Catch22 publishes a new article calling for a legal definition of criminal child exploitation.

The article is entitled: What do we mean by “criminal exploitation of children”? The need for a clear, rights-based legal definition, The investigation into existing definitions of criminal exploitation of children and how to introduce a legal definition that places the rights of the child at its core should assist the new government in determining how the law should be clarified to protect children from criminal exploitation.

Why does child abuse need a legal basis?

An example of this need is child sexual exploitation, which has a legal definition and as a result a national child sexual abuse strategy that addresses child sexual exploitation. This has made a huge difference in the effectiveness of professionals in identifying and supporting sexually exploited children. Because there is no legal definition of criminal child exploitation, it is not consistently identified by different partners across the country. Too many children are treated as perpetrators rather than victims, and suffer consequences that can have long-term consequences for their lives.

Background

In 2015, Catch22 was commissioned to provide specialist support to child victims of sexual exploitation in Merseyside. In 2019 it expanded to become the Pan-Merseyside Child Exploitation Service – to recognise the overlap between child criminal exploitation and child sexual exploitation and to train caseworkers to support victims of all forms of child exploitation.

Vikki McKenna, Service Manager for the Pan-Merseyside service explains why:

“Ten years ago, Catch22 began by raising the issue of child criminal exploitation that our Merseyside Missing and child sexual exploitation service was working with. Eventually, after sharing data and case studies and pushing for support on child criminal exploitation, local commissioners agreed to expand the Catch22 service to become what we believe was the first service in the country to accept referrals for children affected by all forms of child exploitation. It was the first of many Catch22 services to do so.”

At the same time, we realised that due to the presence of multiple services in the country, there was no coordinated understanding or approach by authorities and partners in responding to the problem. The Child Sexual Abuse Strategy was published in 2021 and made significant progress in improving the protection of child victims of sexual exploitation, but no equivalent strategy was published for child victims of criminal exploitation.

This has led us to develop a national strategy against child exploitation in 2021. This strategy would update legal guidelines for professionals to cover all forms of child exploitation and include a legal definition of criminal exploitation of children.

Sarah Parker, Research and Development Officer at Catch22, reflects on the progress policymakers have made in the area of ​​child exploitation and how protection against different forms of child exploitation compares:

“Sometimes it felt like we were going back to the bad old days at the turn of the century, when professionals didn’t always recognise sexual exploitation. Children who have been victims of criminal exploitation can be further victimised by the systems that are supposed to support them – through exclusion from school, lack of specialist mental health support or even criminalisation.”

At the launch of the Labour Party manifesto in June, the party pledged to “introduce a new law on the exploitation of children and young people by criminal gangs, including county lines, creating a new offence of criminal exploitation of children”, alongside developing a new “serious organised crime strategy”. Now that Labour is in government, we look forward to hearing the details of the plan to make this a reality.

About the author

Clara Paul is the author of this research and is currently undertaking a PhD in Criminology at Keele University (from which she will transfer to the University of Manchester in October 2024) focusing on understanding children’s experiences and perceptions of ‘child criminal exploitation’. Clara will begin working with children referred to Catch22 for support in the coming year to seek their insights, experiences and opinions.