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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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... The interpersonal-harms young people experience beyond their families has been well-documented internationally. From abuse in their first dating/intimate relationships (Foshee et al., 2014;Barter et al., 2015), and peer-violence within their schools and neighbourhoods (Foshee et al., 2014;Brandon et al., 2020), to exploitation (including the use of domestic trafficking) for sexual or other criminal purposes including drugs transportation (Sapiro et al., 2016;Lefevre et al., 2019;McKibbin and Humphreys, 2019;Turner et al., 2019;Aussemsa et al., 2020;Wroe, 2021), these harms pose a significant risk to young people's welfare. ...
... Young people experiencing EFH will often act against the advice of professionals or carers within constrained (and often violent) contexts (Sapiro et al., 2016;Beckett, 2019;Lefevre et al., 2019) and/or gain (materially or otherwise) in the context of being abused (Cockbain and Brayley, 2012;McKibbin and Humphreys, 2019;Turner et al., 2019). As such, efforts to decriminalise responses to young people affected by forms of EFH such as sexual and criminal exploitation have not been without challenge (Degani et al., 2015;Wroe, 2021;Musto, 2022) and have introduced other control-based methods (including deprivation of liberty) as a means of protection (Ellis, 2018;McKibbin and Humphreys, 2019;Aussemsa et al., 2020;Musto, 2022). ...
... A string of inquiries and reports surfaced the shortfalls outlined above in UK responses to sexual exploitation and peer-sexual abuse (Jay, 2014;Pearce, 2014;House of Commons, Committee, W.a.E., 2016;Ofsted, 2021), and more recently to: young people being exploited to sell and transport, drugs, often referred to as criminal exploitation (Turner et al., 2019); radicalised (Langdon-Shreeve et al., 2021); abused in their romantic/intimate relationships (Barter et al., 2015) or being severely/fatally injured by peers in public places (Brandon et al., 2020). ...
The interpersonal harms that young people experience beyond their families have been documented internationally as have the challenges of protecting those effected using existing child welfare systems. Concern about this in the UK has led to development of ‘contextual’ child protection systems—capable of targeting the peer group, school and community contexts where extra-familial harm (EFH) occurs. This study examined whether reviews of serious incidents (serious case reviews (SCRs)) provide an evidence-base for understanding the contextual dynamics of EFH and/or developing contextual responses. SCRs (n = 49) from 2010–2020, where adolescents were harmed in extra-familial contexts, were analysed over two stages. Stage 1 involved thematic coding under four research questions. Using a framework analysis, Stage 1 themes were grouped around according to: contexts associated with EFH; the nature of social work responses and case review recommendations. Findings suggest that SCRs provide a limited account of the contextual dynamics of EFH. Whilst reviews illustrate that social work responses rarely address the contextual dynamics of EFH, many reviewers have neglected to focus on this shortfall when recommending service improvements. For case reviews to inform contextual child protection systems, information provided to review authors and the design of review requires adaptation.
... Consideration of parent perspectives is important, given that family factors are widely accepted as influencing a child's susceptibility to exploitation. In terms of increased vulnerability, factors include neglect, abuse, poor parental supervision, domestic abuse, parental mental ill health, parent substance misuse or parent involvement in criminal activity (Children's Commissioner for England, 2019;Spencer et al., 2019;Turner et al., 2019;Violence and Vulnerability Unit, 2018). Conversely, presence of a stable family structure and infrequent parent-child conflict are widely accepted as reducing a child's susceptibility to exploitation (Cordis Bright, 2015;McDaniel, 2012;Turner et al., 2019). ...
... In terms of increased vulnerability, factors include neglect, abuse, poor parental supervision, domestic abuse, parental mental ill health, parent substance misuse or parent involvement in criminal activity (Children's Commissioner for England, 2019;Spencer et al., 2019;Turner et al., 2019;Violence and Vulnerability Unit, 2018). Conversely, presence of a stable family structure and infrequent parent-child conflict are widely accepted as reducing a child's susceptibility to exploitation (Cordis Bright, 2015;McDaniel, 2012;Turner et al., 2019). What is lacking in the current literature is examination of parent experiences of caring for a child who is being criminally exploited. ...
... That is not to say that this is never warranted. Indeed, children are more susceptible to exploitation if a sibling or extended family member is involved in criminality (Turner et al., 2019). Clarke's (2019) comparative study of children known to either children's services or youth offending teams found that gang-associated children were twice as likely as non-gang-associated children to be living with offenders. ...
Despite growing awareness of child criminal exploitation, there is a dearth of evidence relating to parent views and experiences. This article presents interview findings from parents with lived experience of parenting a criminally exploited child. Early warning signs, such as behaviour changes, disengagement from school and child disappearances, were often rationalised in response to family circumstances or normal teenage development. Not knowing the child’s whereabouts, increased missing episodes and disengagement from the family prompted parents to seek help. Findings highlighted the need for parent involvement in the development of suitable responses at the individual, local and national levels.
... While the term 'County Lines' (henceforth CL) has been in use since at least 2015 (National Crime Agency 2015), there remains significant debate Turner et al. 2019) about its inception. Some suggest that the model emerged in response to the saturation of drug availability in major metropolitan areas Windle and Briggs 2015), where a 'growing number of dealers' is not matched by growing numbers of dependant users (Ruggiero 2010, 51). ...
... CL is also increasingly a concern for child welfare agencies, as reports suggest children aged as young as seven are being used as 'runners' to move and sell drugs in areas far away from their homes (Turner et al. 2019;Wroe 2019). The use of children in these operations offers distance and anonymity for dealers, who can manage the supply from their local areas without having to remain present in market locations themselves (National Crime Agency 2015). ...
... The CL model also often relies on the establishment of a local base, referred to as a 'trap house' (Turner et al. 2019). Borrowed from the street term for drug dealing ('trapping'), these are often residential addresses owned, or rented, by individuals in the drug market area. ...
In March 2020, the UK was placed in lockdown following the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Just as legitimate workplaces made changes to enable their employees to work from home, the illicit drugs trade also made alternative arrangements, adapting its supply models to ensure continuity of operations. Based upon qualitative interviews with 46 practitioners, this paper assesses how front-line professionals have experienced and perceived the impact of Covid-19 on child criminal exploitation and County Lines drug supply in the UK. Throughout the paper, we highlight perceived adaptations to the County Lines supply model, the impact of lockdown restrictions on detection and law enforcement activities aimed at County Lines, and on efforts to safeguard children and young people from criminal exploitation. Our participants generally believed that the pandemic had induced shifts to County Lines that reflected an ongoing evolution of the drug supply model and changes in understanding or attention because of Covid-19 restrictions, rather than a complete reconstitution of the model itself. Practitioners perceived that Covid-19 has had, and continues to have, a significant impact on some young people’s vulnerability to exploitation, on the way in which police and frontline practitioners respond to County Lines and child criminal exploitation, and on the way illegal drugs are being moved and sold.
... While the term 'County Lines' (henceforth CL) has been in use since at least 2015 (National Crime Agency 2015), there remains significant debate (Spicer, Moyle, and Coomber 2020;Turner, Belcher, and Pona 2019) about its inception. Some suggest that the model emerged in response to the saturation of drug availability in major metropolitan areas Windle and Briggs 2015), where a 'growing number of dealers' is not matched by growing numbers of dependant users (Ruggiero 2010, 51). ...
... CL is also increasingly a concern for child welfare agencies, as reports suggest children aged as young as seven are being used as 'runners' to move and sell drugs in areas far away from their homes (Turner, Belcher, and Pona 2019;Wroe 2019). The use of children in these operations offers distance and anonymity for dealers, who can manage the supply from their local areas without having to remain present in market areas themselves (National Crime Agency 2015). ...
... The CL model also often relies on the establishment of a local base, referred to as a 'trap house' (Turner, Belcher, and Pona 2019). Borrowed from the street term for drug dealing ('trapping'), these are often residential addresses owned, or rented, by individuals in the drug market area. ...
In March 2020, the UK was placed in lockdown following the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Just as legitimate workplaces made changes to enable their employees to work from home, the illicit drugs trade also made alternative arrangements, adapting its supply models to ensure continuity of operations. Based upon qualitative interviews with 46 practitioners, this paper assesses how front-line professionals have experienced and perceived the impact of Covid-19 on child criminal exploitation and County Lines drug supply in the UK. Centring around three main themes, we highlight perceived adaptations to the County Lines supply model, as well as exploring the impact of lockdown restrictions on detection and law enforcement activities aimed at County Lines, and the safeguarding of children and young people who are, or are at risk of, criminal exploitation through County Lines. Our participants generally believed that the pandemic induced shifts to County Lines that reflected ongoing evolution of the drug supply model and shifts in understanding or attention because of the Covid-19 restrictions, rather than a complete reconstitution. Practitioners perceived that Covid-19 has had, and continues to have, a significant impact on some young people's vulnerability to exploitation, on the way in which police and frontline practitioners respond to County Lines and child criminal exploitation, and on the way illegal drugs are being moved and sold.
... As they enter their first romantic, or intimate, relationships, a significant minority of young people report physical, emotional, or sexual abuse (Barter et al. 2015;Foshee et al. 2014). Some are sexually exploited by adults unconnected to their families (Berelowitz et al. 2013;Dierkhisinga et al. 2020), as well as by peers (Firmin 2017;Radford et al. 2011), and others are exploited into transporting/distributing drugs (Hudek 2018;Turner et al. 2019). The significant, and sometimes fatal, consequences of these forms of harm to young people's welfare has resulted in their gradual framing as child protection issues by policymakers in England, Wales, and Scotland (HM Government 2018; Scottish Government 2021; Welsh Government 2021). ...
... Multiple inquiries and policy reports have identified fundamental limitations in the child protection responses to EFH in the UK (Brandon et al. 2020;Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel 2020;Firmin 2017;Hanson and Holmes 2014). These limitations are wide-ranging and include the focus of child protection systems on younger children rather than adolescents (Brandon et al. 2020;Hanson and Holmes 2014); on the presumed distinctions between the victims and the perpetrators of abuse, which are often blurred in cases of EFH (Cockbain and Brayley 2012;Turner et al. 2019); on the system responses to the agentic nature of young people affected by EFH, who 'choose' to spend time with those who harm them (Lefevre et al. 2017;Lloyd 2019); on the nature of some EFH requiring social workers to coordinate plans to support young people impacted by organised crime (Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel 2020); and on the fact that EFH often occurs in (extra-familial) contexts that are not the traditional focus of child protection systems (Firmin 2017). ...
Young people experience significant harm in a range of social contexts and from adults and peers unconnected to their caregivers. The recognition of this by policymakers in England, Scotland, and Wales has resulted in child protection policy frameworks increasingly requiring social work responses to the extra-familial contexts where such harm occurs, as well as to the young people affected. This paper presents results from an embedded research project in which five local children’s social care departments used a Contextual Safeguarding framework to respond to this shifting policy direction. The data collected via ethnographic methods over three years included meeting and practice observations (n = 65), meeting participation (n = 334), reviews of young people’s case files (n = 122), interviews (n = 27) and focus groups (n = 33) with professionals, focus groups (n = 6), interviews (n = 2) and surveys (n = 78) with parents and young people, and analysis of local policies and procedures (n = 101). At two stages in the project, the researchers used this dataset to review the progress in each participant site against the Contextual Safeguarding framework. Reporting on the progress made across the five sites, this paper identifies elements of the system change that appeared most feasible or challenging. The results demonstrate four ways in which current policy reforms fall short in creating national contexts that are conducive to the implementation of Contextual Safeguarding, despite local progress towards this goal. The implications for the policy and practices are outlined, with fundamental questions asked of the statutory systems which need to protect, but all too often criminalise, young people abused beyond their front doors.
... '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.
... • Are groomed to believe they are in a romantic relationship with adults who are exploiting them (Eaton & Holmes, 2017;Pearce, 2009) • Are in coerced or violently 'enforced' relationships with the people who exploit them, sexually or criminally (Firmin, 2017;Turner et al., 2019) • Experience abuse in their first romantic or 'dating' relationships with similarly aged peers (Barter, 2009;Foshee et al., 2014) • Experience acts of weapon-enabled violence in their neighbourhoods (Firmin, 2017;Bulanda and McCrea, 2013) • Are sexually harassed, and bullied in other ways, within educational and sports settings (Coker, 2017;Lloyd, 2018;Miller et al., 2013) By their interpersonal nature, all these forms of EFH are relational; occurring in social interactions between young people and their peers or adults unconnected to their families (Barter, 2009;Cockbain, 2018;Hallett et al., 2019;Hill, 2019;Pearce, 2009). ...
When young people come to harm in extra-familial contexts, professionals may move them a distance from their home community to protect them, and in doing so disrupt relationships in which they have encountered harm. However, relocations can also fracture young people’s protective relationships with family, peers, and professionals; relationships that have been positioned as targets for intervention in cases of extra-familial harm. The extent to which these relationships are considered during relocations is under-explored. Utilising semi-structured interviews with 16 social work professionals in England and Wales, we assessed their accounts of using relationships prior to, during, and following relocations in cases of extra-familial harm. Three themes emerged: using relationships during relocations to provide consistency, to collaborate, and to create safety. Professional accounts prioritised young people’s relationships with practitioners, over relationships with families, peers, and their wider communities, when using/seeking opportunities to offer consistency and to collaborate on safety plans. They also depicted a struggle to engage with the complex web of family, peer, and community relationships associated to young people’s protection in both their home communities and those they had been moved to; relationships that were critical for creating safety. Implications for practice and future research are discussed, highlighting the potential merits of offering integrated research and practice frameworks that hold together young people’s relationships with families, peers, communities, and professionals, in response to extra-familial harm.
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.
Serious youth violence is a complex issue affecting children and young people (CYP), who are disproportionately more likely than adults to be victims of violent crime in the UK and Ireland. There are a range of interventions and approaches to prevent CYP from being involved in crime and violence. The focus of the literature has mostly been on discrete interventions. The literature on system effects and system-level approaches has not yet been systematically collated. That is the task of this EGM.
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.