ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the first research interviews with convicted internal (domestic) child sex traffickers in the UK. Six men and one young woman took part: the latter was herself a victim of child sexual exploitation. Participants tended to deny their crimes, making this chapter most useful as a source of insights into how traffickers justify their behaviour to themselves and others. Participants’ accounts converged with well-known ‘neutralisation techniques’: justifications people invoke to maintain positive self-image when doing something wrong. Four recurrent themes were identified: denial of responsibility; denial of injury; denial of victims; and condemnation of the condemners. Five participants were Pakistani-heritage, fitting the stereotype of ‘Asian sex gangs’. Yet their accounts were very similar to the white male participant’s. In contrast, the female participant’s account diverged in several key ways. Her story offers rare insights into the experiences of a victim–offender hybrid ultimately convicted for her role in the crime. Some participants spoke about other people’s offending behaviour, offering an inside (albeit mediated) view into the group dynamics of human trafficking networks and processes of recruitment, grooming and abuse. This study was a collaboration between University College London (UCL), the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
