Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE)

Criminal exploitation is child abuse where children and young people are manipulated and coerced into committing crimes. These crimes may include county lines, working in cannabis factories, shoplifting, pickpocketing, theft, threatening/committing serious violence to others. Children may be coerced into carrying weapons such as knives or begin to carry a knife for a sense of protection from harm from others.

It’s important to be aware of the risks of criminal exploitation or being involved with a criminal gang. Perpetrators can use different tactics to recruit and exploit children and young people, including bribing them with rewards, befriending them, and threatening them, or coercing them.

Dangers of criminal exploitation include:

  • Being subject to threats, blackmail and violence

  • Being exploited and forced to commit crimes

  • Being arrested, including for crimes committed by the gang that they have not directly committed under the law of joint enterprise

  • Not being able to leave or cut off ties with the gang

  • Having their safety or the safety of friends and family threatened

What to look out for

  • Frequently absent from and not performing well

  • Going missing from home, staying out late and travelling for unexplained reasons

  • In a relationship or hanging out with someone older than them

  • Being angry, aggressive or violent

  • Being isolated or withdrawn

  • Having unexplained money and buying new things

  • Wearing clothes or accessories in gang colours or getting tattoos

  • Using new slang words

  • Spending more time on social media and being secretive about time online

  • Making more calls or sending more texts, possibly on a new phone or phones

  • Self-harming and feeling emotionally unwell

  • Taking drugs and abusing alcohol

  • Committing petty crimes like shop lifting or vandalism

  • Unexplained injuries and refusing to seek medical help

  • Carrying weapons or having a dangerous breed of dog

Support Available

If you have any concerns regarding CCE then please speak to a member of The Safeguarding Team. The team will support students who are at risk of CCE and offer advice and support to parents/ carers.