Over the past few decades Britain has suffered from a grooming gang epidemic where many young girls were been victims of grooming gangs by predominantly Pakistani men. The local authorities failed to react to support these victims. The Independent reports one example of a twelve-year-old girl went to a police station to report a rape where she was told to come back when she was “not drunk”. She was then taken in a car and raped, before being taken back into a house where she was raped multiple times by five different men. The Daily Mail reports that a ringleader of a grooming gang which exploited girls as young as thirteen was allowed to keep his job as a “welfare officer” at Oldham Council, despite multiple concerns raised about him and his arrest for the sexual assault of children. This still goes on today. Almost 19,000 children have been groomed in England in the past year, which is up from 3,300 five years before. Surely this massive scandal should be at the top of MPs concerns and the greatest shame of the nation. So why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?
There are many reasons for the grooming gang scandal. One of the main reasons is that the story is politically incorrect. The police and social services were worried they’d receive accusations of racism if they prosecuted majority Pakistani men. The father of a chief inspector was reportedly told: “With it being Asians, we can’t afford for this to be coming out as Rotherham would erupt.” In addition, after years of championing that diversity is our strength and we should embrace uncontrolled immigration, the spike of Pakistani men grooming young white girls would threaten the message of tolerance and inclusion. The mainstream left wing media still denies this today, with fears that raising awareness of this will fuel racism or the far right. Any acknowledgement of race makes too many people shudder, despite most of these instances being about Pakistani men grooming white girls. A Labour Party MP, Naz Shah, was more explicit about it as she shared a tweet saying that the victims should just “shut their mouths for the good of diversity”.
The other main reason was the fact that these girls were mostly working class from broken families. This means that authorities could ignore these girls because it was inconvenient for them. The police and social services were allowed to be incompetent because they suffered no consequences for their actions. In some cases, the police have resorted to “community resolution” where sex offenders can simply apologise to their victims without receiving jail time. According to The Mirror, officers in Durham, Cheshire and Nottinghamshire have all used it for the rape of girls under 13. In addition, the parents seem to be out of the picture in a lot of these cases. The institutions of the British state has left victims powerless and voiceless. Where can these vulnerable young girls turn to when their authority figures fail?
This is an example that the state monopoly on welfare and policing has let the vulnerable down. When the state fails to support the victims, they have nowhere to turn. By providing privatised welfare and protection, the vulnerable would have a choice over where they receive help. In addition, as these welfare and protection agencies having to compete, they would be able to provide a better service to the most vulnerable who need it.
Meanwhile, the political incentive drives institutions to become unsympathetic bureaucracies that hurt the communities they are meant to protect. Through caring about what is politically correct, the police and social services have let down thousands of vulnerable children. If this scandal was about a company, it would go out of business quickly. Those responsible for dismissing the grooming gang victims would face real penalties.
Parents have trusted the state to take care of their children and communities have trusted the state to take care of the most vulnerable. Parents have outsourced their role to the state which provides childcare to their children throughout most of their years. Meanwhile, charity is seen as obsolete with the state being the main source of welfare. This has led community and parental relations to dissolve, meaning that vulnerable children are left in the hands of the state that has shown to have failed them.
The state controlling social services has led to a postcode lottery of service, meaning that those in deprived areas aren’t receiving the support they need. The victims of the grooming gangs would be able to seek genuine support through private charity, receiving help from altruistic individuals rather than soulless government agents who just want to get the paperwork done. Though it is nowhere near comparable, I too have experiences with the British social services in my youth due to several domestic violence incidences. Oftentimes, the social workers just want to tick a few boxes. This discourages victims to feel comfortable and open up, not providing the support they deserve as they may feel rushed and unheard. Meanwhile, my experience with private charity have been much better where I felt listened to and understood. Instead of their taxes being drained on inefficient government spending on social services, it would be more beneficial for individuals to have more money in their pocket to donate to worthy causes.
The current British system leaves victims without help and choice. The free market provides a plurality of mechanisms to help victims. In addition, the profit incentive provides a means to encourage organisations to support victims in oppose to supporting perpetrators. The British state institutions have failed victims and it’s the British state institutions that want to cover it up. The reality is that this the biggest scandal over the last few decades and it’s the British state that is complicit in ignoring these young, vulnerable girls for the sake of it being inconvenient for their political agenda.
