Child Criminal Exploitation

By Donna McEwan, Practice Development Advisor at CYCJ

What is criminal exploitation of children? 

What we do know is that children in Scotland have been forced, coerced and exploited to assault and threaten others for money to pay drug debts, carrying and storing weapons, stealing different items to order such as cars, and motorbikes. That is likely the tip of the iceberg. I wonder how many people think it doesn’t happen here, that child criminal exploitation (CCE) is something that happens elsewhere but not in Scotland? If only that were true but the truth is far more troubling—we don't fully grasp the extent of how many children in Scotland are trapped in this form of abuse. The challenge before us is not just recognising, and responding to this issue but preventing it from happening in the first place. 

Despite significant efforts to change the narrative and improve our response to CCE, Scotland is on a long journey. Child criminal exploitation takes many different forms and whilst it would be helpful to direct you to the legal definition of CCE unfortunately, I can’t! I can’t give you a legal definition of what it is, as, there is no legal definition, not in Scotland or the UK as a whole. This in itself, along with the lack of specific mention of criminal exploitation and confusing legalese in the legislation, creates difficulties bringing everyone (police, social work, education and health professional, and the public) onto the same page about how it functions, what it might look like, how to respond and understanding the damage it does to children, families and communities. International Protocols, such as the Palermo Protocol and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), provide a clear stance: children cannot consent to their own exploitation, and CCE is a child protection issue that demands a child protection response-don’t just take my word for it, it says so in our National Child Protection Guidance (2023). 

So, what do we know in Scotland? Small-scale Scottish research was carried out in 2023 (Dixon, 2023) that illustrated what a fragmented picture we are dealing with and how patchy, disparate and limited the data on the prevalence, scale and nature of CCE in Scotland is. Police Scotland’s introduction of a CCE marker on child concern forms has begun to offer limited insights, with 236 markers recorded within a year, indicating a concerning spread across the country, from urban centres like Glasgow and Edinburgh to the rural Highlands and no area of Scotland escaping the presence of some level of concern regarding CCE. This data, while limited, begins to illustrate the prevalence and varied nature of CCE across Scotland but also raises questions regarding the gendered lens through which we typically appear to identify types of exploitation and the subsequent response as 75% of the CCE markers were attributed to male children and 25% to female children. It is important for us to explore how incorporating a gender perspective into our understanding of child exploitation can enhance our ability to identify, acknowledge, and prevent such abuses. By examining how gender influences the forms of exploitation children may face, as well as our societal responses to these issues, we can develop more nuanced and effective strategies for raising awareness and safeguarding all children from harm. In addition, worrying observations from practitioners interviewed raises concerns regarding the targeting of younger children aged 12-13yrs being criminally exploited when previously the most common ages they would have said were children aged 15-17yrs. The main types of CCE practitioners identified were: adult exploitation, drugs (including drug use, drug dealing and county lines), acquisitive offences such as shoplifting, theft, vehicle theft, road traffic offences, gang related violence, anti-social behaviour and missing person incidents. 

Whilst the narrative is slowly shifting, much as it did for child sexual exploitation, recognising that these children are not willing participants in crime but are being abused and exploited, there is still a way to go. This shift challenges professionals to see beyond a child's actions, acknowledging their vulnerability and the need for protection, not punishment.  This continues to challenge the systems, which respond to criminally exploited children especially in situations where serious harm has been caused or may occur. CCE is still a "hidden harm" in Scotland, with a tendency to focus on a child's criminal behaviour rather than their exploitation and needs.  Thus, whilst our child protection guidance, as noted above, labels CCE as a significant concern, this should prompt us to question whether we're doing enough to change our perspective and truly see the exploited child behind the offence.

The Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 clarifies that exploitation is exploitation, regardless of the victim’s consent which is critical to our understanding and recognition of CCE that needs to be widely embraced and applied. Alongside this reframing, is the association and positioning of exploitation as trafficking and the understanding that trafficking is not just about movement across countries borders but from town to town, street to street, and actually doesn’t require any movement at all. The Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 makes this explicit, “the distance travelled and whether the victim provided consent or not is irrelevant to determining whether an offence took place.” 

Thus, the issue of CCE in Scotland demands our immediate attention and action. We are at a pivotal point in deciding how to address the issue of criminally exploited children and those who exploit them. By embracing a child-centred approach and changing our perception to recognise the victim behind the crime, to develop a unified understanding alongside improving data collection, we can start to dismantle the mechanisms of exploitation. Our approach must be compassionate, informed, and unwavering, ensuring Scotland acknowledges, supports, and protects every child from the dangers of criminal exploitation.

Learn more about the Fearless drugs campaign: Drugs | Crimestoppers (crimestoppers-uk.org)