted something whose want was met by someone with bad intent. In some cases, youngsters at an age where they can be expected to be forming their first romantic relationships found ‘boyfriends’.
Many of them will have been damaged for the long term - vctims of sexual abuse all react differently, but most won´t tell for fear of exactly what happened in some early cases: some of the girls, despite still being children, were portrayed as being ´little slappers´by many, including, in some cases, the police.
Many of these victims themselves will have felt guilty, as if somehow, because they were somewhere they shouldn’t really have been or had dressed beyond their years or…. the list is endless, but let’s make it clear. They were targetted. They were, like all victims of grooming, chosen, selecrted for the groomer’s use and pleasure. Their actions, class, colour didn´t contribute to their abuse - had it not been them, it would have been someone else. The blame lies firmly and individually with each and every groomer, and the bystanders who knew but did nothing.
They deserve better than the World’s richest man turning Jess Phillips into a political football. Elon Musk wants us, it seems, to have a right wing government, and has a racist, anti immigration agenda in line with that of the coming Trump administration. this is sad - he, in turn, because of his carelessly expressed views, stands to undermine some of his successes and projects.
They deserve not to be grouped together. They deserve our support, understanding and help to recover from the grooming as much as from the rape. they are individuals, with individual experiences and stories. They deserve better. We should be listening to their stories, more than to a man who cannot possibly undertand their experiences, and who wants another man, the violent racist ‘Tommy Robinson’, listened to. that’s the same Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) currently serving a prison sentence for contempt of court having nearly derailed a ‘grooming gang’ court case.
Speaking out as a victim is diabolically hard, and brings out the dark underbelly of social media, where a bit of ‘banter’ (trolling) means people who speak out for a better World are subjected to abuse, and anyone who stands with them/by them is subjected to similar, usually attacked on a horribly personal level. We are talking here about people whose lives have already been turned upside down.
The best thing we can do when anyone discloses abuse is to believe them. It´s almost impossible to assess in reality, but solid research suggests that just 5% of accusations are false - Home Office statistics suggest that around 6% ar+e found to be or believed to be false, whle EU and US research suggests between 2% and 6%. So worst case, 6% meansd that there´s a 94% chance, probably higher, that they are telling the truth. This is on a par with other crimes, but rarely are victims treated with such suspicion.
Few people believed these girls, and of those that did, no-one took action, more concerned about race relations at a particularly sensitive time and protecting these men than protecting the victims. Whilst all eyes are on the ‘Pakistani men’, with outrage that ´these people´can get away with it, there´s a far more disturbing truth:
Not convinced by ‘a bit of a theme’ appearing. Look at how the Church of England moved abusers on for years rather than considering the needs of the victims.
It’s convenient to ‘other’ a group of people, but the truth is that we seem more concerned about the men and their reputations than about their victims.
It hasn´t escaped attention that 70 men raped Gisele Pellicot. 20 are still at large. Others were invited and said nothing. And we´re not referring to them as a French Rapist Gang.
Asian Grooming Gangs
Having pointed out a wider problem than the Asian community, there are clearly particular issues within the Pakisitani community in particular. As far back as 2019, Rafia Zakaria wrote in New Age Islam about their problem: toxic masculinity, “the cultural maintenance of norms that entrench male dominance”. Men who do not display a dominance over' ‘their women’ are often viewed poorly within their culture, which keeps them in line as much as the women.
It’s a problem that needs to engage the Muslim, particularly Pakistani, community.
But this is also a population less likely to commit group-based (gang) child sexual abuse than white males. (Source: Sky News)
Inquiries Into Organised Child Sex Abuse
As a Channel Four Fact Check recently showed, there have already been numerous reports:
The Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse (2022)- run by Professor Alexis Jay, the government reponse has ben slow. There was lots of parrying, and the recommendations haven´t been implemented yet.
Local report: Derby (2010)
Local report: Rotherham (2014)
Further report: Rotherham (2015)
Six further reports and a summary: Rotherham (2017)
Brooke Serious Case Review: Bristol (2016)
Independent Review into Child Exploitation: Oldham (2022)
The arching review, which also looked into cases which have not had reports (Bristol - Somali men; Durham, St Helens, Swansea, Tower Hamlets and Warwickshire), made 20 recommendations that have yet to be implemented.
So for over a decade, we have had report after report but no action.
The awful thing is that there is more. Add in church scandals, scandals in sports, scouting scandals, Telford, and child abuse is clearly a bigger problem than we believe.
Surely the time has come to cut the red tape, to admit that we have a huge problem. It´s barely hidden. when men (and to a lesser extent women) can openly describe themselves as MAP (Minoir Attracted Person) on social media profiles and enter discussion forums. One in five Americans declare having suffered some kind of sexual abuse as a child. The UK doesn´t seem to be far behind.
CAAGe’s Role
At CAAGe we look specifically at the grooming of adults, not children.
We can, however, shine a light on how grooming happens, and join those supporting Jess Phillips. We are all perfectly imperfect, and few can have done as much for victims as she has. We would like to see a wider awareness of grooming techniques, an understanding of how groomers often groom parents for access to children, and join the call for action. Not for another report, but for the implementation of already recommended changes - recommendations that have already been made at a cost of 186 million pounds. Imagine what that money could have done!
