Last month saw a particularly notorious and widely reported case, when nine men from Rochdale and Oldham were jailed for a total of 77 years for sexually exploiting teenage girls.
The sexual exploitation of children has been infused, some say overshadowed, by the fact that in this case, eight of the perpetrators were of Pakistani origin.
The lurid headlines may have faded, but local anti-fascist organisers in Rochdale have reported an increase in racist attacks, from verbal abuse as families walk with their children to violent attacks on individuals and businesses.
The community is becoming weary of the frequent English Defence League demonstrations against "Muslim sex gangs" which shut the town centre.
Sam O'Brien of Rochdale United Against Fascism says: "There is a climate of fear that the scapegoating has caused. There've been small-scale incidents and a very violent attack that was racially motivated. Mostly what people are experiencing name-calling, verbal abuse and in some case reports of physical abuse of taxi drivers.
"They're trying to poison our town and to use the fact that nine men from this community have committed what everybody agrees - no matter if they're black, white or Asian or whatever background - are appalling crimes."
This far-right poison was in evidence just days after the biggest spectacle of "Britishness" in recent years. English nationalists staged another demonstration against "Muslim paedophilia" shortly after the jubilee.
The bunting fluttering over the streets became a symbol of something more ominous.
The town centre was cordoned off when 500 English nationalists from all over the country converged in Rochdale.
The NUJ issued a warning to journalists when threats were made. Police made 11 arrests when violence broke out.
Councillor Shah Wazir, who represents the city centre ward, says: "The EDL philosophy is to run fear. By coming to this town, there maybe isn't the physical damage, but there is psychological damage. When people don't know what is happening, fear is spreading, uncertainty is taking place and they will be careful. They shut their business."
The streets were deserted, every pub was closed and the shutters were down on the shop fronts.
The anti-racist counter-demonstration was scaled down to a token presence following police warnings that this was in the interests of safety.
Local councillor Terry Linden says that there will still be a mass unity rally in Rochdale for everyone to enjoy, but later when the town is left in peace.
For now, he says of the demonstrators: "Let them come, let them protest. We'll just ignore them and we'll get back to what we do well in this town, this borough, which is working together."
Wazir says: "The media have portrayed it as a problem of the Islamic community. This is the actions of criminally minded people who could be white or Asian and their actions should not be portrayed collectively against the Asian community."
While Asian men are overrepresented in high-profile convictions of sex gangs, as O'Brien points out, "We don't say that because white men are guilty of an appalling crime that all white men are guilty. It should be exactly the same in this case."
Child sex exploitation is a spectrum of offences. A recently released report by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) showed that the majority of those convicted for possessing indecent images of children "are white males from a Western culture who were educated, intelligent individuals who are well integrated into society and successful in other areas of their lives." Men of Asian origin were in the minority.
Last week the CEOP issued 143 search warrants, arrested 78 suspected offenders and removed 80 children from harm during a series of co-ordinated raids on paedophiles across Britain, who statistically are most likely to be lone white males.
Alyas Karmani runs Street, a project engaging with at-risk young people in Keighley, Bradford and London.
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He says: "Some of the young men we work with report behaviour where multiple males have sex with a young female and they will be enacting formats that they have seen in porn.
"The normative group are influenced by the same distorted medium and they kind of rehearse that."
Karmani was inundated with requests for comment following the convictions. He said that attempts by the Pakistani community to acknowledge and take responsibility for the crimes were misconstrued. Street has "always framed it as an urban male issue. We've never framed it as a Muslim issue."
The pain and suffering that has been caused to the victims of racism, their families and the communities goes beyond partisan lines and, regardless of their political views, this community is united that everyone needs to work together to address the far-right evil.
The cost and consequences of a full-scale race riot in Rochdale should not be underestimated.
The council sent youth workers to steer teenagers away from the nationalists.
Linden says: "We need to keep them away from this. If children are out and see this, they're bound to be scared. For younger teenagers it something new and we don't want them getting involved. So we've opened up all our venues - swimming, netball, football - everything is free."
Despite the difficulties, O'Brien is positive about the situation in Rochdale. "The majority of people have not swallowed the poison the the BNP and EDL have tried to push, trying to make this into a hate issue," he says.
"We were out leafleting in Rochdale last weekend and, with the exception of about three racists, the rest of the people we spoke to were very much of the opinion that it was a good idea that there was some opposition to what the EDL were trying to do.
"They are attempting to stir up feelings and racial tension - so far I don't think they have succeeded. They've been unable to gain a foothold in Rochdale in recent years and likewise with the National Front.
"They've not managed to build anything significant in the Rochdale movement. We want to show how big the anti-racist majority is in Rochdale, black and white and Asian - everybody is together."
