Citation

Thorburn N. SAANZ 2018; 2018: e75.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Australian and New Zealand Association for Treatment of Sexual Abusers)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The sexual exploitation of young people through trafficking or forced prostitution is recognised as a global issue, but there is presently no research on how this occurs in a New Zealand context. Research from other jurisdictions suggests that while a range of grooming behaviour has been identified in abusers’ methods of victim entrapment, there are often consistencies amongst findings; most notably, the abuser’s positioning as a ‘boyfriend’ of the victim. In addition, victims’ histories, in particularly of trauma, abuse, and marginalisation, have been shown to operate synergistically to create vulnerability. This study used part of the data gathered as part of a wider doctoral project to explore the experiences of New Zealand adolescent victims, and to consider these experiences specifically in relation to recruitment and entrapment. Participants’ experiences demonstrated considerable congruence with international findings regarding the paramountcy of the perceived ‘love’ relationship (termed the ‘love-illusion’ here), and the scope of abusive methods that fostered their appeasement and compliance. Implications for practice with this population group include methods of contact, attention to on-going fear, and the need to broaden conceptualisations of ‘risk’ in recognition of insidious methods of control.