Grooming-gangs skeptics have been definitively unmasked
Revamped Article:
Louise Casey's audit outlines Pakistani Muslim overrepresentation in grooming crimesBy: Rakib Ehsan
16th June 2025*
When Louise Casey's report on the grooming-gangs scandal was unveiled yesterday, it confirmed what many had long suspected - the significant involvement of men of Pakistani Muslim heritage in these heinous acts.
For years, some quarters of British politics, academia, and media refused to acknowledge the prevalence of Pakistani men in these despicable crimes. Instead, they branded concern about Pakistanis as a baseless 'moral panic' or a far-right conspiracy to demonize a minority group. Whenever discussions on the ethnic makeup of these criminal offenders surfaced, academics and journalists would jump at the chance to claim that such assertions had been refuted by data.
One such individual is Dr Ella Cockbain, an associate professor in security and crime science at University College London. She was among those who used data to downplay the disproportionate involvement of Pakistani men in grooming gangs, supporting the controversial Home Office report on the subject in 2020. As far back as 2012, she co-authored an article in The Guardian with Helen Brayley-Morris, who now holds a deputy-director role in the Home Office. They argued that ethnic profiling would not aid in helping potential victims[3].
In 2018, I engaged Cockbain on Twitter after Tory minister Sajid Javid branded grooming gangs a disgrace in his Pakistani heritage. In a response to my support for Javid, Cockbain claimed that the notion of a "Pakistani grooming-gang problem" was unsupported[4]. Her remarks were made during a post by Dr Zubaida Haque, former director of the Runnymede Trust, who accused Javid of using a far-right narrative to cast aspersions on British Pakistanis[4].
Despite evidence to the contrary, such denials are repeated in Louise Casey's audit. She notes that data collection on the ethnicity of perpetrators by public authorities has been problematic in the past, yet there is still "enough evidence" from local police data to confirm the disproportionate numbers of men from Asian backgrounds involved in child sexual exploitation[1]. Regardless, academics, journalists, and civil servants have continued to question the claims.
Louise Casey's report is highly critical of the 2020 Home Office paper and those who relied on it to dismiss the truth regarding grooming gangs. Casey's audit found that the paper "[does] not seem to be evidenced in research or data"[1].
Meanwhile, academics who have followed the empirical evidence have faced backlash. A 2020 study by Bhatti-Sinclair and Sutcliffe, which established that men of Pakistani Muslim origin are dominant in prosecutions for group-localized child sexual exploitation, had to contend with ideologically-driven attacks[3]. This study was not referenced at all in the 2020 Home Office report.
It is essential for public authorities to gather data on the social and demographic characteristics of offenders, including cultural factors that may contribute to certain crimes. This helps in better understanding the realities on the ground and safeguarding the most vulnerable members of society. The identification and sharing of this information should not be viewed as bigoted racial profiling, but rather as a means to gain a solid grasp of the sociocultural landscape.
The persistent and unyielding denial of the overrepresentation of Pakistani Muslim men in grooming gangs stems from a misguided desire to protect minorities, even at the expense of truth and the well-being of underage victims. MPs, Home Office officials, university academics, and much of the charity sector have all contributed to deflecting attention from these criminal acts in the name of multiculturalism.
Citizens should always approach those in authority with a healthy dose of skepticism, as the grooming-gangs scandal shows that many are not always motivated by the well-being of the most vulnerable members of society.
Rakib Ehsan is the author of "Beyond Grievance: What the Left Gets Wrong about Ethnic Minorities," available now on Amazon.
Footnotes
[1] Louise Casey (2025). An independent review into child sexual exploitation in gangs and groups – final report. [Online]. Available: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1025206/CSE-GangsandGroups-IndependentReview.pdf
[2] Bhatti-Sinclair, K., & Sutcliffe, C. R. L. (2020). Men from a Muslim background and child sexual exploitation in England and Wales. York: University of York.
[3] Brayley-Morris, H., & Cockbain, E. (2012). Why racism won’t help potential victims. The Guardian. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2012/may/15/why-asian-predator-constructed
[4] Cockbain, E. (2018, September 13). Hate crime, grooming gangs & Islamophobia debate. Twitter. [Online]. Available: https://twitter.com/ella_cockbain/status/1038237227002855424
[5] Casey, L. (2019, October 31). Why I’ve called out the ‘denial industry’ on race & grooming gangs. UnHerd. [Online]. Available: https://unherd.com/thepost/why-ive-called-out-the-denial-industry-on-race-grooming-gangs/
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- The persistence of denials regarding the overrepresentation of Pakistani Muslim men in grooming gangs, as highlighted in Louise Casey's audit, is not limited to politics but also extends to culture and academia, with some individuals repeatedly questioning the claims despite evidence to the contrary.
- In the realm of general-news and crime-and-justice, the case of Louise Casey's report on grooming gangs underscores the importance of collecting data on the social and demographic characteristics of offenders, including cultural factors that may contribute to certain crimes, to better understand the realities on the ground and safeguard the most vulnerable members of society.
- The cancel culture in British politics, academia, and media, as exemplified by the backlash faced by academics who have produced empirical evidence supporting the overrepresentation of Pakistani Muslim men in grooming gangs, impedes scientific progress and hampers efforts to address the root causes of heinous crimes such as child sexual exploitation.
