County lines gangs ‘give young girls to dealers’

[HecatesCatsInFancyHats]

Girls as chattel - still a thing...

"According to the report: “One youth worker referred to the use of ‘gift girls’, describing the sexual exploitation of females by county lines actors where victims are sexually exploited and passed around the wider network as a reward.”

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c9f24868-cc88-11eb-9bfa-a3bc386e6928?shareToken=b5dca6dd7fefd4f79ab5591ada162976

Awful. 😞 The majority of people in the country have no idea what's really happening to women and girls, do they.

Another told the report’s authors that “pop-up brothels” run by organised crime groups and using young British girls had emerged as a phenomenon during the pandemic.

@WarriorN

Awful. 😞 The majority of people in the country have no idea what's really happening to women and girls, do they.

Nor do they seem to care either.

Poor girls. This is awful

I suppose people are becoming more aware of it because it's being bound up with county lines, but that sort of thing has always happened.

I grew up in London in the 80s/90s, and saw girls (and boys) at school being sucked under.

It's nothing new, but the newly afraid middle classes who fear their kids might fall prey to the 'bad guys' at their sought after state schools, now see the longstanding reality given space in the broadsheets.

No they don't.

Not wanting to whataboutery but the comment that there's a rise in rapes by hetero gang members on young men is also shocking. War tactics.

Rape of girls has been so normalised that they now rape the boys too.

Girls and women are seen as things, possessions. We have done very little to challenge this notion. Every time we do someone will come up with a new way to keep women and girls firmly in their place and make sure boys and men have access to them. Porn maintains a silent war against women. Sexism drips through our society like poison and girls and women pay the price. I am so disheartened.

Is collective shout in the U.K.? Is there a similar charity?

We are long overdue if not and if so I feel I should know about it.

www.collectiveshout.org/

Their twitter is good and worth boosting.

I lived in an area with gangs and to think of the young girls there at risk burns my heart. Treating women and girls as commodities is one of the key reasons I have such issues with porn and the sex industry. This is another level as they use emotional methods to draw the usually vulnerable unloved girls in. The damage of county lines is so terrible and why legalisation of drugs should be considered as way of protecting these young people. Alongside education of the issues and better ways of reporting cuckooing etc

We had / have similar in my home town. It wasn't a county lines thing as such, but young girls were being groomed or used by gangs. A friend was approached by the police to warn her about her DD's boyfriend, who was being used by his family as a honeytrap. In our town it was a cultural issue.

This is absolutely appalling. I will read the article when I have time. Treating women and girls like objects shouldn’t happen in this day and age. And still it happens. Frequently. Everywhere.

It is such a sad indictment about how little things have improved for vulnerable young people.

This is where "sex work is work" gets us

Awful.

Drugs are behind all of these problems . While I accept cannabis is grown in the UK surely drugs like cocaine come from abroad . Should the police and border force concentrate efforts on breaking the supply chains. It’s the same with guns . Many guns are believed to have got into the country with immigrants from areas where there are wars and life is cheap. We have strong gun laws but there are many illegal weapons circulating.

It's grim.

I would be interested in HOW they intend to police this.

All those lessons that have been learned with CSA and GG should kick in now?

I suppose people are becoming more aware of it because it's being bound up with county lines, but that sort of thing has always happened.

Agreed. And it's still a horror.

They could start policing it by not wasting time going after women for non crimes. I think the police have a good idea about the men involved and need to warn schools and families (as above) and if they can’t arrest the men then the girls must be given more protection. Number plates need to be photographed, and names and photos displayed.