ABSTRACT
The UK is considered to be a destination, transit and source country for trafficking of children of young people and the focus of this contribution is on children who have experienced trafficking, drawing on research into the trafficking of children into, within and out of England. Trafficking is a gendered phenomenon, from the ways in which recruitment occurs through to the consequences within gendered laws and policy responses. In 1995, the subject of 'child trafficking' first came to the attention of social workers in West Sussex when a child went missing from local authorities care for, it was suspected, child sexual exploitation (CSE). However, these UK cases of sexual exploitation do sit within ongoing debates about CSE. Brayley and Cockbain have argued that UK-born children are trafficked specifically for sex within the UK and call for a definition of 'internal child sex trafficking' to assist practitioners define issues of 'movement', 'transportation' and patterns of abuse.
