Theme Four: Gender Expectations/Stereotypes

As participants had no experience working with girls as a HSB practitioner, when envisioning what that work may look like, gender expectations, stereotypes and past experiences were discussed. This allowed for further understanding of how

conceptualisations of gender may affect assessment and intervention work. There was a divide between those who imagined working with girls to be different to boys and those who thought it would be the same.

“…one of the main ones we do with young people is about addressing consent, because obviously in the HSB remit, it’s a big thing.” (Shaun)

“…using social stories with him, looking at explicit teaching of sexual

boundaries…what constitutes as sexual and what parts of the body is OK to touch and what’s not, so maybe where he hasn’t picked up on teaching because of his Autism.” (Grace)

Lack of CYP understanding – Q2&3

“…there is a fine line between harmful sexual behaviour… difficulty

understanding sexual boundaries…inappropriate behaviours…quite a lot of my cases at the minute have been instances of sexualised behaviours that maybe school have raised as harmful or an issue.” (Grace)

“…people have made up in their minds that it is a sexualised behaviour and it’s inappropriate.” (Sarah)

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Subtheme 1: Language used to describe CYP displaying HSB

Language used by participants to describe HSBs differed between genders and stereotypes were discussed.

Sarah made a direct comparison:

Subtheme 2: Linking HSB displayed by girls to child sexual exploitation (CSE)

Girls displaying HSB were often linked to CSE and their HSBs attributed to being a victim.

“…high risk of CSE and their own vulnerabilities…some of their behaviours were also becoming harmful…” (Grace)

Linking HSB displayed by girls to child sexual exploitation (CSE) – Q1 “…boys… get aggressive, they force people into situations they don’t want to be in… girls are more passive and it doesn’t tend to happen”. (Sarah)

Language used to describe CYP displaying HSB – Q4 “...they would’ve had a more criminal perspective if it had been a boy that had made a video of a girl and streamed it...if it is from boy to girl that is seen as more predatory”.…” (Grace)

“…he’s a mucky little pup… without making that child out to be some sort of pervert or whatever cos that’s what is sometimes fed to you from the people who know them”. (Sarah)

“…they saw it more as part of her vulnerability…it seems to still be more socially acceptable for girls to make inappropriate comments about boys or rude

comments or maybe smack them on the bums, maybe that low level behaviour, but I still think that teenagers may view that as OK from girl to boy, seeing it as more fun”. (Grace)

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Sarah implied that the CSE of girls leads to them displaying HSB towards

themselves rather than others. She suggests that as such, boys and girls HSB’s present differently:

Subtheme 3: Expected similarities and differences between working with boys and girls

Some participants considered how working with girls may be different to boys with regard to forming a professional relationship:

“…if he was female, he wouldn’t have been doing what he was doing… with girls, it tends to be a little bit different… their sexualised behaviour tends to hurt them rather than anybody else…you might find girls running off in late hours approaching men in different ways that puts them at risk…CSE

behaviours…though it hasn’t led to them harming any others, again, they were harmed themselves…” (Sarah)

Linking HSB displayed by girls to child sexual exploitation (CSE) – Q2

“…developing a relationship can be different working with girls and boys… just developing trust and engagement…managing a session with a child can be different based on the gender.” (Grace)

“…males would more easily talk to male and female practitioners. If I’m working with females generally, I feel that the nature of this work would be better with two female practitioners…girls have a lot more intimate parts of adolescence,

puberty, growing up which they are less likely to and wouldn’t want to talk to males about…“I dunno if girls are more expressive about what they want to talk about.” (Shaun)

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Shaun also considered that intervention may differ due to physical differences:

Josie suggested that sex education would be similar:

All participants discussed that the assessment tool used by the service (AIM219_{) is} specific to boys. Some believed that as such, a different tool would be required:

Participants also believed that there would be similarities between working with boys and girls:

19 _{The AIM2 stands for Assessment, Intervention and Moving on. This process is applied by the LA to}

determine the level of risk CYP with HSB pose and what may be the most useful level of intervention to help them, and where possible, move on.

“We do a lot of work about sexual education… the male going through puberty and adolescence would be a lot different so that work would be different.” (Shaun)

Expected similarities and differences between working with boys and girls – Q2

“How does the gender impact on how we deliver the intervention…I would definitely consider within that line of assessment process how exactly it would change it, but I’m not quite sure… it’s something I would consider.” (Keith) “…my understanding is that the AIMS2 assessment…is recommended for use with boys and not girls…so obviously we wouldn’t use that assessment tool.” (Josie)

“I do quite a lot of AIMS2 assessments, which is an assessment tool designed for males which is a barrier when working with females.” (Shaun)

Expected similarities and differences between working with boys and girls – Q4,5&6 …all the recommendations and the work completed were similar to the work you would probably do with a boy… like sexual relationships education…”

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Shaun added that boys and girls are similar as they both have potentially sexual thoughts:

“...gathering information about the history…liaise with the same people…gather the information in a similar way… looking at what’s appropriate, not appropriate, making sure that the positives are in place in a child’s life… access to positive activities… experiences and looking at moving forward… looking at strengths and risks…so there would be some similarities”. (Josie)

“…the basic information would be similar in terms of the family tree work, the background work…” (Shaun)

Expected similarities and differences between working with boys and girls – Q7&8

“…predominantly, teenagers are all going through the same emotions… all of them have potentially sexual thoughts whether the same gender, different gender, it’s all part of the growing up process so I would say they’re probably quite similar.” (Shaun)

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Subtheme 4: Expectations and stereotypes of men and women

Practitioners often referred to how gender expectations and stereotypes of adult men and women affected their views of girls and boys displaying HSB.