Press release: Report examines care and justice for vulnerable children

Children who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation may be in contact with the support system for years without being identified. In cases where children are identified, there is a lack of intervention to protect them from further abuse. These are the findings of the investigative report “Everybody looked but nobody saw” released today by the Ombudsman against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.

– What is clear from the report is that there are currently so many shortcomings in the support and protection of vulnerable children that it is impossible to call it anything other than a systemic failure,” says Gabriella Kärnekull Wolfe, Ombudsman against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.

The report is the first to take a holistic approach to the commercial sexual exploitation of children in Sweden by examining how the care and support system and the judicial system work for vulnerable children. The conclusions show that there are serious shortcomings in identification and treatment that lead to the exploitation of the children, who are usually girls, can continue for many years before it is stopped.

– We see that adults distrust the children or minimize the exposure. Exploitation is often seen as a behavioral problem in the child, which means that interventions focus on the child to change or “stop” their behavior. But exploitation is not a choice, it is abuse,” says Gabriella Kärnekull Wolfe.

At present, there are no recommendations or guidelines for the interventions that health and social services should implement for the target group. This means that children’s access to help varies greatly. Some receive no help at all, while others are placed in special youth homes or receive treatment for self-harm.

– The lack of guidelines and recommendations for the target group is legally unsafe and creates very unequal care. Two much-needed measures to start improving the situation are to develop guidelines and recommendations and to increase the knowledge of professionals who meet the target group,” says Gabriella Kärnekull Wolfe.

Interviews and reviews of court cases also show that children are victimized in contexts and arenas where there are many adults around. For example, perpetrators may pick up children at schools, from residential care homes, or in connection with visits to the social services.

Read “Everyone was watching but no one saw” here.

About the report:The report is written freely based on two studies; a qualitative interview study with six victims of commercial sexual exploitation as children conducted by Wanjiku Kaime, Senior Lecturer at Mid Sweden University and a study containing a survey of the legal system in law and practice conducted by Madeleine Sundell, children’s rights lawyer. These studies have been supplemented with a review of judgments between 2020 and 2022 and relevant literature. For more information on the report and methodology, see the report.