“Child criminal exploitation is when another person or persons manipulate, deceive, coerce or control the person to undertake activity which constitutes a criminal offence where the person is under the age of 18.” Definitions: child criminal exploitation and sexual exploitation - Barnardo's (barnardos.org.uk)
Criminal exploitation can be incredibly complex as the child is often committing a crime but is also a victim of exploitation. We must always reinforce the child as a victim. Their criminality may be through coercion and therefore is not a free choice. The child may or may not see this themselves and could feel that they have freely chosen to act. Similarly, the child is likely to be distrustful of professionals, and wary of the police as they know that they have broken the law. This creates huge barriers to open working, and it is imperative that practitioners remain open minded and persistent in building that trust with the child.
As professionals it is important that we remain trauma informed and child-centred in our approach. Children will not be able to perceive risk in the same way that professionals do, and while it’s important that we educate and inform our children, we cannot expect them to be solely responsible for their own safety.
As with any risks to a child, this requires multi-agency working and working alongside the family. Parents are, in general, protective and supportive of their child. They should be treated as protective partners and included in decision making. Parents will feel worried, scared and possibly judged. Therefore, we need to remain supportive and empathic.
‘CCE is a form of child abuse that often inflicts serious harm on children and young people, destroys families, ruins childhoods and can set up a vulnerable child for a life in and out of the criminal justice system. Children who are victims of CCE and gang violence are not being identified in time to save their lives and other children’s lives, despite frequent opportunities to do so.’ Exploited and Criminalised report.pdf (barnardos.org.uk)
‘Through the eyes of children and young people, exploiters often don’t appear to be criminals. They are seen as friends or local figures with wealth, status and influence. They offer false promises of financial gain, social standing and community protection that makes it hard for children to understand the danger they pose.’ Shattered_Lives_Stolen_Futures_Exec_Summary.pdf (actionforchildren.org.uk) The Jay Review of Criminally Exploited Children. 2024
Children who are criminally exploited are groomed, this is likely to fall into the pattern described below and the child will probably be unaware of what is happening. They will most likely see their abusers as friends and people who look out for them.
The below can be used to help parents/carers and children understand the complexity of grooming and how this could apply to them or their loved ones.
A hypothetical example is described below.
Targeting stage
This is when a person or gang target a young person who is vulnerable, as this reduces their chances of getting caught. signs of this stage include a person or group:
- observing you, finding out your vulnerabilities, needs and wants
- glamorising their lifestyle to you
- gaining and developing your trust
- sharing information about you with other members of their gang
- recruiting you to their gang or friendship group
Experience stage
This stage is where this person might try get you used to their lifestyle, or train you up in what there doing. At this stage a person or gang might:
- make you feel wanted
- give you gifts and rewards
- test out your loyalty
- offer you protection
- relate to you and offer you advice
- give you a sense of belonging
- give you a weapon
- introduce you to more established members of their gang
Hooked stage
This is the stage where people make you feel like your a member of their gang, even though actually they're just exploiting you for their own gain. Signs of this stage include:
- you getting more responsibilities within the group e.g. more money
- you might be asked to commit low level crimes
- you getting involved in trap houses
- asking you to recruit others to the gang
- engaging in activities such as drugs, alcohol and sexual behaviour
Trapped stage
Now you feel dependent on the group, the relationship with the person exploiting you may start to become unpleasant, as they reveal their true intents or character. At this stage you may experience:
- threatening behaviour and physical violence
- people playing on your guilt, shame and fear
- attempts to isolate you from your family, friends and society
- people forcing you to abuse others, assault or even shoot people
- involvement in class A drugs (cooking or running)
The above describes stages within the grooming process: targeting stage, experience stage, hooked stage and then trapped stage.
What the grooming process could look like:
- perpetrator learning about the child - what school they go to, who their siblings are, where their parents work, their address. They start to build a relationship through social media or face to face
- offering the child a lift - saving them the passenger seat, telling them they're special, sharing drugs, introducing to friends
- given money, drugs, spending more time with the exploiter, asked to complete 'small tasks' such as theft, given a weapon for protection
- asked to hold a package overnight, on returning it the next day, the child is told it weighs less than it should and they now owe money
- child's family and home address are threatened, they have to complete more crime in order to pay off the 'debt'
- child is scared and confused, they enjoy the excitement sometimes but also know they could be seriously hurt
- they worry their siblings will be hurt or they could be arrested. They know what happens to 'snitches'.