Lack of strategy to tackle child criminal exploitation ‘harming young people’
Fiona Simpson
Thursday, March 21, 2024
The lack of a UK-wide strategy to tackle child criminal exploitation and support children affected by it is resulting in “serious and preventable harm” to young people, a review of the current system finds.
The review, commissioned by Action for Children, and chaired by Alexis Jay, who led the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, highlights research from the charity which finds that more than 130,000 parents say their child has experienced three or more signs of criminal exploitation in the last 12 months.
The review heard there is currently no agreed legal definition of the criminal exploitation of children and looked at how the cost-of-living crisis had exacerbated all forms of exploitation, youth violence and vulnerability, with one witness describing poverty “in itself acting as a grooming process”.
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Gangs and Criminal Exploitation: Special Report
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The panel also heard evidence that the pandemic significantly increased childhood vulnerability and that Black and minority ethnic children are overrepresented in statistics on criminal exploitation across all types but particularly in cases involving county lines drugs gangs.
“Concerns were raised about the rising rates of exclusions and school absences – particularly for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), with the risk of children falling through the cracks. Social media and gaming were also cited as key methods of targeting and grooming vulnerable young people,” it finds.
Jay was support in sifting through evidence from more than 70 individuals and organisations from all four nations of the UK by panel members Simon Bailey, the former National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection and Charles Geekie, a barrister specialising in family law and an Action for Children Trustee.
Jay said: "The real scale of the problem is unknown, but we do know tens of thousands of vulnerable children are being groomed, coerced and threatened into a life of criminality and violence – with devastating consequences for them, their families, communities and those harmed by the related crimes.
“It’s deeply worrying that serious and preventable harm is being caused to so many children and young people. What is required is a new system designed with the explicit purpose of tackling the criminal exploitation of children.”
In a series of recommendations to government, the panel calls for a single, cohesive legal code designed to tackle the criminal exploitation of children and coordinated policy and practice at a local and national level.
