The Impact of COVID-19 on Child Criminal Exploitation

Interim research briefing, Oct 202

Covid-19 and Child Criminal Exploitation in the UK: Implications of the Pandemic for County Lines

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.open access articleIn March 2020, the UK was placed in lockdown following the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Just as legitimate workplaces made changes to enable their employees to work from home, the illicit drugs trade also made alternative arrangements, adapting its supply models to ensure continuity of operations. Based upon qualitative interviews with 46 practitioners, this paper assesses how front-line professionals have experienced and perceived the impact of Covid-19 on child criminal exploitation and County Lines drug supply in the UK. Throughout the paper, we highlight perceived adaptations to the County Lines supply model, the impact of lockdown restrictions on detection and law enforcement activities aimed at County Lines, and on efforts to safeguard children and young people from criminal exploitation. Our participants generally believed that the pandemic had induced shifts to County Lines that reflected an ongoing evolution of the drug supply model and shifts in understanding or attention because of the Covid-19 restrictions, rather than a complete reconstitution of the model itself. Practitioners perceived that Covid-19 has had, and continues to have, a significant impact on some young people’s vulnerability to exploitation, on the way in which police and frontline practitioners respond to County Lines and child criminal exploitation and on the way illegal drugs are being moved and sol

Child Criminal Exploitation: and County Lines drugs distribution: Understanding the impact of Covid-19. Report

In March 2020, restrictions on movement and social contact were imposed across the UK following the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Many legitimate businesses either closed their doors entirely or made changes to enable their employees to work from home. Media reports also began to circulate suggesting that the illicit drugs trade was also making alternative arrangements for the supply of illegal drugs

Galvanizing Local Anti-Trafficking Partnership Work Using Intelligence: Profiling the Problem and Building Resilience

Prior research has evidenced the importance of collaboration and multi-agency partnership work in responding to human trafficking in both the UK and US. Three previous key studies are synthe-sized in this paper. We situate multi-agency anti-trafficking collaborative work within conceptu-alizations of “resilience” and mechanisms by which to achieve it, and draw comparisons be-tween the structure, organization, and activities of anti-trafficking partnerships in the UK and US. We present results, reflections, and discussion regarding the utility of local-problem diagnosis and multi-agency, using collaborative intelligence analysis as a mechanism to galvanize and or-ganize local partnership action, resulting from action research conducted in one police force area. We posit the replication of this “problem profile” exercise as a mechanism for anti-trafficking collaborators to galvanize their aims and day-to-day efforts to make their communities resilient to human trafficking. We close by arguing for resilience as a framing for this mechanism and for local collaborative efforts

Taking Back Control: Human Rights and Human Trafficking in the United Kingdom

Modern slavery and human trafficking are well recognized as significant problems in need of legislation, policies, and actions from a wide range of stakeholders in the United Kingdom. The passage of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 is a hallmark of these concerns and has made the UK a world leader in the fight against modern slavery and human trafficking, a legislative development that is in line with the country’s broader formal commitment to the international and European human rights regime. In the post-Brexit period, however, there has been an increasing de jure conflation of modern slavery and human trafficking with efforts to curb immigration, leading to a significant questioning of the UK’s commitment to human rights. This article locates the consideration of human rights and human trafficking within these broader political trends in order to understand the prospects for meaningful measures to combat modern slavery and human trafficking in the future

Covid-19, Vulnerability and the Safeguarding of Criminally Exploited Children

This is the third briefing from research investigating the impacts of Covid-19 on child criminal exploitation and County Lines. Findings indicate that restrictions introduced in response to the pandemic have hindered the ability of youth workers to safeguard vulnerable young people and increased difficulties in identifying and responding to victims of County Lines exploitation