The Sex Offence Act 2003 has been a process of
change and amendment since Sex Offence Act 1956 chapter 69.  The offences are up to date which changes
were enforced on or before 27 December 2017 (Open Government license v3.0,
2017). Some children and young people are trafficked into or within the UK for
sexual exploitation which the Law Sexual Offence Act 2003 illustrates offences
of child sexual exploitation, trafficking, family child sex offences and
Notification order chapter 42 (Sex offence Act, 2003). Child trafficking and
modern slavery are child abuse, children are recruited, moved or transported
and then exploited, forced to work or sold (Adesina, 2014). Many children are
trafficked into the UK from abroad, but children can also be trafficked from
one part of the UK to another (Sex Offenders Act, 2003) and (Haynes, 2015).
Certain forms of child exploitation in trafficking involves domestic servitude,
forced marriage, begging, transporting drugs, nurturing cannabis farms, forced
labour in factories or agriculture and benefit frauds which comes under Section
2 Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Haynes, 2015). Barnardo’s and Local Government
Association (2012) and Beckett, Firmin, Hynes, and Pearce (2014) commented that
most sexual abuse isn’t reported, detected or prosecuted. Most children don’t
tell anyone that they’re being sexually abused (Barnardo’s and Local Government
Association 2012) and (Beckett, Holmes and Walker 2017). It’s a crime that is
usually only witnessed by the abuser and the victim (Chase and Statham, 2005).
The top seven most common countries of origin for potential victims of
trafficking recorded in 2016 were Albania, Vietnam, the UK, Nigeria, China,
Romania and Poland (Open Government Licence v3.0, 2017); (Hawkinks,2017) and
(Firmin and Pearce, 2016). Brayley, Cockbain and Gibson (2014) stated that
there is no typical victim of slavery, victims are men, women and children of
all ages, ethnicities and nationalities and cut across the population. However,
it’s normally more prevalent among the most vulnerable or within minority or
socially excluded groups. The problem is much bigger than shown in official
statistics, as most crimes are not disclosed and/or reported. The Department
for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) 2009, supported by research in the
field acknowledges that boys and young men, as well as girls and young women
can be sexually exploited (Department for Education 2014c). Hetero-normal
social environments meant that there may be fewer ‘safe spaces’ for young
people to explore healthy same-sex relationships than there are for those
exploring different-sex relationships. Experience of harassment when ‘coming
out’ is thought to push some young gay men towards a more secretive approach to
sexual contact with others, which could mean exploitative same-sex
relationships could be facilitated and hidden (Brayley, Cockbain and Gibson,
2014). The stigma faced by some gay, bisexual or trans (GBT) young people is a
potential for exacerbating vulnerability – for example, being asked to leave
home and/or experiencing violence due to their sexuality or gender identity.