Mitigating Harm: Work with Sexually Exploited Young People

This a good read: Mitigating Harm: Considering Harm Reduction Principles in Work with Sexually Exploited Young People Hickle 2015 Children & Society Wiley Online Library

Consideration is given to how principles of harm reduction and a public health approach to engage adults and young people in help-seeking behaviours, can be considered as part of a children’s rights-centred approach to policy and practice with young people experiencing CSE.

‘Rescuing victims of domestic abuse from their abusive relationships, as a strategy, is now recognised as being unlikely to end the relationship, nor is it likely to encourage help-seeking and recovery behaviours. More importantly, just as services and practitioners working with those experiencing domestic abuse now recognise the complexities of this issue, we would do well to understand that CSE is not a simple case of rescue, abstinence or of victim-blaming when a young person doesn’t willingly leave an exploitative relationship’.

Source:  Children & Society Volume 30, Issue 4, pages 302–313, July 2016