Child sexual exploitation: a comparative frame analysis of news-media coverage over time

Abstract

Following a number of high-profile cases in UK towns such as Rochdale, Oxford and Rotherham, there has been a surge of interest and commentary about the sexual exploitation of children and young people in media, political and academic forums. An extensive research base dating back to the 1980s shows that, despite this renewed interest, child sexual exploitation is not a new problem, nor is it one new to media outlets and audiences. Sexual exploitation was established as policy concern in England in 2000 after publication of the first government guidance titled “Safeguarding Children Involved in Prostitution” following campaigns by leading children’s charities in the UK. This article uses frame analysis to identify news-media discourses about sexual exploitation of children and young people in two time periods (1997–99 & 2014–15), using a dataset drawn from three national newspapers. The analysis shows how discourses about young women have changed: from the sexualisation of young women in period one to framing young women more explicitly as “vulnerable” and victimised in period two. It reveals a change in the media’s focus on perpetrators, from their relative invisibility in period one to a racialised “media template” in period two.