Strengthening family responses for criminally exploited children

The PhD is a study with ethnographic aspects looking at the role families play in situations of criminal exploitation of children. The study would be assessing both the negative and positive role that family can play in supporting or otherwise their child/ren in these circumstances of criminal exploitation.
There are very sensitive ethical issues to be addressed when setting up a study of this nature in terms of safety of the researcher and the young people. Clearly an ethnography could not be fully operationalised as this would potentially place both researcher, families and young people at risk. These can be addressed by involving participants who are no longer involved in criminal exploitation and who can consider and reflect retrospectively on the family role, dynamics and how families might be empowered to further support their children. In addition working with families where there are already pre-established relationships will help ensure researcher' safety.