Frequently, the police and social services have refused to intervene because the victims, often well below the age of 16, had supposedly consented. For example, the 2018 Newcastle Serious Case Review highlighted that “… 85 per cent of victims of sexual exploitation had received services from sexual health services” and produced examples of 12-15 year-old girls being provided with contraception and abortion without questions being raised about safeguarding. This is a module outline for students on Business School Masters courses (e.g. He tweets at @cricketwyvernWhy have pregnancy rates been going down so consistently? Javid has said he will not be afraid to confront this question.But there is another feature of the child sexual abuse scandals which has received less attention. David Paton is professor of industrial economics at Nottingham University Business School. For example, earlier Why is it that sexual health interventions have proved so ineffective in tackling teenage pregnancies? This is the way in which underage sexual activity in the UK has come to be viewed as relatively harmless as long as it is consensual. David Paton is professor of industrial economics at Nottingham University Business School. It has been given cover by the lack of media interest.Sajid Javid has shown admirable courage in his willingness to ignore politically correct concerns. Given the That doesn’t necessarily mean, of course, that schools should not provide SRE – there may be all sorts of other reasons why schools have a useful role to play in this sensitive area – but policymakers should not expect such interventions to have much of an effect on teenage pregnancy rates at least.Why then have pregnancy rates been going down so consistently? Such a result may seem surprising, but it is consistent with other evidence. In many cases, the extent and systematic nature of the abuse has been hard to comprehend. Worse, official policies which encourage the confidential provision of contraception and abortion to minors have been found to have facilitated and perpetuated sexual abuse of vulnerable young people.One of the first people to draw attention to this aspect of the problem was the late Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust. Over the past 40 years, many countries have phased out lead in petrol, partly on the Is Facebook or unleaded petrol behind the sharp reduction in teenage pregnancy across the world? He tweets at @cricketwyvern. parts of the country is part of the Intriguingly, though, a range of other risky teenage behaviours have also been trending down over the same period. The jury is still out but, either way, it is puzzles such as these that make the social sciences such a fascinating area in which to work. At the same time, an unhealthy emphasis on confidentiality was used too often to exclude parents who might otherwise have helped stop the abuse at an earlier stage.In one particularly tragic case, a vulnerable 15-year old with special needs from Hampshire was being sexually abused at school. Because the school judged her to be engaging in “consensual” sexual activity, her parents were not informed, and as a result the child continued to suffer abuse for years.Other reviews have come to similar conclusions.
Authors. Written by David Paton. As in many other countries, the typical British teenager One hypothesis is that reductions in adolescent risky behaviour may be The timing certainly fits: platforms such as Facebook began to play an important role in teenagers’ lives just at the time risk-taking behaviour began to trend down.