The lack of a UK-wide strategy to tackle child criminal exploitation and support children affected by it is resulting in “serious and preventable harm” to young people, a review of the current system finds.
The review, commissioned by Action for Children, and chaired by Alexis Jay, who led the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, highlights research from the charity which finds that more than 130,000 parents say their child has experienced three or more signs of criminal exploitation in the last 12 months.
The review heard there is currently no agreed legal definition of the criminal exploitation of children and looked at how the cost-of-living crisis had exacerbated all forms of exploitation, youth violence and vulnerability, with one witness describing poverty “in itself acting as a grooming process”.
The panel also heard evidence that the pandemic significantly increased childhood vulnerability and that Black and minority ethnic children are overrepresented in statistics on criminal exploitation across all types but particularly in cases involving county lines drugs gangs.
