Groups of children and young people at heightened risk of CCE

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Certain groups of children and young people face increased risk of Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) due to factors such as social isolation, instability, and lack of support. While any child or young person can be vulnerable to exploitation, those with intersecting challenges, such as family instability, being or having been in care, experiencing homelessness, or belonging to marginalised communities may be particularly at risk.

Children and young people who are unaccompanied or separated are among the most vulnerable to exploitation, including criminal and sexual exploitation. It is essential that disruption strategies are applied within established safeguarding frameworks to ensure a holistic and child-centred response.

  • Unaccompanied Child
  • A person under the age of 18 who has been separated from both parents and other relatives and is not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible for doing so.
  • Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Child (UASC)
  • A child who is applying for asylum in their own right and is separated from both parents.

These children may be at heightened risk due to their isolation, lack of protective adults, and potential exposure to transportation, trafficking or exploitation networks.

Practitioner guidance Working Arrangements for the Welfare and Safeguarding of Unaccompanied and Separated Children and Young People (2018), outlines individual professional and agency roles and responsibilities, multi-agency responsibilities, promotes consistent safeguarding responses, and ensures that the welfare of these children and young people is prioritised throughout any intervention. These Working arrangements are currently under review.

Disruption strategies (Annex B) are key to preventing re-offending and safeguarding victims and those at risk. These tools can be used to target individual suspects or perpetrators, including those operating within wider networks. While the police lead on enforcement, other services must understand and support the use of legal tools to maximise their impact.

Practitioners should use this understanding to inform targeted, child-centred interventions. This includes:

  • Recognising that many children and young people may belong to multiple groups.
  • Conducting individual assessments to understand unique circumstances of each child and the context in which their exploitation occurs.
  • Applying a strengths-based and culturally competent approach.
  • Ensuring frontline staff are trained to identify and respond to specific vulnerabilities.
  • Embedding this knowledge into policy, practice, and multi-agency collaboration.
Missing children and young people

Why they're at greater risk:

  • Lack of appropriate adult supervision and protection while missing, leaving them exposed to harm
  • Frequency and duration of missing episodes, which can indicate escalating vulnerability
  • Behaviour or activity prior to missing episodes, such as contact with peers who may be involved in offending, drug use, or online grooming
  • Urgent need for basic necessities such as food, shelter, or financial resources.
  • Disconnection from support networks and services, reducing opportunities for intervention and safeguarding.

Specific risks:

  • Targeted by perpetrators who offer basic needs in exchange for criminal activity, creating dependency
  • Exposure to high-risk situations and environments while missing, including unsafe accommodation or street settings
  • Difficulty reintegrating into family/care settings after repeated missing episodes, which can perpetrate cycles of vulnerability
  • Increased risk of sexual exploitation alongside criminal exploitation
Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

Why they're at greater risk:

  • Potential social isolation or difficulty understanding social cues
  • Increased vulnerability to manipulation or coercion
  • Possible communication difficulties in reporting abuse or CCE

Specific risks:

  • Targeting by perpetrators who take advantage of their vulnerabilities
  • Risk of being used as 'clean skins' for criminal activities due to perceived innocence
  • Difficulty recognising exploitative situations due to cognitive or social challenges
Unaccompanied children and young people

Why they're at greater risk:

  • Absence of parental care and supervision, leaving them without advocacy or protection.
  • Emotional vulnerability and trauma, often linked to family breakdown, neglect, or loss.
  • Limited understanding of rights and safeguarding systems, making it harder to seek help.
  • Instability in living arrangements, such as temporary accommodation or care settings.
  • Heightened need for belonging and security, which can be manipulated by perpetrators.

Specific Risks:

  • Targeting by organised criminal groups, who exploit isolation and unmet needs.
  • Exposure to coercion, threats, violence and grooming, offering false promises of safety or income.
  • Risk of exploitation in exchange for basic necessities, such as food or shelter.
  • Movement between locations, increasing vulnerability to trafficking and control whilst at the same time reducing potential for detection.
  • Poverty and lack of access to legitimate income, making survival strategies susceptible to criminal influence.
Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC)

Why they're at greater risk:

  • Face language barriers and unfamiliarity with local systems
  • Struggle to access legal advice, education, mental health support and advocacy
  • Potential trauma from past experiences
  • Lack of family support networks
  • Uncertainty and fear around immigration status and decisions
  • Potential for young people being trafficked into the UK to be criminally exploited, such as cannabis farms, drug movement, criminal labour exploitation such as nail bars, prostitution

Specific risks:

  • Vulnerability to trafficking networks
  • Risk of exploitation in exchange for assistance with immigration processes
  • Cultural barriers or being ‘briefed’ or instructed by traffickers not to engage with authorities or to seek help
  • Targeting by perpetrators who take advantage of their isolation and need for belonging
  • Poverty and lack of access to income and/or accommodation.

Children and young people excluded from school

Why they're at greater risk:

  • Have reduced adult supervision and structured activities
  • Potential feelings of rejection or alienation from mainstream society
  • Increased free time and exposure to high-risk environments

Specific risks:

  • Targeting by perpetrators who offer alternative 'education' or 'employment'
  • Increased vulnerability to peer groups involved in criminal activities
  • Difficulty reintegrating into education or training, leading to long-term vulnerability
Children and young people from families involved in crime

Why they're at greater risk:

  • Normalisation of criminal behaviour
  • Existing connections to criminal networks
  • Potential pressure from family members to engage in criminal activities

Specific risks:

  • Early exposure to criminal lifestyles and activities
  • Difficulty recognising exploitative situations due to familial involvement
  • Risk of being used by family members in criminal activities
  • Challenges in seeking help due to family loyalty or fear of consequences
Children and young people with a history of offending

Why they're at greater risk:

  • History of involvement in low level offending
  • Criminal damage in the home/community
  • Low level assaults with peers (in school or community)
  • Offending profile could also include theft, money laundering, possession of weapons, drug supply to pay drug debt.

Specific risks:

  • Previous contact with Police, especially in relation to group-based offending, public disorder and possession of a weapon
  • Drug debt
  • Living under threat in their local community
LGBTQ+ Youth

Why they're at greater risk:

  • May face rejection from family or community
  • Higher rates of homelessness and economic instability
  • Vulnerability to perpetrators who offer acceptance or support

Specific risks:

  • Targeting by perpetrators who leverage their need for acceptance
  • Increased risk of online exploitation through LGBTQ+ platforms or communities
  • Potential reluctance to seek help due to fear of discrimination or outing
Children and young people from Newcomer families

Why they're at greater risk:

  • Language barriers: Difficulty accessing support services and understanding rights, increasing vulnerability to CCE
  • Cultural isolation: Lack of integration, leading to susceptibility to CCE as they seek belonging
  • Possibility of having been transported into the country (with no initial intent to exploit) and then abandoned
  • Distrust of authorities: Historical or cultural distrust preventing help-seeking and reporting CCE
  • Economic pressures: Financial struggles which may make children and young people more likely to engage in criminal activity

Specific risks:

  • Forced labour: Coercion into low-wage, long-hour jobs in sectors like agriculture and construction
  • Child sexual exploitation: Victim of trafficking or other forms of sexual abuse
  • Debt bondage: Forced work to repay migration debts with high interest rates
  • Exploitation in informal economies: Coercion into unregulated street vending or illicit trade.
Substance use

Why they're at greater risk:

  • May be dependent on substances that perpetrators can provide
  • Impaired judgment and decision-making abilities
  • Potential engagement in criminal activities to fund substance use

Specific risks:

  • CCE through drug debts or in exchange for substances
  • Increased vulnerability when under the influence of substances
  • Health risks associated with substance use alongside CCE.
Looked after children and children in secure care

Why they're at greater risk:

  • Due to disrupted attachments and relationships
  • Potential trauma from past abuse or neglect
  • Frequent placement moves leading to instability
  • Difficulty trusting adults or authority figures
  • Peer connections formed in secure care can create opportunities for perpetrators to exploit wider networks of children and young people.

Specific risks:

  • Targeting by perpetrators who offer a sense of belonging or family
  • Transition periods between placements may increase vulnerability
  • Risk of going missing from care placements
  • Potential lack of consistent, trusted adults in their lives

CCE Case Study 2

Context/ Background

  • 15 year old male
  • Living in children’s home following breakdown of kinship placement with MGM, and subsequent multiple placement moves
  • Isolated from siblings and wider family
  • Mother has mental health difficulties, and mild learning disability
  • Father has history of mental health difficulties
  • Father currently in prison
  • School refusing
  • Known to Youth Justice Agency due to burglary

Concerns

  • He admits to both using and selling drugs
  • Parents of young people who received drugs from him have posted this on social media, identifying him
  • Lots of young people calling to the children’s home for him, but he is reluctant to engage with them and seems under pressure from them
  • These young people are from the local area and are not in the care system
  • They call at all times of day/ night
  • Returned to the home recently with a bruise on his cheek – he gave two different accounts of how he got this
  • He doesn't ask staff for his pocket money, yet always seems to have money
  • He was observed by staff getting into a taxi several times
  • Seen by staff getting into a car with two adult men in close proximity to the children’s home
  • Lots of MFC episodes which are short in duration and with no apparent pattern
  • Presents with low mood
  • Very secretive about his activities and whereabouts
  • Has told staff a few times that he feels under pressure from some people, but won’t give any further information
Children and young people in custody

Why they're at greater risk:

  • Exposure to criminal networks and other children and young people involved in offending
  • Desensitisation to offending as custody is usually reserved as a last resort.
  • Potential trauma from their experience in custody.

Specific risks:

  • CCE upon release due to lack of support or resources and networks established when in custody
  • Increased vulnerability if released to unstable living situations
  • Potentially limited protective factors
  • Sense of belonging with other children and young people who have been in custody with limited family connection.
  • The potential to reconnect with those they met in custody and be exposed to exploitive adults.

Remember: While these groups are at heightened risk, any child or young person can be in a situation that exposes them to exploitation. Individual circumstances, protective factors, and resilience all play a role in determining a child or young person’s level of risk.