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Boys 2 Full Report (PDF) 1 Page No Contents Acknowledgements 2 Background 3 Aims of the project 3 Section 1: Systematic review of the area 5 Section 2: Workshops with professionals 5 Section 3: File-based information on the sample 8 Section 4: Interviews with the young men within the sample 11 Section 5: Quantitative analysis of identified problems 37 Discussion points from the previous sections 44 Final Summary 53 References 55 Appendix A: Literature review 56 Appendix B: Training days summary 104 Appendix C: Pen portraits of the young people 105 Appendix D: Interview schedule 117 Appendix E: Themes chart 119 2 Acknowledgements The Boys 2 Research Project was a one-year project funded by the Home Office. The purpose of the project was to work alongside boys and young men impacted by child sexual exploitation (CSE) to improve identification, assessment and intervention of this largely hidden group. Alongside boys and young men, we developed standardised assessment tools and intervention resources for front line professionals to support boys and young men to cope and recover from CSE. We would wish to extend our appreciation to the Home Office in enabling us to undertake this research project. This resource could not have been developed without the energy and enthusiasm of all those involved. In particular, we would like to thank all the boys and young men who participated in the research and the schools and front line professionals that supported us in working with them to make this resource possible. We would also like to thank Sue Thurman for her support with ensuring the needs of boys and young men with additional learning needs were included. We would also like to thank Sharron Wareham, Children’s Services Manager and Pat Duke, Assistant Director for their management and overall contribution to the project. Thank you also to the team at Barnardo’s Better Futures and Bristol BASE Services for their ongoing support, ideas, encouragement and wisdom. Finally, we would like to thank Barnardo’s for their support and belief in the capacity of all children and young people to reach their full potential. 3 Background The research itself sits within a range of initiatives to work with young people including: the Taith Harmful Sexual Behaviour Service; the Seraf and Bristol BASE Child Sexual Exploitation Services; the Gobaith Younger Children with Problematic Sexual Behaviour Service; the South Wales Police Missing Service and the Gwella early intervention and prevention project. As a general background, Barnardo’s Cymru launched the Seraf Service in October 2006, a new service to work with children and young people who are at risk of or abused through sexual exploitation in Wales. In the initial SERAF pilot (2006/2007), 40% of young males were identified as being at ‘high risk’ of CSE (i.e. scoring over 16 on the SERAF assessment tool1). The service received 1,251 referrals in the five years to April 2015 of which only 9.33% were for boys or young men. This low referral rate has remained static in the intervening period (2010-2017) with still only 9% of referrals for young males. Barnardo’s UK was aware that boys/young men were under-represented in being identified as victims of CSE and referral for support, and that there was a need to raise professional awareness of boys/young men as victims of CSE and to enable professionals to better identify vulnerability. This was directly informed by boys and young men within support services, reflecting upon their trajectory and the data being qualitatively analysed. Hence, this has been a national project hosted by Barnardo’s Cymru. Aims of the project The aims of the project were to have an input into the development of assessment and intervention approaches to produce better engagement with young men who have been subject to child sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse (CSA). This work builds upon Barnardo’s expertise in the field of CSA/CSE, missing and harmful sexual behaviours. Specifically, the team has developed this piece of work through the engagement of boys and young men, having input from CSA/CSE workers and partner organisations, operating across Wales and the South West of England. To this end, the project itself consists of a number strands: 1 See: http://www.anglesey.gov.uk/Journals/2013/11/08/o/m/w/SERAF-Inital-Risk-Assessment- Form.pdf 4 1. A systematic literature review of the area of CSE/CSA carried out on males to examine what is currently known regarding risk and vulnerability factors in male victims of CSE/CSA. 2. Workshops carried out with practitioners to find out what they viewed as the barriers to: identifying/disclosing, push and pull (risk and vulnerability) factors into and out of CSE; static (historical) and dynamic (psychological) risk factors and recovery work/needs. 3. Information gained from case files on the young people. 4. Interviews with at risk young males to explore pathways of risk, abuse, exploitation and journey into service, in order to identify key engagement and intervention points. 5. The development and norming of a brief set of psychometric measures to be given to the young men who were also interviewed for the project in order to examine the area of problems that have been identified in the systematic review. The tools identified as being useful were shortened and input from a learning disability specialist ensured that they were easy to comprehend. The final aim of the work was to have an input into the development of tools and resources to ensure a more effective response from agencies working with this group, given that they are under-represented in services supporting abuse victims while over represented within the criminal justice system. These tools and resources, it is hoped, will then be tested and disseminated through Barnardo’s and Home Office networks. Section 1: Systematic literature review exploring outcomes for boys impacted by CSE/CSA The first part of the project was to conduct a semi-systematic review (see Appendix A, for the full literature review) exploring outcomes for boys impacted by CSE and CSA. Here, the review considered international, peer-reviewed articles between the years 2004 -2018. However, the lack of research led to the undertaking of searches for articles relevant to male victims of CSE, and indeed CSA, to support the primary search, going back as far as 1970. Utilisation of the systematic review process yielded 375 papers for first sift; resulting in less than 60 applicable papers to draw on regarding CSE for review. Exploration of CSA papers was also necessary to consider risk factors relating to later CSE. Truncation of terms was 5 used and variations of term were also used to ensure as deep a search as possible across international literature using eight databases (overall database search n=20). The results found that the extant research is heavily biased towards female victims of CSA and CSE, with males being typically viewed as a perpetrator. Hence, there is currently very little known about these issues with males. The important areas identified were the following: problems in self-esteem, emotional loneliness, cognitive distortions, sexual knowledge deficits, disability, and depression. Characteristics related to risk-taking behaviours, inappropriate or illegal acts, learning disabilities and/or Autistic Spectrum Disorder were also found. In contrast, little evidence was found related to: empathy problems and locus of control; perpetrator typologies and behaviours and criminality arising from CSE. Section 2: Workshops with professionals Three, day long, workshops took place with professionals working in the area of CSE as a way to capture a large amount of views and opinions around boys and young men in relation to CSE (see Appendix B for a description of the outline of the areas covered in the workshops). Professionals were aware that the information they provided would be used in the research. On Day 1 - five attended (social workers and support workers from youth homelessness projects, youth offending and children’s safeguarding services). On Day 2 - 11 people attended (assistant psychologist, health and wellbeing workers, social workers, safeguarding officers from Hillside, All Wales Secure Unit, children’s disability services and family support services). On Day 3 - 16 people attended, all new care staff recently employed at Hillside Secure Unit. Amongst those attending, experience varied with some having no previous experience of working with young people, while two had limited experience of working with boys with CSE concerns. The general aims of these workshops were to: Raise awareness of CSE Explore professionals’ assumptions Explore the barriers to identification of CSE Consider the barriers for young people around disclosure Consider the grooming process Gain an understanding of push/pull factors 6 Gain an understanding of static/dynamic factors Gain an understanding of the needs of young people around support and recovery work Begin to identify what professionals need to overcome the barriers to identification and disclosure and find ways to better in engage with young men. General themes emerging from the workshop participants were around the following: Assumptions around CSE/CSA . The assumptions that are made when the term abuse is mentioned – in males it is immediately perceived as physical abuse, in females it is generally perceived to be sexual abuse. The term CSE conjures up a particular image – particularly of a white teenage female who is ‘looked after’ and who dresses ‘provocatively’. This is portrayed in the media and is an assumption found throughout society and organisations. Even when professionals know that this is factually not the case, it is the image that comes to mind first and is difficult to shift. Perpetrator gender assumption – there is an assumption that perpetrators are always male and it is very difficult to consider females as abusers/exploiters.
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