Grooming of the disabled

Companion dog

As part of our research into grooming, we asked victims if they are disabled. 32.1% said yes, they have or had a disability. The latest estimates from the Department for Work and Pensions’ Family Resources Survey indicate that 24% of the total population have disabilities.

On the face of it, people with disabilities were more likely to be groomed. But a deeper dive showed that it would be wrong to draw this conclusion.

Offically, people are defined as disabled if have a physical or mental health condition or illness that has lasted or is expected to last 12 months or more, and that condition and/or illness reduces their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. We hadn’t defined what ‘disabled’ means when we asked our research question.

Our figures aren’t comparing like with like. Some respondents said that no, they weren’t disabled, because their disability is invisible. Others said that yes they were because being groomed had left them with PTSD.

So, going forward, our new research will need be far more specific. However, there is one specific disability where we’ve been aware for a while that people are being targetted: autism. Or so we thought. We extracted these numbers and have taken a deeper dive below.

We reworked our figures to exclude people with autism from the numbers to see if that painted a different picture. Could it be that being disabled actually protected people from grooming? Sadly, the statistics took a darker turn, and it seemed MORE likely, not less that people with disabilities are being targetted.

We took a further dive, removing the statistics for anyone with mental health issues and disorders, mostly because we know that many people who have been groomed are left with PTSD/CPTSD. However, we could find no publicly available statistics to draw a comparison to, so the numbers were meaningless.

We do not feel it would be ethical or useful to draw any massive conclusions from this part of our research. We know that our methodology was flawed, the question was too open and gave no timeline. Were they disabled when the grooming began? Has the disability emerged since being groomed? And, as mentioned above, what is a disability?

The only thing we CAN conclude is that this is an area for more research, and our call handling may need some adaptations.

Autism and Grooming

26/274 repsonses mentioned autism as a disability. 1-2% of the population is autistic, yet around 9.5% of our respondents, self defined as autistic. This was not unexpected - our calls have been disproportionately from parents concerned about the grooming of their adult autistic offspring.

And we are aware that other organisations, unsure of how to help, are directing people to us. Where cancer charities would expect to be serving more people with cancer than the general population, it is very possible that our statistics are ‘out’ for precisely the same reason. We have become known for our understanding. So, again, we don’t feel able to draw the conclusion that autistic people are more likely to be targetted than average.

We can say, however, that people with ‘autism spectrum’ conditions can be more vulnerable to exploitation in general because they may:

• miss social cues including when the behaviour of others is concerning or inappropriate;

• be very trusting;

• find it hard to articulate what is happening to them;

• have their distress, especially if manifesting physically, misread by those around them;

• be viewed as easy targets by groomers (and other perpetrators);

• be overprotected/ sheltered meaning they haven’t learned the social cues, and may be unprepared to live independently, manage finances or cope with a romantic relationship;

• feel isolated;

• have their exploitation go unnoticed because of their autism.

We will continue to offer support through CAAGe, but need to find an effective way of raising the issue of grooming with this target community without affecting their hard won rights to autonomy in relationships.

Our plans for next year include setting up a working group to create an effective and appropriate communications plan that takes into account the specific needs of this community.

Feedback in this area is warmly welcomed: contact us.