Child sexual exploitation and abuse disclosure and help-seeking: A glimpse of global South data

Over decades, research practitioners have highlighted how survivors of sexual abuse in childhood face strong forms of stigma including victim-blaming, shame and social isolation. However, the data and evidence are disproportionately slanted towards the global North. Shifting the focus to the global South, this reflective piece draws on two substantial multicountry research projects to highlight the expectations and experiences of young survivors of child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) in their quest for support. By applying a socio-ecological analysis, it demonstrates how societal stigma—from both professionals and young people themselves—compounds the help-seeking process. The findings support the well-documented concept that disclosing sexual violence is an ongoing—not singular—process that depends on a series of interactions at the individual, interpersonal and institutional levels of the ecosystem. Building better trauma-informed responses is likely to help; however, a focus only on services falls short, especially in countries where child protection systems struggle to thrive. A concurrent transformative shift in both social and gender norms across the ecosystem is essential to address the seemingly intractable challenges to child sexual exploitation and abuse prevention and response.