Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) can be understood as the exploitation of children and young people aged under 18 years in the storage, distribution and selling of illegal drugs, under violent coercion or exploited through the use of debt, or promise of cash or drugs. Patterns of grooming behaviour by adults can be seen to be similar to those associated with sexual exploitation. There will be a power imbalance and children and young people should not be viewed as at fault, ‘choosing a lifestyle’ or making an informed choice.
Criminal exploitation is not restricted to drugs; some children are transporters of cash as well as firearms and weapons, and are coerced into carrying out theft and burglaries. Many children and young people subject to CCE are exploited by criminal gangs.
Children and young people involved in criminal exploitation are often sent to differing locations within the United Kingdom to carry out tasks for gangs, such as supplying drugs to suburban areas, market and coastal towns. Gangs are usually based in cities. This criminal activity is known as ‘county lines’ – a term that is used by the police. This type of movement of children falls within the legal definition of trafficking (guide) in the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Child trafficking is defined as the ‘recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt’ of a child for the purpose of exploitation.
CCE needs to be viewed in the context of broader vulnerabilities and other forms of exploitation and abuse. This could be within families, communities or more sophisticated organised crime groups. There needs to be consideration around the overlap and links between familial violence and/or criminality, trauma, peer to peer abuse, CSE, gang violence, going missing, and (as above) trafficking and modern day slavery.
Child Criminal Exploitation:
- can affect any child or young person (male or female) under the age of 18 years;
- can still be abuse even if the activity appears consensual;
- can involve force and/or enticement-based methods of compliance and is often accompanied by violence or threats of violence;
- can be perpetrated by individuals or groups, males or females, and children or adults. The abuse can be a one-off occurrence or a series of incidents over time, and range from opportunistic to complex organised abuse; and
- is typified by some form of power imbalance in favour of those perpetrating the abuse. Whilst age may be the most obvious, this power imbalance can also be due to a range of other factors including gender, sexual identity, cognitive ability, physical strength, status, and access to economic or other resources.
watch the YouTube video on Child Criminal Exploitation produced by the Violence Reduction Network and Leicestershire Police.
Child Exploitation Risk Identification Tool
The Child Exploitation Risk Identification tool will help you decide whether a child or young person may be at risk of criminal exploitation or more than one form of child exploitation.
Team Briefing
Team briefings have been developed to encourage discussions and reflection on a variety of safeguarding subjects within teams.