Commercial Sexual Exploitation Awareness

Equally Safe is Scotland’s strategy to prevent and address all forms of violence against women and girls, specifically violence, abuse and exploitation directed at them because of their gender. This behaviour is predominantly carried out by men and stems from deep-rooted gender inequality, which is unacceptable in modern-day Scotland.

The Equally Safe Strategy describes commercial sexual exploitation as a form of violence against women that includes:

It is also quoted as “Any form of payment where sexual acts are exchanged, this may be in the forms of money, accommodation, drugs, food or alcohol and is a form of violence against women” (Scottish Government, 2018).

The projects together help to inform the implementation of Scotland’s strategic approach to challenging men’s demand for prostitution. Pornography and exploiting sex are seen as acceptable to buy. The conference left people thinking why men have the right to sex and women’s bodies and how Scotland’s projects are working together to challenge this.

Like Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA), CSE goes on behind closed doors, is often not spoken about or recognised as a problem in Fife and Scotland. Today commercial sexual exploitation is bigger than the world’s cocaine habit and is almost as big as the global PC market and has the same combined revenue of McDonald’s, Netflix and Walt Disney.

Many factors that make women vulnerable to the sex industry involve single parenting, financial pressures, poverty, lack of social support, emigration, childhood sexual abuse and insecure housing. Gender inequality, economic constraints and a positive portrayal of the ‘sex industry’. Women often enter prostitution to solve a problem as highlighted above however, it does not solve the problem. Instead, it leads to the women often becoming trapped, finding it extremely difficult to leave and exploited.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation is physical, emotional, social, financial and sexual abuse and with aims to identify, prevent and respond, early intervention is essential.

Women are not to blame for sexual exploitation and should be free of abuse, harm, shame and blame. It is reassuring to see local projects, the police and government working hard to prevent women and girls from harm and abuse.

Should you know of anyone or have any concerns for individuals who may be exploited please do not hesitate to contact the police, this can be done completely anonymously or the support services below.