Rotherham Grooming Ganga

[chrisp_1927]

I don't doubt there was a fair bit of that going on but I do also think people in positions of limited authority have a responsibility to themselves and others to act with morality. It consistently annoyed me how much the 'i knew but nobody would have listened to me' excuse has been used after previous scandals, most memorably for me was the Savile stuff. I don't think 'fear of being branded a racist' should be an excuse for not acting.

The likelihood is that the inquiry itself will be used as a political wedge issue for some time and that itself isn't helpful. I think a lot of people calling for it have a pretty clear idea of what they want it to conclude which sort of defeats the point of it in the first place because if it doesn't agree word for word with their opinion, it will be dragged through the mud as 'another cover up'.

Hopefully it is left to do it's work well and then accepted by the British public but I won't hold my breath.

Very much agree. Both in terms of what should happen, and a lack faith in the reaction of sections of the British public.

[JamesWales]

This inquiry is turning into a textbook case of how not to do it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwykd173l3vo

[Eric Cartman]

I tend to think raking over the coals of victim testimony for an enquiry is a pretty un-objective way of reaching actionable conclusions anyway. There is plenty of meaningful track to cover before you even get to questions about the perpetrators and a lot of the conditions that were in place in these towns are precursors to other CSA/CSE, so this shouldn't be out of scope to draw comparisons. One of the themes is likely to be weak/non-existent family unit, which some people are very keen to talk about when it comes to other discussions, but not so keen here...

I also think the idea that the chair being a social worker/police automatically makes the inquiry 'a cover up' is a pretty disgusting assumption to start with because this essentially smears thousands upon thousands of ordinary well meaning people who are doing a good job with little resource.

Ultimately if I am a victim of a crime this severe and life-wrecking, I would probably want the inquiry to focus on me, and we won't get any meaningful conclusions working like that.

But it probably comes back to what I said earlier in the thread 'A lot of people calling for it have a pretty clear idea of what they want it to conclude, which sort of defeats the point of it in the first place'.

[JamesWales]

I tend to think raking over the coals of victim testimony for an enquiry is a pretty un-objective way of reaching actionable conclusions anyway. There is plenty of meaningful track to cover before you even get to questions about the perpetrators and a lot of the conditions that were in place in these towns are precursors to other CSA/CSE, so this shouldn't be out of scope to draw comparisons. One of the themes is likely to be weak/non-existent family unit, which some people are very keen to talk about when it comes to other discussions, but not so keen here...

I also think the idea that the chair being a social worker/police automatically makes the inquiry 'a cover up' is a pretty disgusting assumption to start with because this essentially smears thousands upon thousands of ordinary well meaning people who are doing a good job with little resource.

Ultimately if I am a victim of a crime this severe and life-wrecking, I would probably want the inquiry to focus on me, and we won't get any meaningful conclusions working like that.

But it probably comes back to what I said earlier in the thread 'A lot of people calling for it have a pretty clear idea of what they want it to conclude, which sort of defeats the point of it in the first place'.

I think you are right about there being multiple factors at play, there's push and pull factors, and unstable home lives is sadly a factor in many such cases. I think the sheer number of cases of grooming gangs and -critically- whether they were covered up and allowed to exist for longer than they should have in some cases, is the root cause to be investigated. The inquiry should focus on that rather than child abuse in general, which has far too many factors to consider really.

I just think it's a bad look really. It reeks of the authorities being dragged kicking and screaming into trying to get some justice for these women.

[Heathblue]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/polit...ce74a162&ei=24

[Eric Cartman]

I think you are right about there being multiple factors at play, there's push and pull factors, and unstable home lives is sadly a factor in many such cases. I think the sheer number of cases of grooming gangs and -critically- whether they were covered up and allowed to exist for longer than they should have in some cases, is the root cause to be investigated. The inquiry should focus on that rather than child abuse in general, which has far too many factors to consider really.

I just think it's a bad look really. It reeks of the authorities being dragged kicking and screaming into trying to get some justice for these women.

Well theres two routes. You pick each individual case to pieces and try and go after people or you look at systemic challenges that are going to be present in lots of CSA cases (like strength of family, strength of CLA arrangements where the LA are the corporate parent, lack of services past 16/18 due to cuts etc, bad practice and lack of managerial oversight/effective checks on casework), then wtf was going on in the police when things were reported (which I have next to zero knowledge about) and finally why were these gangs themselves acting in plain sight for what feels like a long time (lack of trust in authorities from within communities, obv religious/race based attachment that prevented anybody from within the community speaking out). I feel like you need to look at the broader picture to be able to say whether something is a) an issue across the board or b) unique to these cases.

As crap as it sounds, the window for individual justice has been and gone probably, it will be like playing whack-a-mole. The focus needs to be on addressing these kind of systemic challenges and strengthening these systems going forward.

[Eric Cartman]

The amount of PE money in systems relating to children (social care and SEND) is obscene, outcomes are worse and they spend half their energy suing each other and the state.