Download Respect Young People`s Seminar 11.03.15

RESPONDING TO ABUSE BETWEEN YOUNG PEOPLE:
A CASE FOR CONTEXTUAL INTERVENTION
Carlene Firmin MBE
Senior Research Fellow, University of Bedfordshire
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Who we are…
Partnership founded in 2013 to address young people’s
experiences of gender inequality
Headed by Carlene Firmin MBE
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Responding to gender inequality
Engagement
Policy and
influencing
Research
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Capacity
building
Peer-on-Peer Abuse in England
• One in three girls’ experienced sexual violence from a partner
(Barter 2009)
• Two thirds (65.9%) of contact sexual abuse experienced by
children up to age-17 was perpetrated by someone under-18
(Radford et al 2011)
• ¼ Barnardo’s service users was sexually exploited by their
peers (2011)
• 29% of perpetrators of sexual exploitation in gangs or other
groups under-19 (OCC, 2012)
• Almost a third of 16-18-year-old girls say they’ve been
subjected to unwanted sexual touching in UK schools (EVAW
2010)
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A myriad of concepts
Harmful Sexual
Behaviour
Serious
Youth
Violence
Domestic
Abuse
Child Sexual
Exploitation
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Voices of the Young Women
If you make an enemy of him you make an enemy of all of
them (14 years old)
Sometimes the people that you chill with want you to do
certain things that you don’t want to do, but you have to do it
because you’re part of that crew, you’re part of it (13 years
old)
I said no for something very little I’ve been beaten up and
bottled and I realised if I did say no what would happen…I was
pressurised and scared, I knew deep down I didn’t want it cos I
was still young but I didn’t have a choice (12 years old)
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Voices of young men
People want to be seen as like the alpha male, like the rude boy, the
bad boy. They’ll be scared of him, they want to be the biggest, the
best’
‘Imagine if you got a couple of them in the crew that they’re virgins.
Yeah? It’s a big thing, the first time you have sex with a girl, and
someone laid it on for you. Do you know what I mean? And that
gives him stripes, man, he’s now somebody. Do you know what I
mean? He’s even more than whatever he was then, he’s more now.
‘Cause he can get you sex’
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Examining Cases
Research indicates that context matters yet largely produces
individualised results. Therefore:
Random selection of 9 files yielded data on:
• 145 young people
• 161 homes
• 21 peer groups
• 31 schools
• 9 neighbourhoods
• Quantitative analysis in two stages (74 and 131 variables)
• Qualitative analysis based on statistical themes (122 nodes
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Sites of harm and safety
Where was risk located?
Neighbourhood
School
Peer Group
Home
Child
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Case Overview
Lara, Mark and Serena
• Lara is bullied by Serena in school
• Mark has sexually and physically assaulted others in school over a
number of years
• After two years of bullying Lara is in the toilet with two friends
when Serena enters and steals from her
• Serena says that Lara can have her property back if she has sex with
Mark
• Mark enters the toilets and rapes Lara under the instruction of
Serena
• Lara’s friends watch and Serena films on her phone
• Later that day other boys in school start approaching Lara for sex
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Individuals
Mark
•
•
•
•
•
Male
14 years old
Black British ethnicity
Lives with mother
Recorded as ganginvolved by the police
• Erratic school attendance
• Recorded offences and
arrests for robbery,
physical violence and
drugs possession
Serena
•
•
•
•
•
Female
14 years old
Black British ethnicity
Lives with mother
Recorded as gangassociated by the police
• Regularly attends school
• Record of a robbery
offence
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Lara
• Female
• 14 years old
• Mixed Black/White
ethnicity
• Lives with mother
• Attends school relatively
regularly with some
truancy
• Record of a criminal
damage offence in the
year prior
• Described as withdrawn
and displays suicidal
thoughts in the months
after the offence (nothing
prior)
Families
Mark
Serena
• Mark lives with his
mother and two younger
siblings
• He has some contact with
his father
• There are no child
protection issues raised
about the home
environment
• His mother has contacted
the school to raise her
concerns about Mark’s
behaviour – stating he is
missing from home
frequently and won’t
answer his phone
• Serena lives with mother
and siblings.
• Has witnessed domestic
abuse of her mother
when her parents were
together and of her
father’s later partners
• Both parents have
attempted suicide and
her mother has ongoing
mental health issues
• Her father is in custody
• Following the incident
her mother blames Lara
on social media
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Lara
• Lives with her mother
and sibling
• Has limited contact with
her father
• Witnessed domestic
abuse during childhood
• Father has misused
alcohol historically
• However, family are
supportive following the
incident and take
appropriate steps to
support their daughter
Peer Groups
Mark
Serena
Lara
• Mark is gang-associated
outside of school, and
has a large peer network
who are involved in
violent and criminal
activity
• A number of Mark’s peers
outside of school have
convictions for robbery
and drug related
offences, and some of
them are in their late
teens and early twenties
• In school he is relatively
isolated from his peers
who report being afraid
of him and his behaviour
• Serena is described as a
bully by her school-based
peers during police
interviews
• She is acquainted with a
number of young people
in school who report
being afraid of her and
her father’s reputation
• Serena also has gangassociated peers outside
of school, both male and
female. One of Serena’s
friends is being sexually
exploited
• Lara is in supportive peer
group of young women
and also has a small
number of young men in
her wider peer network
• Two of Lara’s female
peers witness the assault
but do not intervene, and
as a result are charged
but acquitted
• Some of Lara’s peers
support her following the
abusive incident whereas
others side with Serena
• All peers refuse to give
evidence to the police
due to fear of reprisals
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School
Lara, Serena and Mark
• The school is aware of the impact that local gang-related violence is having on their
students
• Lara is bullied by Serena in school. Other students also report bullying by Serena,
however the school denies that she is a bully and instead refer to her as
‘headstrong’
• School professionals are aware of Serena’s vulnerabilities at home and seek to
protect her in school which is her ‘safe place’
• Lara is exposed to sexual and physical violence between her peers in school
• It is on school property that Lara is raped
• Mark sexually harasses and physically assaults young women within school for two
years
• The school respond with detentions and reprimands but do not refer to children’s
social care
• The school offer Mark’s mother a parenting programme to address her concerns
• Parents state that they will not support their young people to give evidence during
the investigation as it will compromise their safety in school
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Neighbourhood
Mark
Serena
Lara
• Mark spends most of him
time on the streets in his
local neighbourhood
• Mark is gang-associated in
the local neighbourhood
where he is exposed to and
engages in physical violence
• He was first victimised age
10 when is bike was stolen.
While he was harmed since
this was the only offence
that he ever reported
• The school is so concerned
about the levels of violence
that he is experiencing that
they report he is unsafe
outside of the school gates
• Serena is associated to
gang-involved peers in the
neighbourhood
• There is police intelligence
to suggest that she has been
threatened on the street by
young men in the past
• One of her female peers is
being sexually exploited by
a street-based group of
young men
• Serena is repeatedly going
missing into the
neighbourhood but the
incidents are rarely reported
by her family
• Lara spends little time out in
the local neighbourhood
• She goes to the shops with
her friends
• Lara is aware that both
Serena Mark are associated
to different local gangs but
she is not associated with
them in the neighbourhood
- only through school
• After the offence Lara is
attacked on the street near
her school by people who
claim to be friends of
Serena
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Thematic Findings – Nature of peeron-peer abuse
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Why age and gender matter
Multi-way interplay between contexts and individuals
Intimate relationships played out in context of peer group
Escalation
Limitations of disruption – in absence of social change
‘Symbolic violence’ – survival and dependency
‘Context weighting’
Leaders and followers
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Current Policy and Practice Context
CSE
DA
SHB
SYV/Gangs
Home Office
Home Office
?
Home Office
Local MultiMASE
agency working CSE-Subgroup
LSCB
MARAC
Safer
Communities
? / SHB group
Multi-agency
gangs group
Assessment
CSE
CAADA DASH
AIM
Matrix
Services
CSE services
Sex Offender
Treatment
IDVA, Refuge
DV
Perpetrators
SHB services
Local gangs
projects
Policing
CAIT / Sexual
Offences
DV Team /
Homicide
CAIT
Gang
Injunctions
Government
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Building a Response
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Child Protection and Safeguarding?
Vulnerable
adolescents
vs.
Vulnerable
children
Abuse by
young people
vs. Abuse by
adults
Risk outside
the home vs.
Risk within
the home
Unsafe social
spaces vs.
Unsafe
individuals
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Development
through dependency
on spaces beyond
the home
Therefore those
spaces also require
assessment and
intervention
Reconsider focus of assessment and
intervention
Society
Neighbourhood
Re-focusing attention on the
rules in each social space
School
Peer Group
and not just those who
adhere to, or reproduce/
reconstruct, them
Home
Child
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Understanding Peer Group Roles
Followers
Leaders
Bystanders
Bystanders
(+)
(-)
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Addressing the Question of Culpability
and Consent
Consent/MACR
Consent/Power
Consent/Agency
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Mapping and Profiling
• Supporting partners to engage in peer group mapping, including the
identification of leaders and followers
• Working with partners to identify whether particular profiles of
peer-on-peer abuse may be impacting young people with whom
you work
• Mapping and profiling should come from a combination of
individual warning signs and an awareness of contexts of harm
• Work with outreach partners with vulnerable localities and
generate information- schools, parks, transport hubs etc.
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Four building blocks of a response
1.
2.
3.
4.
Beyond ‘issues’ to vulnerable young people and vulnerable
contexts
Rooted in safeguarding that is age and gender specific
Built upon knowledge of local profile of contexts and young
people of concern
Identifies, assesses and intervenes with reference to interplay
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Thank you
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ANY QUESTIONS?
[email protected]
@MsUnderstoodUK
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