A briefing paper quantified the savings made by society as a result of providing specialist interventions for young people at risk of sexual exploitation. An estimated potential saving was identified of £12 during a child victim?s lifetime for every £1 spent.
Source: Reducing the Risk, Cutting the Cost: An assessment of the potential savings from Barnardo?s interventions for young people who have been sexually exploited, Barnardo's
Links: Paper | Barnardos press release
Date: 2011-Dec
A new book examined paedophilia. It said that paedophiles were not 'outside' culture or society, but were part of everyday human existence – and that sexual attraction to children was part of human sexuality. This approach could offer new ways to protect children from harm.
Source: Sarah Goode, Paedophiles in Society: Reflecting on sexuality, abuse and hope, Palgrave Macmillan
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Nov
A survey of migrants involved in the sex industry found that a majority of them had not been forced or trafficked into the profession. If they experienced difficulties in exercising rights to take decisions in matters concerning their personal lives, these were more likely to come from the issue of official immigration status than from forced labour.
Source: Nick Mai, In Whose Name? Migration and trafficking in the UK sex industry: delivering social interventions between myths and reality, Institute for the Study of European Transformations (London Metropolitan University)
Links: Findings | Project summary | MRN press release
Date: 2011-Nov
The coalition government published an action plan designed to stop the sexual exploitation of children and young people. The issue needed to be a priority for Local Safeguarding Children Boards, who should establish the severity of the problem in their areas, make sure they were tackling it effectively, and put in place robust preventative strategies.
Source: Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation: Action Plan, Department for Education
Links: Action plan | Hansard | DE press release | ACPO press release | NWG press release | OCC press release | BBC report | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Nov
An article examined the potential value of civil claims for rape. Notwithstanding its gendered limitations, tort law offered a means by which to recognize the wrong of rape and provide redress for the harm caused.
Source: Nikki Godden, 'Claims in tort for rape: a valuable remedy or damaging strategy?', King's Law Journal, Volume 22 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Aug
A new book examined a pioneering approach to managing the behaviour of sex offenders in the community. It provided an overview of 'circles of support and accountability' – groups of trained volunteers who met on a regular basis with high-risk sex offenders living in their community.
Source: Stephen Hanvey, Terry Philpot, and Chris Wilson, A Community-Based Approach to the Reduction of Sexual Reoffending: Circles of support and accountability, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Aug
The Director of Public Prosecutions issued guidance on perverting the course of justice in cases involving rape and/or domestic violence allegations. He said that rape and domestic violence victims should be confident in reporting abuse without fear of prosecution if they were later pressured into retracting the allegation: but anyone who maliciously invented a false allegation of rape or domestic violence was 'still very much at risk' of prosecution.
Source: Perverting the Course of Justice: Charging in cases involving rape and/or domestic violence allegations, Crown Prosecution Service
Links: Guidance | CPS press release
Date: 2011-Jul
An article examined narrative devices in legal rhetoric, and their use for asserting the authority to distinguish lawful from unlawful inflictions of bodily harm. The moral language adopted by judges in criminal appeal judgments on risky sexual and/or violent consensual acts embraced a set of interconnecting narratives relating to gender, sexuality, and race.
Source: David Gurnham, 'Legal authority and savagery in judicial rhetoric: sexual violence and the criminal courts', International Journal of Law in Context, Volume 7 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Jun
The government published proposals (in the light of a Supreme Court ruling in 2010) giving a right for registered sex offenders in England and Wales to appeal against having to register with the police for life. It also began consultation on proposals designed to strengthen and extend the existing checks on registered sex offenders: people on the sex offenders' register would be obliged to notify the police of all foreign travel, and notify the police weekly of where they could be found when they had no fixed abode.
Source: Draft Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Remedial) Order 2011, Home Office, TSO | Reforming the Notification Requirements of Registered Sex Offenders (Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003): A targeted consultation, Home Office
Links: Impact assessment | Consultation document | Impact assessment | Hansard | Home Office press release | ACPO press release | Guardian report
Notes: Final order (March 2012)
Date: 2011-Jun
A new book examined the origins of sex offender registers, their purpose, and the law and policy that underpinned them.
Source: Terry Thomas, The Registration and Monitoring of Sex Offenders: A comparative study, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Jun
A report examined evidence relating to 'on street grooming' and child sexual exploitation. Multi-agency work was essential to ensuring that the victim's needs came first, and to tackling this type of crime. All agencies in contact with victims needed to be aware of the early signs and effects of abuse and vulnerability. Victims often feared police and court processes and were intimidated and threatened by offenders: a long-term and co-ordinated approach to supporting them was therefore needed.
Source: Out of Mind, Out of Sight: Breaking down the barriers to understanding child sexual exploitation, Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
Links: Report | Summary | CEOPC press release | BBC report | Community Care report | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2011-Jun
A study found that offenders subject to MAPPA management (multi-agency public protection arrangements for serious violent and sexual offenders) had a lower rate of reconviction than those released prior to MAPPA implementation.
Source: Mark Peck, Patterns of Reconviction Among Offenders Eligible for Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), Research Report 6/11, Ministry of Justice
Links: Report
Date: 2011-Jun
A new book examined the law relating to child pornography. It considered the relationship between criminalization and free speech, and whether there was a link between the use of child pornography and contact offending.
Source: Alisdair Gillespie, Child Pornography: Law and Policy, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-May
The government published its response to an independent review into how rape complaints were handled by public authorities in England and Wales. It said that the report s recommendations would form the foundation of its future work in the area.
Source: The Government Response to the Stern Review: An independent review into how rape complaints are handled by public authorities in England and Wales, Home Office
Links: Response
Notes: Stern report (March 2010)
Date: 2011-Mar
The government published an action plan containing a series of detailed measures designed to tackle violence against women and girls – including domestic abuse, sexual assault, and stalking.
Source: Call to End Violence Against Women and Girls: Action Plan, Home Office
Links: Action plan | Home Office press release | Labour Party press release
Date: 2011-Mar
The European Union adopted a new directive on trafficking in human beings, designed to prevent trafficking, effectively prosecute criminals, and improve protection of victims. The United Kingdom government announced that it would 'opt in' to the directive.
Source: Press release 21 March 2011, European Council | Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, and Protecting Victims, Repealing Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA, European Commission
Links: European Union press release | European Commission press release | Proposed directive | Hansard | Home Office press release | Childrens Society press release | Labour Party press release | CARE report | Community Care report
Date: 2011-Mar
The Court of Appeal increased the sentences of three offenders who had sexually attacked women during burglaries in homes that the women were entitled to regard as 'safe havens'. Their original sentences had been referred by the Solicitor General to the court on the grounds that they appeared unduly lenient.
Source: Press release 3 March 2011, Attorney General's Office
Links: AGO press release | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Mar
Campaigners called for a cross-government strategy to deal with the investigation and prosecution of sexual offences against children committed by UK subjects while abroad.
Source: Off the Radar: Protecting children from British sex offenders who travel, ECPAT UK
Links: Report | ECPAT press release | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2011-Feb
A report said that there was a 'clear need and opportunity' for the United Kingdom to opt into the European Union Anti-Trafficking Directive, as soon as it had completed its passage through European institutions in 2011.
Source: EU Directive on Human Trafficking: Why the UK Government Should Opt-In, CARE
Links: Report
Date: 2011-Feb
A report examined prostitution in Northern Ireland, and human trafficking linked to it. It said that there would be benefits in an expansion of outreach services for women involved in prostitution.
Source: Research Paper Investigating the Issues for Women in Northern Ireland Involved in Prostitution and Exploring Best Practice Elsewhere, Northern Ireland Executive
Links: Report | NIE press release | BBC report
Date: 2011-Jan
Campaigners called for urgent action to protect young victims of sexual exploitation and abuse. They said that the government should appoint a minister to take forward a national action plan without delay.
Source: Puppet on a String: The urgent need to cut children free from sexual exploitation, Barnardo's
Links: Report | Barnardos press release | CROP press release | Guardian report | Community Care report
Date: 2011-Jan