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Counting lives: Responding to children who are criminally exploited
Abstract and Figures
Sadly there is nothing new about children being exploited by criminals. And right now we are seeing countless young lives torn apart by horrific violence and abuse.
We hear from children being criminally exploited in many ways: forced to work in cannabis factories, coerced into moving drugs across the country, forced to shoplift, pickpocket or threaten violence against others. Children are being cynically exploited with the promise of money, drugs, status and affection. They’re being controlled using threats, violence and sexual abuse, leaving them traumatised and living in fear.
This report suggests that the criminals are winning, and professionals are struggling to keep up with the scale and context of criminal exploitation. The response from statutory agencies is too variable and often comes too late. Children are being too easily criminalised, and are not viewed as victims of exploitation. There is also a concerning lack of data and reporting about children at risk of criminal exploitation.
This report is a call to action for professionals to recognise child criminal exploitation and provide a coordinated safeguarding response.
The Children's Society: https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-we-do/resources-and-publications/counting-lives-report
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... Council's specialist team due to concerns of criminal exploitation was from a Black background. This is significant due to the high levels of diversity in some of Trent's wards, where there are also recognised external push factors including poorer housing, higher unemployment, lower educational outcomes, lower income, and higher crime rates (ADCS, 2019;NCA, 2019;Turner et al., 2019;CSPRP, 2020). Moreover, boys from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds are also thought to be at higher risk of criminal exploitation (CSPRP, 2020). ...
... Furthermore, although poverty, racism, ableism, sexism, and crime are considered potential risk factors in CCE and CSE (Coy et al., 2017;NCA, 2019;Turner et al., 2019;Beckett and Lloyd, 2022), social work assessments and plans did not explicitly address these issues. To better respond to the needs of young people and families, social workers and safeguarding practitioners are encouraged to adopt a social model for protecting children (Featherstone et al., 2018). ...
This thesis adds to the growing body of research relating to the sexual and
criminal exploitation of young people in the extrafamilial context. The issue of
child exploitation is a relatively recent development in child protection in
England. Though a range of studies have explored young people’s experiences
and the effectiveness of professional interventions, there remains a limited
focus on the role of the social worker as the lead safeguarding professional.
This study argues that social workers hold a unique position in safeguarding
young people at risk of child exploitation because of the legal duties bestowed
on local authorities and their social workers.
Using constructivist grounded theory techniques, this study explores influences
on social work decision-making. The research presents primary data from two
contrasting local authorities in England. The research activities included the
analysis of fifteen social work case files, where child sexual or criminal
exploitation was a principal concern. The findings from the case file analysis
were subsequently sense checked in two focus groups. The twelve research
participants attending the focus groups were qualified social workers.
The study found that practices usually associated with traditional social work
(including bureaucratic and managerialist systems) also influenced social work
decision-making in the emerging area of child exploitation. The prescriptive
nature of such practices routinely prioritised professionals’ views over those of
young people, undermining opportunities for participation. Additionally, the
study argues that a gender-biased approach to social work legislation and
policy development has placed boys and young men, particularly Black boys
and young men, at an increased risk of receiving a compromised safeguarding
response. This thesis is exploratory and systems-based in its contribution. It
explores influences on social workers via their interactions with young people,
multi-agency colleagues, managers, and the social work profession. While this
thesis aims to contribute towards developments in social work research, policy
and practice, the findings may also interest other professionals working in child
exploitation.
... A key risk factor for County Lines victimisation is illicit drug use (NCA 2019). County Lines drug dealers target vulnerable individuals such as those who use drugs problematically (Bonning and Cleaver 2020;Coliandris 2015;Dando et al. 2023;Robinson et al. 2019), experience disabilities, mental illness, and the elderly (NCA, 2016) to establish a local base or 'trap house' for managing, storing, and supplying drugs to the local area, a phenomenon known as 'Cuckooing' (Spicer et al. 2019;Turner et al. 2019), whereby victims may believe that their exchange with drug dealers is mutually beneficial, however, they often become indebted to the gang members (Moyle 2019;NCA 2018). Victims of cuckooing report experiences of mental abuse, exploitation, intimidation, and instances of physical and sexual violence (Coliandris 2015;Ioannou et al. 2023;Macdonald et al. 2024), which have implication for both the physical and mental well-being of victims (Wood 2020). ...
The current study examined how willing a non-probability sample of adults were to engage in hypothetical activities typical of County Lines, and whether involvement could be predicted by perceived risk factors. Of the 101 participants; 48% were willing to engage in activities that could lead to cuckooing, 63% to a coffee meet up, 50% to transferring money, 32% would accept free drugs, 56% would pay off a friend’s debt, whereas only 1% were willing to engage in the control scenario (a phone scam). Actual occurrences of these scenarios were also documented and occurred in approximately 1% of the sample. Males and people with greater drug use scores were more likely to endorse engagement in a County Lines scenario involving drugs, whilst greater drug use scores were only associated with a lower risk of a County Lines scenario involving lending money to a friend. Our findings suggest that drug use may predict endorsement to engage in some County Lines scenarios. However, given a small non-probability sample was used in the current study, further development of methodologies to capture the likelihood to engage in County Lines activities are needed.
... The greatest vulnerability amongst adults targeted by County Lines gangs, however, is drug use (NCA 2018). Individuals who use drugs problematically are targeted by County Lines gangs to establish a local base or 'trap house' for the purpose of managing, storing and supplying drugs to the local area (Turner et al. 2019). This is known as 'Cuckooing' and is a complex issue which can take many different forms (Spicer et al. 2019). ...
This paper explored the novel use of an educational tool to assess its influence on County Lines victimisation. Participants (n = 122) were randomly assigned to receive either County Lines education or no County Lines education and then rate their likelihood to engage in five hypothetical scenarios typical of County Lines victimisation verses a text scam. County Lines education did not significantly reduce participant willingness to engage in the scenarios, whilst most participants were not susceptible to a text scam. Demographic data, drug use, social isolation, poor mental health, and financial instability were weak predictors of engagement. Findings suggest that the public may be vulnerable to victimisation and that future research should continue to explore the role that education can have in reducing the likelihood of engaging in County Lines activity.
... 'Risk' in relation to CSE can be a contentious topic regarding language use/misuse (Radcliffe, Roy, Barter, Tompkins, Brookes, 2020), with the importance for individual risks and socially constructed vulnerabilities having a greater impact on risk for young people. These socially created vulnerabilities can include growing up in poverty, having learning difficulties, being excluded from school or being a looked after child (Turner, Belcher, and Pona, 2019). ...
Research and Evaluation of Kairos Women Working Together 'Feeling Safe' service: an exploration of exploitation and transition for young women accessing support.
Children and young people with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) may have specific vulnerabilities due to communication, learning or neurodivergent needs which are often unmet by current service structures. These needs are often not recognised or well understood by multi agency services who rarely receive specific training in communicating or working with this group of children.
Many of these children and young people have not had their needs formally diagnosed, and many are on long waiting lists for diagnosis and assessments. This group of children and young people often experience; social and school exclusion, isolation, bullying and discrimination. They are also over-represented in the care system. This is coupled with often high levels of unmet needs and generally a lack of empowerment and agency. All indicators which correlate to increased risk of exploitation.
This qualitative exploratory study sought to provide evidence to identify and address gaps in safeguarding policy, guidance and legal frameworks in relation to specific risks of modern slavery for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England and Wales (aged up to 25 years).
Furthermore, the study sought to explore whether policies and guidance provide the mechanisms for appropriate strategic planning and practical responses to modern slavery for this group of children and young people.
Government policies relating to dealers in ‘county lines’ drugs trafficking cases have been welcomed as a departure from punitive approaches to drugs and ‘gang’ policing, in that those on the bottom rung of the drugs economy of heroin and crack cocaine are no longer treated as criminals but as potential victims and ‘modern slaves’ in need of protection. However, our research suggests not so much a radical break with previous modes of policing as that the term ‘county lines’ emerged as a logical extension of the government’s racist and classist language surrounding ‘gangs’, knife crime and youth violence. Policies implemented in the name of safeguarding the vulnerable also act as a gateway for criminalisation not just under drugs laws but also modern slavery legislation. The government’s discovery of, and responses to, ‘county lines’ hinge on a moral crisis in the making, which ultimately deepens the state’s pre-emptive and violent criminalisation of the ‘Black criminal other’ at a time of deep political crisis.
Safeguarding, Young People and Gangs, Isabelle Brodie explores how safeguarding policy and practice have been applied, and not applied, to the issue of youth violence in gangs and drug trafficking via county lines, and the significance of this for the experience of young people, their families and the professionals who work with them. The chapter places the issue of gangs and county lines within the policy discourse of ‘child exploitation’which has gradually emerged over the past 20 years. It considers the extent to which this discourse serves to promote a safeguarding approach to the children and young people concerned, or whether it has generated a new set of difficulties. It will argue that understanding of this issue in the contexts of the lives of children, young people and their families has been constrained by the nature of the discourses surrounding young people in trouble of various kinds. These include assumptions relating to age, gender, race and ethnicity as well as the ‘blind spots’that exist within the worlds of policy, practice and research conversations. These fissures are deeply rooted, she argues, and have historically been little recognised, far less overcome.
This article discusses some new developments in British illicit drug markets: the commuting of London-based gang members to sell drugs in other British towns, or in gang member’s parlance: ‘working the country lines’. This is concerning for several reasons, not least because children and young people may be running away from home and putting themselves at significant risk by dealing drugs, including involvement in the distribution of drugs from ‘crack houses’. This article hypothesises that the increased saturation of London drug markets is increasing the chances of drug dealers commuting from their homes, which in turn raises particular harms, including conflict with established dealers in other cities as well as child welfare issues. The article concludes with some policy and research recommendations.
This paper presents a single case study of one street gang in one London borough. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 gang members, or former gang members, and seven practitioners. The practitioners and gang members/ex-gang members reported different perspectives on how the gang was structured and drug dealing was organised. The gang members/ex-gang members suggested that the gang is a loose social network with little recognisable formal organisation. Although individual gang members sell drugs, the gang should not be viewed as a drug dealing organisation. Rather it is a composition of individual drug dealers who cooperate out of mutual self-interest. Therefore, some gang members are best described as independent entrepreneurs while others are subcontractors looking to ‘go solo’. The seven practitioners, however, tended to describe a more hierarchically structured gang, with formal recruitment processes. This divergence of perspective highlights an important consideration for policy and research.
In recent years there have been a number of high profile stories reporting increasing levels of female involvement in group related crime. According to these reports teenage girls are no longer spectators hovering on the periphery of street gangs but are hard core members actively engaging in the kind of extreme violence that is usually the preserve of men. As girl ‘gangsters’, young women are seen to be engaging in a wide range of crimes such as robbery, rape and murder. Using findings from an empirical study on young people’s use of weapons and involvement in street based groups, this article examines female involvement in ‘gangs’ and their violent behaviour. It challenges the dominant stereotype of girl ‘gangsters’ as malicious violent aggressors. The notion of the gang and implications for policy and practice will also be considered.
Gang set space is defined as ‘‘the actual area within the neighborhood where gang members come together as a gang’’ (Tita, Cohen, and Engberg 2005:280). The current article examines one subarea of gang set space: where gangs maintain street corner-centered open-air drug markets. Two types of corners—corner markets dominated by one gang and corner markets with multiple gangs—were contrasted with one another and with non-gang, non-dealing corners. Functional and corporate perspectives on gangs would both predict single gang corner markets to have lower violent and property crime than non-gang corners, whereas a traditional view would predict more violence. Territorial and economic competition models expect the highest crime levels around corner markets occupied by multiple gangs. Using Thiessen polygons to define the sphere of influence of each corner, and controlling for community demographic fabric and nearby crime, results showed higher crime counts around space used for drug distribution and higher still when the set space was occupied by multiple drug gangs. Further, crime counts were higher in less stable locales. The portions of drug gang set space centered on small, known, open-air corner drug markets, especially when control is questioned, link to more crime.
This article explores recent developments within the U.K. drug market: that is, the commuting of gang members from major cities to small rural urban areas for the purpose of enhancing their profit from drug distribution. Such practice has come to be known as working “County Lines.” We present findings drawn from qualitative research with practitioners working to address serious and organized crime and participants involved in street gangs and illicit drug supply in both Glasgow and Merseyside, United Kingdom. We find evidence of Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) in County Lines activity, often as a result of debt bondage; but also, cases of young people working the lines of their own volition to obtain financial and status rewards. In conclusion, we put forward a series of recommendations which are aimed at informing police strategy, practitioner intervention, and wider governmental policy to effectively address this growing, and highly problematic, phenomenon.
This book examines the history of popular drug cultures and mediated drug education, and the ways in which new media - including social networking and video file-sharing sites - transform the symbolic framework in which drugs and drug culture are represented. Tracing the emergence of formal drug regulation in both the US and the United Kingdom from the late nineteenth century, it argues that mass communication technologies were intimately connected to these “control regimes” from the very beginning. Manning includes original archive research revealing official fears about the use of such mass communication technologies in Britain. The second half of the book assesses on-line popular drug culture, considering the impact, the problematic attempts by drug agencies in the US and the United Kingdom to harness new media, and the implications of the emergence of many thousands of unofficial drug-related sites.
Women commit less crime than men and their crimes are typically less serious, violent, and profitable. Most investigations of this “gender gap” in offending consider differences in social control or socialization. This helps explain overall crime participation disparities, but cannot account for the sex-segregated character of offending. Building on ethnographic research and feminist labor market analyses, our study explores how gender affects access to criminal opportunities. Using NIBRS data, we examine the effect a male co-offender has on women’s offending. We find that the presence of a male co-offender broadens women’s criminal involvement in distinctive ways.