The Real Epidemic: What We’re Not Saying About Child Abuse

 


Child Grooming: The Truth We’re Too Afraid to Face

By Sean Ash


In recent years, the UK has witnessed a disturbing trend, not just in the heinous crime of child grooming itself, but in the way we talk about it. What should be a collective reckoning with evil has instead become a racialised weapon wielded by political opportunists and far-right voices. “Pakistani grooming gangs” has become a media buzzword, suggesting an epidemic rooted in a particular community. But is that the truth, or are we being distracted from something much darker, more widespread, and more human?


The Statistics Tell a Different Story

Let’s be clear: there have been high-profile cases involving men of Pakistani heritage involved in child sexual exploitation rings. No one is denying that. But when you look at the national data, a broader truth emerges. According to the Home Office’s own report from 2020, most group-based child sexual exploitation offenders in the UK are white men. Race is not a reliable predictor of child abuse. And to single out one ethnic group as representative of this crime is not just misleading, it’s dangerous.


It’s Not About Religion, Culture, or Nationality. It’s About Men.

The truth is this: child abuse is not the domain of one religion, one culture, or one race. It happens in Catholic communities. It happens in Protestant communities. It happens in Atheist families. It happens in Pakistan, yes, but also in Albania, Belgium, France, America, and here at home in the UK. It happens in mosques, churches, schools, care homes, and online. And more often than not, it is committed by men.


And here’s the key fact: wherever you go in the world, the majority of child sex offenders are from the dominant ethnic or cultural group of that country.


  • In the UK, most are white British men.
  • In the USA, most are white American men.
  • In France, they are white French men.
  • In Pakistan, they are Pakistani men.
  • In Australia, they are white Australian men.



This isn’t about race. It’s about power and patriarchy. The pattern isn’t one of culture, it’s one of male dominance, secrecy, and access. To reduce the conversation to a particular race or religion is not only misleading; it’s actively shielding other perpetrators by shifting focus away from them.


What we’re dealing with is not a “Muslim problem.” It’s a male problem, and to avoid naming that truth is to continue protecting the very system that enables it.


The Real Danger of Racial Scapegoating

When we frame child grooming as an issue belonging to Pakistani men or Muslim culture, we not only misrepresent the facts, we allow countless other abusers to go unnoticed. We turn a blind eye to the white teacher, the trusted coach, the uncle, the priest, the well-spoken neighbour. We ignore the Jeffrey Epsteins. We forgot too quickly about Jimmy Savile. There was outrage, yes, but not this kind of blanket condemnation of an entire ethnic or religious group.


Why is it acceptable to say “Pakistani men are the problem,” but unthinkable to say “white men are the problem”? If we apply group blame to one, then logically we must apply it to all. And yet we don’t. That selective outrage tells us something, not about the scale of the crime, but about our deep-rooted prejudices and what society chooses to see.


It’s Time to Look in the Mirror

This is not about downplaying the suffering of victims, far from it. It’s about honouring them with the truth. The exploitation of children is a global, cross-cultural sickness rooted in the abuse of power, toxic masculinity, and perverse entitlement. By painting it as a “foreign” problem, we give cover to the predators next door. We let institutions off the hook. We let families bury secrets. We let the system continue.


If you truly want to end grooming, stop racialising it. Start facing the fact that the monster wears many faces, and most of them are male.


Blaming one group makes for easy headlines and political capital, but it does nothing to protect children. If we really care about ending child sexual abuse, then we need to stop cherry-picking outrage based on skin colour or religion, and start tackling the culture of silence, complicity, and patriarchy that allows it to thrive.


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