Young People, Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation: A View from Scotland

Abstract

This chapter reviews evidence regarding child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Scotland. As devolution has progressed across the UK, there has been growing interest in the different routes taken in respect to social policy and welfare reform (see, for example, Arnott and Ozga, 2008 and Phillips, 2003 regarding education; Scott and Wright, 2012 regarding policy development; Smith and colleague 2009 regarding health). More recently, there has been a recognition that new alignments are appearing which may or may not present challenges to the coherence of UK policy and practice, or represent ‘real innovation’ in the way that services are delivered (Scott and Wright, 2012: 441). In turn there have been calls for more empirically and theoretically grounded work which examines the extent and nature of difference in the four nations of the UK (Paterson and Iannelli, 2007). Such calls can be linked to broader interest in evidence-based policy, and raise questions about how evidence is shared and interpreted across the UK. This chapter seeks to contribute to such sharing of evidence in respect to the issue of CSE and policy development on this issue in Scotland.