1. Policing Young Women: sexual exploitation, crime and criminalisation Prof Jo Phoenix Chair in Criminology, School of Applied Social Sciences Durham University

2. ∂ What do we know? Contact with the police is the first step in the process of criminalisation Criminalisation has deleterious effects on young people Contact with CJ is as likely to result in enhanced as diminished risk of offending (McAra and McVie 2007) Young people are differentially policed Rise in young women’s offending is artefactual (Chesney-Lind 2001, Sharpe and Gelsthorpe 2009, Feld 2009, Burman and Batchelor 2009) Higher number of young women are entering youth justice in England and Wales (YJB 2009) There is a high degree of correlation between the victimisation of young women and their criminalisation, although the relationship between the two is hugely complex

3. ∂ But the relationship between policing, crime, criminalisation and victimisation is very complex

4. ∂ Sexual exploitation of children and young people under 18 involves exploitative situations, contexts and relationships where young people (or a third person or persons) receive ‘something’ (e.g. food, accommodation, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, affection, gifts, money) as a result of them performing, and/or another or others performing on them, sexual activities. Child sexual exploitation can occur through the use of technology without the child’s immediate recognition; for example being persuaded to post sexual images on the Internet/mobile phones without immediate payment or gain. In all cases, those exploiting the child/young person have power over them by virtue of their age, gender, intellect, physical strength and/or economic or other resources. Violence, coercion and intimidation are common, involvement in exploitative relationships being characterised in the main by the child or young person’s limited availability of choice resulting from their social/economic and/or emotional vulnerability. (SCYPSE 2009:9)

5. ∂ Criminalisation Sexually exploited girls and young women are routinely and disproportionately criminalised for offences, often relating to their sexual exploitation The is the result of a unintended consequences, gaps between policy and reality and imaginary justice: Policing of vulnerability (in the name of protection) Context Safety and Proto-justice Imaginary justice

6. ∂ Unintended consequences and implementation problems Missing person’s report and proactive policing of vulnerability results in increased levels of concerns about young women who are ‘out of place’ Changes to young women’s ‘bedroom culture’ coupled with socially marginalised youth leisure lifestyles that take place out of doors has lead to an intensification of surveillance of ‘public youth’ and ‘wayward girls’ Processes of policing and prosecution do not usually include thinking about sexual exploitation

7. ∂ “No, not even after eight months of working with a young girl who has just been charged for GBH. The thing is… her offending behaviour has increased and increased alongside her missing episodes and sexual exploitation”. (Practitioner, Sexual Exploitation Service) “Very rarely does the sexual exploitation come up in a PSR. Unless you’ve got skilled youth offending officer who has the skill and is proactive enough to make contact with our team…and they would say, ‘is this person known to you?’”

8. ∂ Gaps between policy rhetoric and social reality Sociability of CSE (friendship networks, SNS, groups, alcohol and consumer capitalism, etc) Crime is a resource (no different than for other socially marginalised groups) in socially specific contexts Safety Proto-Justice

9. ∂ “The sad thing is, if you pull up the ASBO records your argument will be, every time, that the statistics show that we arrest the victim… we arrest the victim in any other name”. (Social Worker) “She got to a stage where she was so desperate to exit that she walked into a supermarket and intentionally stole a frozen chicken… walked right up to the security guard with it. So, crime is definitely used as an exit strategy”. (Social Worker)

10. ∂ Imaginary Justice ‘Sexually exploited girls and young women are under protected for the crimes committed against them by police and through the youth justice service’. This is attributable to the following: –the often complex nature of the cases and how the realities of sexual exploitation do not often fit the statues in regards to sexual violence, commercial sexual exploitation etc.’ –the way that gender stereotypes interact with assessments of credible witnesses in the processes of prosecution’

11. ∂ –that sexually exploited girls and young women will knowingly commit crimes to escape exploiters in a way that avoids them disclosing the crimes committed against them; –the sexual nature of the crimes committed against them and the well known problems of disclosure and reporting.

12. ∂ “Sex for these girls just isn’t a big thing anymore, you know. They’ve grown up with it. I shudder to think what has happened to them, really. For the majority of them, having sex with a person isn’t a great thing, for many of them lost their virginity a long, long time ago”. (Police Officer) “They aren’t ever going to come across as likeable. These girls swear, kick, scream and shout. They are aggressive, they are volatile. It’s challenging speaking to them. They just don’t care. And if their case goes to court, it’s a real gam because they’ve got no prospects… no hope”. (Police Officer) “Sexually exploited young people don’t have the support of the people around them. They don’t have the support of the community because they are considered to be the little slags, tramps, trouble-makers. They’ve got society telling them they are no good and they behave accordingly”. (Social Worker)