Police have failed to gain an accurate understanding of grooming gangs despite years of worrying trends, according to the police watchdog. His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) scrutinised 27 cases and found that data collection was “unreliable”, while intelligence gathering “wasn’t prioritised”. The report was published last Friday and said that while there had been some progress, it was disappointing that greater knowledge and responses to protect vulnerable children had not been implemented.
Concerns about child grooming go back more than a decade and large gangs have been jailed in places such as Rotherham, Rochdale, South Yorkshire, Oxford, and Telford. A public inquiry revealed the long-term “devastation and harm” grooming can have on its young victims. The inspectorate reviewed 52 child sexual abuse investigations, revealing that 27 involved group abuse. However, the watchdog failed to name the police forces involved, revealing only that the most common group of ethnic offenders was white, followed by Asians or British Asians.
In April, former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, highlighted the “overwhelming” involvement of British-Pakistani men in child grooming, pointing to notorious cases in Rochdale, Rotherham and Telford. But the report by HMICFRS contradicted this point despite acknowledging the limitation of not having a sample size that was representative. The watchdog recommended that the Home Office adopt a more consistent way of tracking abuse by grooming gangs and it highlighted the use of officers who were not specialised in sexual abuse investigations.
The report also raised concerns about “victim blaming,” often a barrier to young people coming forward to report abuse. The inspectors found “inappropriate language” being used in three of the six forces that were examined. In response, Ian Critchley, the National Police Chiefs Council lead for child protection, admitted that there is still a problem with “victim blaming.” He added that the new national police task force is supporting 40 investigations across the country, advised by a Crown Prosecution Service specialist unit
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