I don't think a racial motive can be discounted on the basis that vulnerable girls are supposedly more likely to be white (in fact if it was true, I think that would be racist in one sense of the word), and it's certainly not a stretch of the imagination that these sick child rapists may be racists, but one fact that might shed some light on the 'is it also a racial hate crime issue?' question is if we could know how prevalent rape was perpetrated on Muslim girls by Muslim rape gangs.
The Rotherham report considers a point along these lines with its citation of research led by the UK Muslim Women's Network, who have said Asian Muslim girls are in one sense particularly vulnerable to rape and exploitation because of the perception on the part of these victims of sexual violence that they would be disbelieved, alienated and ostracised if they ever went public with allegations of abuse - which of course makes it particularly difficult to know how prevalent their victimisation is.
Quote:
11.14 One of the local Pakistani women's groups described how Pakistani-heritage girls
were targeted by taxi drivers and on occasion by older men lying in wait outside
school gates at dinner times and after school. They also cited cases in Rotherham
where Pakistani landlords had befriended Pakistani women and girls on their own for
purposes of sex, then passed on their name to other men who had then contacted
them for sex. The women and girls feared reporting such incidents to the Police
because it would affect their future marriage prospects.
11.15 The UK Muslim Women's Network produced a report on CSE in September 2013
which drew on 35 case studies of women from across the UK who were victims, the
majority of whom were Muslim. It highlighted that Asian girls were being sexually
exploited where authorities were failing to identify or support them. They were most
vulnerable to men from their own communities who manipulated cultural norms to
prevent them from reporting their abuse. It described how this abuse was being
carried out. 'Offending behaviour mostly involved men operating in groups . . . The
victim was being passed around and prostituted amongst many other men. Our
research also showed that complex grooming ‘hierarchies’ were at play. The physical
abuse included oral, anal and vaginal rape; role play; insertion of objects into the
vagina; severe beatings; burning with cigarettes; tying down; enacting rape that
included ripping clothes off and sexual activity over the webcam.' This description
mirrors the abuse committed by Pakistani-heritage perpetrators on white girls in
Rotherham.
