The UK sees a difference in boys and girls with the types of exploitations they are victims of. Modern slavery is a term used to describe all types of slavery from human trafficking to slavery and exploitation. Each month there is roughly over 600 children being safeguarded by Law enforcement agencies in the UK.

There are many types of exploitation from criminal to sexual with 1 in 20 children being sexually abused, according to data research.

By the end of December 2021, the number of referrals of children to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) has increased by 9% since last year, from 5,028 to 5,468. The NRM is designed to identify, refer and support victims of modern slavery in the UK and trafficking.

The Crown Prosecution service had a conviction rate of 51% for 185 modern slavery-related prosecutions involving a child victim between 2016-2021.

Exploitation is a sub-category in the definition of modern slavery, with over 17 different types of exploitation.

The most common ones that boys and girls are received reasonable grounds decision (RDG) by sex and type of exploitation in the UK are displayed by Figure One below. The statistics have been sourced from Office for National Statistics.

Figure 1:

 

Criminal exploitation is shown as the most common type of exploitation in boys as the figure shows 62% received a positive RDG which is when an assessment is made on whether they’re likely to be victims or not.

Boys are more likely to be exploited criminally than girls because they want to gain male dominance and status and are associated more with gangs than the 17% of girls who are criminally exploited.

Children that are more at risk of criminal exploitation narrows down to problems at home, neglect or already living in gang territory, research suggests.

Sexual exploitation is another frequent type of exploitation. Girls are more likely than boys to be victimised in sexual exploitation, data suggests. With figure one showing 42% of girls received a positive RDG whereas boys are 2%, ending December 2021. 

Girls are more likely to be a victim of sexual assault no matter the age, research suggests  females lifetime contact with sexual abuse is 7.0% aged 11-17 and males are 2.6% likely. Modern slavery is all around us, normally out of sight but nobody should ever be a victim.

For support please visit:

The Modern Slavery and Exploitation Helpline

NSPCC | The UK children’s charity | NSPCC