Study reveals that victims of sexual exploitation need more specialized assistance – Society

Victims of sexual exploitation interviewed as part of a national study on the phenomenon argued that they need specialized assistance, especially in terms of mental health, and programs for schooling and insertion into the job market.

The conclusions of the project “Improving systems and prevention, assistance, protection and (re)integration for victims of sexual exploitation” were announced this Monday and the project included interviews with 90 people who were victims of this type of crime.

Speaking to journalists, Marlene Matos, associate professor at the School of Psychology at the University of Minho, and one of those responsible for presenting the results, said that the victims interviewed reported the “need for specialized assistance in terms of mental health, psychological support and psychiatric”.

“They also talk about the need for programs that help them from the point of view of education, profession, and to enter the job market more easily”, said the teacher.

He also argued that, in this assistance work, victims need to be able to better recognize their rights, “namely the right to housing or the right to some temporary social support”.

Victims “also talk about the need for more efficient, faster and less bureaucratic protection”, said Marlene Matos.

He highlighted that some of the victims interviewed did not speak Portuguese and that, therefore, access to services proved difficult, while they also criticized the slowness of the reintegration processes.

The researcher highlighted that sexual exploitation is a national and international phenomenon “with a worrying expression”, with “multiple causes”, for which “responses that improve prevention systems” are needed.

“This is done through a greater capacity of civil society to recognize sexual exploitation, the signs and signals and report victims to entities”, he argued.

Marlene Matos highlighted that victims of sexual exploitation “need continued long-term support measures”.

“The difficulties they face, taking into account the traumatic events they were victims of, require that the services available to them continue for some time so that all their post-sexual exploitation recovery paths can be successful”, he pointed out, adding that, at a minimum, this period should be one year and that it should take into account the specific needs of each person.

In the researcher’s opinion, this support should be in terms of physical, mental and social health, but also financial, legal, legal and informational support.

“These victims above all need information about what types of services exist, what rights they have to these services and how they can be easily accessible”, he pointed out.

Marlene Matos highlighted that the 90 people interviewed do not reflect the reality of the phenomenon “because it is highly underreported”, explaining that in order to speak to those people they had the “precious collaboration of all the partners who work on the ground” with that population.

During the presentation of the results, it was also highlighted that the covid-19 pandemic brought “additional challenges”, particularly in terms of detecting and signaling this type of crime, a reality that affected migrants the most.

Mandatory confinements during this period made victims more vulnerable and criminals found other tools to entice their victims, using, for example, methods via social media.