Child Criminal Exploitation

There is no legal definition of CCE; The Home Office definition (2023) is:

CCE occurs where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, control, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into any criminal activity. The victim may have been criminally exploited even if the activity appears consensual. Child criminal exploitation does not always involve physical contact; it can also occur through the use of technology.
CCE can include ‘county lines’; being made to steal goods, sell drugs or commit other crimes or acts of violence.

This film provides more information about County Lines.

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.

YouTube video on Child Criminal Exploitation produced by the Violence Reduction Network and Leicestershire Police Criminal Exploitation

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