“It Doesn't Happen Here” - Perspectives on Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness In Rural Settings

The majority of knowledge regarding CSE has emanated from urban settings (e.g. Jay, 2014). The research into experiences of CSE within a rural county, early indications are that there is some unwillingness among professionals to accept that a rural county might need high levels of awareness and professional responses to issues of CSE, a phenomenon seen as being essentially urban in nature. It is well accepted that victims of CSE are, in research terms, a ‘hidden population’ (Palmer, 2001; Lillywhite and Skidmore, 2006) and it may be that they are even less visible within a rural environment.
We intend to explore in depth whether a rural setting experiences particular obstacles or barriers to improving awareness raising and practice compared with urban settings e.g. possible lack of ‘street-awareness’ among parents/carers and professionals or a belief that CSE only happens in urban settings or in areas with large ethnic minority populations (in 2011 just over 92% of persons in Worcestershire were classed as White British compared to almost 80% in the whole of England).
Early findings are that many of the same phenomena found in urban CSE are also present in the rural settings ( e.g. judgemental attitudes from some professionals toward young people involved / some professional unwillingness to address race issues), although patterns such as the trafficking of young people away from rural settings into urban areas for CSE purposes have already emerged as differentiated from urban findings where exploitation takes place within the same or similar communities. Another example of difference in regard to exploited young people in a rural setting is how little the risk indicator of homelessness, so often found in urban based literature (e.g. Brayley et al, 2014) appears largely absent in the rural setting .
Findings from the research project will be used to contribute to the CSE debate at national level as well as being used locally to inform best practice.