• What’s love got to do with it? theorising young people’s involvement in prostitution

      Melrose, Margaret; University of Bedfordshire (National Youth Agency, 2010-06)
      This article critically considers dominant explanations of young people’s involvement in prostitution, focusing particularly on young adults, in the light of neo-liberal policy developments and the workfare state. It argues that these explanations are limited by the fact that they fail to take into account the underlying conditions that make involvement a viable option. By taking account of these conditions, and the ways in which young people may exercise agency within them, the article offers a more nuanced account of young people’s involvement in prostitution .
    • Twenty-first century party people: young people and sexual exploitation in the new millennium

      Melrose, Margaret; University of Bedfordshire (Wiley, 2013-05)
      This article reviews existing evidence and debates in relation to young people and sexual exploitation in the light of new empirical evidence generated through primary research. This research explored the types of sexual exploitation that practitioners had worked with in the preceding year and Local Safeguarding Children Boards’ responses to young people's sexual exploitation. The findings indicate that there may be several models of sexual exploitation operating simultaneously in any particular area, and the article therefore suggests that the discourse on young people's sexual exploitation that has dominated policy and practice for more than a decade in the UK requires reconsideration to account for the complex forms of sexual exploitation young people experience in the 21st century. The paper suggests that, in order to provide young people with the most appropriate support, practice responses need to be developed from the concrete conditions in which young people are subject to sexual exploitation, rather than applying abstract ‘models’ that fail to capture the lived experience of the young people concerned.
    • Human trafficking and online networks: policy, analysis, and ignorance

      Mendel, Jonathan; Sharapov, Kiril; University of Bedfordshire; University of Dundee; University of Dundee; University of Bedfordshire (Wiley, 2016)
      Dominant anti-trafficking policy discourses represent trafficking as an issue of crime, “illegal” migration, victimhood and humanitarianism. Such a narrow focus is not an adequate response to the interplay between technology, trafficking and anti-trafficking. This article explores different levels of analysis and the interplay between human trafficking and technology. We argue for a shift from policy discourses with a very limited focus on crime and victimisation to more systemic understandings of trafficking and more robust micro-analyses of trafficking and everyday life. The article calls for an agnotological understanding of policy responses to trafficking and technology: these depend upon the production of ignorance. We critique limitations in policy understandings of trafficking-related aspects of online spaces, and argue for better engagement with online networks. We conclude that there is a need to move beyond a focus on “new” technology and exceptionalist claims about “modern slavery” towards greater attention to everyday exploitation within neoliberalism.
    • 'Traffickers and their victims': anti-trafficking policy in the United Kingdom

      Sharapov, Kiril; University of Bedfordshire (SAGE, 2015-08-20)
      This paper relies upon the ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ approach to policy analysis to interrogate key representations of human trafficking implicit in the UK government’s anti-trafficking policy. It identifies six policy vectors, or representations, of human trafficking embedded within the policy, including organized crime, ‘illegal’ immigration, and victim assistance as three primary vectors; sexual exploitation/prostitution, poverty in countries of victims’ origin, and isolated instances of labour law infringements as three secondary vectors. In addition, a series of assumptions, which underlie the current interpretation of trafficking, are also identified. By exploring what the problem of human trafficking is represented to be, the paper also provides an insight into what remains obscured within the context of the dominant policy frameworks. In doing so, it highlights the role of state-capital entanglements in normalizing exploitation of trafficked, smuggled and ‘offshored’ labour, and critiques the UK’s anti-trafficking policy for manufacturing doubt as to the structural causes of human trafficking within the context of neoliberalism.
    • Giving us the ‘biggest bang for the buck’ (or not): anti-trafficking government funding in Ukraine and the United Kingdom

      Sharapov, Kiril; University of Bedfordshire (Anti-Trafficking Review, 2014-09)
      The focus of this paper is on government anti-trafficking policies and funding allocations in two case-study countries, Ukraine and the United Kingdom (UK). The paper discusses specific ways, or ‘vectors’, in which human trafficking has been discursively constructed by national policies and the solutions that have been offered to counteract it. It relies on publicly available information and information obtained via Freedom of Information requests from public authorities in these countries to explore the extent to which anti-trafficking funding allocated by national governments supports or unsettles such representations. A broader definition of human trafficking has been encoded into anti-trafficking policies in Ukraine, implicating migratory pressures and violation of irregular migrants’ human rights as the root causes of trafficking. However, the ability of the government to act upon this definition is limited by the ongoing socio-economic and political crises in Ukraine. This is in comparison to the politicised construction of trafficking by the UK government as a threat from international organised crime and ‘illegal’ immigration. The paper concludes that governments in both countries put their anti-trafficking money where ‘their mouths are’: crime, immigration and victim care in the UK, and awareness raising, victim care and training of ‘frontline professionals’ in Ukraine.
    • Making justice work : experiences of criminal justice for children and young people affected by sexual exploitation as victims and witnesses

      Beckett, Helen; Warrington, Camille; University of Bedfordshire (University of Bedfordshire, 2015-03)
      Making Justice Work is a one year participatory pilot research project, carried out by The International Centre: Researching Child Sexual Exploitation, Violence and Trafficking at The University of Bedfordshire. The research explored young people’s experiences of the criminal justice system in child sexual exploitation (CSE) cases, and the ways in which these could be improved.
    • Consultation with experts on the prevention of sexual abuse of children: preparation of the Council of Europe Campaign to stop sexual violence against children

      Pearce, Jenny J.; University of Bedfordshire (Council of Europe, 2009-12-10)
      This report summarises the contributions of the participants who attended the meeting in December 2009 and is based on: the information given in presentations from the experts at the meeting; and the discussions that followed presentations and took place in plenary summary events.
    • What works for us? : Young People's Advisory Group Annual Report 2010/11

      Warrington, Camille; University of Bedfordshire; Barnardo's; Comic Relief; Ecpat UK; National Working Group for Sexually Exploited Children and Young People (University of Bedfordshire, 2011)
    • Ethical statement : research into gang-associated sexual violence and exploitation

      Beckett, Helen; University of Bedfordshire (University of Bedfordshire, 2011)
    • Providing safe and supported accommodation for young people who are in the care system and who are at risk of, or experiencing, sexual exploitation or trafficking for sexual exploitation

      Brodie, Isabelle; Melrose, Margaret; Pearce, Jenny J.; Warrington, Camille; University of Bedfordshire (University of Bedfordshire, 2011-07)
      This report presents the findings of a scoping study into accommodation for young people at risk of/experiencing sexual exploitation. The scoping study took place January to March 2011 and included a literature search, consultation with young people, consultation with practitioners and development of a full research proposal. The research was funded by the NSPCC.
    • What's going on to safeguard children and young people from sexual exploitation? how local partnerships respond to child sexual exploitation

      Jago, Sue; Arocha, Lorena; Brodie, Isabelle; Melrose, Margaret; Pearce, Jenny J.; Warrington, Camille; University of Bedfordshire (University of Bedfordshire, 2011)
      This report presents the findings of a two year study into the extent and nature of responses by LSCBs to the 2009 government guidance on safeguarding children and young people from sexual exploitation.
    • Youth gangs, sexual violence and sexual exploitation: a scoping exercise for the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England

      Pearce, Jenny J.; Pitts, John; University of Bedfordshire (University of Bedfordshire, 2011-03)
      This report presents the findings of a scoping exercise on the issue of youth gangs, sexual violence and sexual exploitation, derived from key informant interviews and a literature review.
    • Safe accommodation for sexually exploited and trafficked young people: briefing paper

      Shuker, Lucie; University of Bedfordshire (University of Bedfordshire, 2011-07)
      This briefing paper considers the factors that will contribute to effective and safe accommodation by summarising key messages from literature related to sexually exploited and trafficked young people, as well as the provision of specialist foster care for vulnerable young people in general.
    • The recruitment of foster carers: key messages from the research literature

      Shuker, Lucie; University of Bedfordshire (University of Bedfordshire, 2012-02)
      This report summarises key learning from existing literature around the recruitment of foster carers.
    • The Barnardo's Safe Accommodation Project: consultation with young people

      Shuker, Lucie; University of Bedfordshire (University of Bedfordshire, 2012-04)
      This report presents the findings of a consultation with young people in the care system affected by sexual exploitation or trafficking, conducted as part of the Barnardo's Safe Accommodation project. The consultation focused on experiences of the care system and how these could be improved.
    • Research into gang-associated sexual exploitation and sexual violence : interim report

      Beckett, Helen; Brodie, Isabelle; Factor, Fiona; Melrose, Margaret; Pearce, Jenny J.; Pitts, John; Shuker, Lucie; Warrington, Camille; University of Bedfordshire (University of Bedfordshire, 2012-11)
      This report presents the interim findings of a two year study into gang-associated sexual exploitation and violence
    • Exploring the scale and nature of child sexual exploitation in Scotland

      Brodie, Isabelle; Pearce, Jenny J.; University of Bedfordshire (Scottish Government, 2012-10-17)
      This report provides a summary of known evidence about the scale and nature of child sexual exploitation in Scotland, based on existing statistics and research and workshops with practitioner experts.