In my 2013 research on grooming gangs, I found that perpetrators saw the exploitation of girls as a lucrative and low-risk alternative to drug dealing. Being caught with a girl was viewed as safer than being caught with drugs.
A hierarchy of risk existed, with Asian girls seen as least likely to report abuse due to shame and fear that they would be blamed by their families. I documented cases where Pakistani and Bangladeshi girls were repeatedly gang-raped by men of various ethnicities – including white men – and silenced through threats of exposure.
