I asked that we set that aside for the moment and that I was not in any way seeking to excuse anyone.

What I am asking is whether we as a society need to look at the conditions which allowed these girls to be put in such danger?

Is there anything we can do which would help?

Not those who have already been harmed but those in the future who may face other threats from other sources. If children are left in a vulnerable situation then the chances of harm is obviously greater.

Oh come on teddy.
It's not a demographic specifically.
They are just criminals like all that break the law.
Nothing to see here according to some.

Unfortunately this still sounds like victim blaming.
In the past you’ve often talked about education. Isn’t it wiser to educate a certain demographic that it’s wrong to prey on children, or anyone else, because they don’t seem to have picked up on the point. Or if they have they don’t care.

From the responses it appears that people here seem incapable of detaching themselves from their determination to concentrate only on blaming the criminals and then to find ways of "punishing" those who were responsible for detecting them and protecting the victims.

I am not "victim blaming" in any way at all. Of course education is an essential part of ensuring that those who might get involved understand why it's wrong, alongside sufficient deterience to ensure they don't anyway.

It's not though what I am trying to discuss. Whilst the reasons for the way our traditional family unit has morphed into being something very different might be well understood, the consequences are not always quite so obvious. Given that we are very unlikely to turn the clock back I envisage that this situation is the new normal. With absent fathers, mums struggling to make ends meet, constant peer pressure for "things", and the invasive influences of social media what can we as a society do to counter this and try to put positive influences out there? Do we need to introduce some "tough love" rules and regulations with curfews for the under 18s in troublespot areas? Does every child need to carry a panic button?

I don't have the answers but what concerns me is that we aren't asking the questions. The "grooming gang" scandals are obviously very serious and demand specific responses but what happens when they have been eradicated, the criminals found and punished, potential criminals either educated or discouraged and the victims counselled and compensated? Will the ground that allowed such things to grow in such an unrestrained way still exist, so that something equally nasty again emerges? Something that perhaps bears no resemblance to today's problem.

I too blame the criminals. I just want to look beyond them to see if there is anything else we need to do. What downside can there possibly be in trying to do that? Just so long as it doesn't impact the criminal investigations in any way.

I said I didn't have the answers. Just questions. I was just throwing out some initial ideas. On it's own a curfew wouldn't work. It could though perhaps be part of a wider strategy.

You said
"Is there anything we can do which can help"
Now my solution isnt valid.