In the wake of the Oxford child slavery scandal there has been lots of soul searching. We owe it to the victims to do more than that. We need to address the institutional and societal rot that allowed vulnerable children to be sexually exploited for eight years before anyone heard their cries for help.
Cathy was a child and a prostitute. From the age of four her parents had sex parties where adults would abuse each others children. On the few occasions that Cathy found the courage to tell trusted adults, no-one believed her. Her parents were both white doctors and “respectable” people don’t behave like that. She was living on the streets at 12, a drug addict at 13 and by the time I met her, at 14, she was “owned” by a pimp in central London. I spent Christmas with her in casualty. She had been raped with a broken bottle and was severely traumatised.
With a background in child psychology I got a temporary job in a children’s home in Westminster. I was Cathy’s key worker. Whenever she failed to come back at night I would call the police. I was frequently accused of wasting their time. One officer berated that he could be stopping a real crime, like a burglary, instead of taking down details of a “delinquent girl”. They knew about the grooming, and the history of abuse, yet they didn’t see that as a crime. It was as if the abuse of a girl, especially one in a children’s home, was inevitable and acceptable even.
Last year, Ryan Coleman-Farrow, former Met detective Constable was jailed for sabotaging numerous rape cases. Given the constant failings of the police to take rape and violence against girls and women seriously, I would argue the case for a McPherson type enquiry (http://news.bbc.co.uk/news/vote2001/hi/english/main_issues/sections/facts/newsid_1190000/1190971.stm) into institutional misogyny. In the same way that it was found that an overwhelmingly white police service contributed to institutional racism, it’s clear that the male dominated macho police culture is failing women and girls.
It’s not like this is new. The police have got form ignoring vulnerable girls in Rochdale, Derby and Telford, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Soham murderer, Ian Huntley, had nine allegations of sexual assault made against him, including underage sex with girls. Had the police listened to any of these girls the murders of Holly and Jessica could have been prevented. One of the Rochdale victims told the BBC that after reporting her abuse to social services and police, they effectively told her parents she was a prostitute and that her sexual exploitation was a “lifestyle choice”. She was 15.
A few years ago judge Julian Hall accused a 10 year old rape victim of “dressing provocatively” and “looking 16”, implying she was asking for it. He previously allowed a paedophile to walk free after sexually assaulting a 7 year old suggesting he buy her a bike “to cheer her up”. Early this year judge Niclas Parry, whilst sentencing a man for rape, scolded his teenage victim for “letting herself down” because she had been drinking that evening. Blaming the victim it seems is preferable to confronting societal attitudes to women, masculinity, abuse and power.
The police, social services and the judiciary involved in dealing with abused girls operate within a culture where the sexualisation of females is so pervasive, we take it for granted. Yet, it propagates unconscious stereotypes and influences policy and decisions. Be it playboy duvets, “porn star” shorts, lap dancing kits, padded bras for prepubescent girls and TV soaps depicting underage sex as normal. One of the Oxford victims said she thought what was happening to her must be normal. Portraying women and girls as sex objects perpetuates degradation. Objectification is dehumanising. That’s the point. It’s much easier to abuse a non person reduced to mere body parts. Tits and ass usually. Increasingly women, and girls, are perceived as commodities. To be bought and sold. It’s within this cultural context that vulnerable girls were sold as sex slaves in Oxford.
There is a known link between sexual imagery and violence towards women. The emergence of the Lad mags has contributed to the desensitisation of men to the dehumanisation of women. Nuts ran a competition wherein “girlfriends” were asked to send in pictures of their breasts, which were then published with their heads cut off. The student website Unilad was reported as having the following posting: “85% of rape cases go unreported. That seems fairly good odds”. No doubt paedophiles and sexual predators throughout Britain will be thinking the same. The message is clear. Sexual assault against women and children is acceptable in our society. Do your worst, we don’t really care.
What about social services? Most of the staff at the home that I worked in were not qualified. Yet, we trust them with one of society’s most precious resources, our children. The social worker I dealt with, like so many, was overworked and under resourced. Burnout rate is high and the first thing to go is compassion. Thus, contact with “clients” is infrequent and brief so as to minimise empathy. Yet, without empathy, what use can any of us be to vulnerable children? Children’s services have always been under resourced but if the sex gang scandals teach us anything, it is that we need to invest in our children and, as a bare minimum, keep them safe. We need people who have the time to listen and to care. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “There can be no keener revelation of society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children”.
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