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YOUNG RUNAWAYS AND CHILDREN ABUSED THROUGH PROSTITUTION: WORKING GROUP CONSULTATION PAPER
Annex A Potential indicators of involvement in sexual exploitation and prostitution
The indicators should not be read as a definitive list and should not be taken, in themselves, as proof of involvement in prostitution or sexual exploitation. They are intended as a guide which would be included in a wider assessment of the young person's circumstances.
These indicators may include:
- Physical symptoms (bruising suggestive of either physical or sexual assault)
- Prevalence of a sexually transmitted infection
- Young person known to be sexually active
- Reports from reliable sources suggesting the likelihood of involvement in prostitution
- Reports that the child has been seen in places known to be used for prostitution
- Evidence of substance misuse
- Leaving home/care setting in clothing unusual for individual child (inappropriate for age, borrowing clothing from older young people)
- Reportedly consorting with unknown adults outside the usual range of contacts and /or other children know to be involved in sexual exploitation.
- Phone calls or letters from adults outside the usual range of social contacts
- Adults loitering outside the child's usual place of residence
- Significantly older "boyfriend"
- Accounts of social activities with no plausible explanation of the source of necessary funding
- Persistently missing or returning late with no plausible explanation
- Returning after having been missing, looking well cared for in spite of having no known base
- Missing for long periods, with no known base
- Possession of large amounts of money with no plausible explanation
- Acquisition of expensive clothes or other possessions without plausible explanation
- Low self image
- History of physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect
- Truancy
- Entering or leaving vehicles driven by unknown adults
- Going missing and found in areas where the child or young person has no known links
- Possible inappropriate use of the Internet and the forming of relationships, particularly adults, via the Internet.
Footnotes
1 Missing Out Young Runaways in Scotland, Jim Wade, University of York
2 Still Running Children on the Streets in the UK, Safe on the Streets Research Team, The Children's Society 1999
3 Still Running, Children on the Streets in the UK, Safe on the Streets Research Team, The Children's Society, 1999
4 Missing Out, Young Runaways in Scotland, Jim Wade, University of York
5 Words of 14 year old boy abused through prostitution quoted by Tink Palmer in No Son of Mine! Children abused through prostitution published by Barnardo's
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