From who … to where? A geographical approach to peer-on-peer sexual abuse

Abstract

Child protection systems in many western countries have developed with the aim of protecting young people from harm within families and by adults. But young people encounter harm in places outside of the home, and by peers. This raises a challenge for practitioners who must now consider new ways to protect young people from harm. In this article I focus on peer-on-peer sexual abuse. I reveal how child protection systems focussed on individuals-who?-fail to account for the places harm happens-where? I bring together two theories-situated agency with contextual safeguarding. These provide a lens to understand how young people navigate unsafe places, and how practitioners understand and respond to the spatially contingent nature of abuse. I present data from meeting observations, focus groups and case reviews to argue that a geographical child protection model would equip practitioners with a preventative approach to protecting young people.

Entanglements with offices, information systems, laptops and phones: How agile working is influencing social workers’ interactions with each other and with families

“…It focuses on two particular contexts with implications for social workers’ spatial practices: changes to the design and use of office spaces and practitioners’ increased use of digital information systems, mobile computers and mobile phones in their communication with other practitioners and with families. The discussion complements the developing literature about space and mobilities in child protection work (Disney et al., 2019; Ferguson, 2016; Lloyd, 2019), practitioners’ sense-making practices in child protection (Helm, 2017) and communication and relationships between social workers, children and families (Forrester et al., 2008; Winter et al., 2017).…”

Context matters: Conceptualising and operationalising the contextual prevention of child sexual abuse

“…Each builds on contextual theories, integrates multiple contextual prevention strategies, and plans and coordinates these through stakeholders. The UK's Contextual Safeguarding programme extends the reach of statutory child protection authorities beyond individual children and domestic settings, to the extra-familial contexts in which young people might be harmed (Firmin, 2017;Firmin & Lloyd, 2023, 2022. Extra-familial harms may be most relevant in adolescence, as young people naturally spend more time outside of the family home, such as in schools, parks, entertainment venues and transport hubs.…”

Black girls navigate the physical and emotional landscape of the neighbourhood: Normalized violence and strategic agency

“…There is recognition that exposure to youth violence has a major impact on children's and young people's psychological and mental well-being, powerfully affecting their life chances (Firmin, 2009;Beckett et al, 2013;Pitts, 2013;Walsh, 2018). Studies examining the ways in which young people encounter violence outside of the home environment indicates a multi-faceted phenomenon that poses powerful challenges for safeguarding professionals (Allnock and Atkinson, 2019;Firmin, 2019;Lloyd, 2019).…”

“…There is recognition that exposure to youth violence has a major impact on children’s and young people’s psychological and mental well-being, powerfully affecting their life chances (Beckett et al., 2013; Firmin, 2009; Pitts, 2013; Walsh, 2018). Studies examining the ways in which young people encounter violence outside of the home environment indicate a multi-faceted phenomenon that poses powerful challenges for safeguarding professionals (Allnock and Atkinson, 2019; Firmin, 2019; Lloyd, 2019). However, whilst there is a growing body of work on the impact of youth violence, the violence experienced by young Black women in their neighbourhoods is often overlooked (Medina et al., 2012; Race on the Agenda, 2011; Thapar, 2019).…”

“…Studies have demonstrated that street-based encounters, such as sexual harassment and sexual and physical violence, are not uncommon for Black girls living in socially and economically disadvantaged communities affected by ‘youth violence’ – the term most commonly used in the literature (Disley and Liddle, 2016; Firmin, 2017a; Firmin and Pearce, 2016; Miller, 2008; Pearce, 2009). These studies emphasize that what Firmin (2017a) specifies as ‘peer-on-peer violence’ needs to be understood through a contextual lens because of the intersecting factors that impact young people’s lived experiences (Firmin, 2017b; Firmin and Abbott, 2018; Lloyd, 2019). Specifically, Firmin (2017a) elucidates the ways that peer-based feuds can result in serious violence for young people in their neighbourhoods.…”