Addressing the Safety and Criminal Exploitation of Vulnerable Young People: Before, During and After COVID-19 and Lockdown

2021 ◽  
pp. 151-171
Author(s):  
Andrew Ravenscroft ◽  
Cathy Salisbury ◽  
Angie Voela ◽  
Paul Watts
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Criminal Exploitation

scholarly journals Peer groups, street gangs and organised crime in the narratives of adolescent male offenders

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 277-292
Author(s):  
Sally-Ann Ashton ◽  
Anna Bussu
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Peer Groups ◽  
Adolescent Male ◽  
Social Risk ◽  
Street Gangs ◽  
Social Risk Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Gang Involvement ◽  
Criminal Exploitation ◽  
Criminal Groups

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how young people who offend with others define delinquent and criminal groups and consider the social risk factors associated with gang membership and criminal exploitation. Design/methodology/approach The sample consisted of 15 young people who were purposively sampled from a group of 14- to 17-year-old males who had been identified as at risk of gang involvement and referred to a community-based programme. Using a social identity framework, a thematic analysis was undertaken to investigate how the participants viewed their role in offending as part of a group. Findings The participants identified peer groups, street gangs and the involvement of adult criminals as distinct categories of offending groups. Unlike prior models for gang involvement, some members of the sample were involved in multiple groups to perform different categories of crime. Importantly, participants displayed an awareness of exploitation and described successful exit strategies from criminal groups. Research limitations/implications Understanding how young people who are involved in delinquent behaviour and offending define gang and group offending. Practical implications The implications for gang and group offending prevention and intervention programmes are discussed. Originality/value The literature on child criminal exploitation and UK drug markets is in its infancy. This paper offers further evidence for the processes of joining and leaving delinquent and criminal groups.

scholarly journals Young people and “county lines”: a contextual and social account

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Elizabeth Wroe
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Young People ◽  
Large City ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
City Region ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Criminal Exploitation

Purpose This paper aims to present an analysis of a “county lines” safeguarding partnership in a large city region of England. A critical analysis of current literature and practice responses to “county lines” is followed by the presentation of an analytical framework that draws on three contextual and social theories of (child) harm. This framework is applied to the partnership work to ask: are the interconnected conditions of criminal exploitation of children via “county lines” understood?; do interventions target the contexts of harm?; and is social and institutional harm acknowledged and addressed? Design/methodology/approach The analytical framework is applied to a data set collected by the author throughout a two-year study of the “county lines” partnership. Qualitative data collected by the author and quantitative data published by the partnership are coded and thematically analysed in NVivo against the analytic framework. Findings Critical tensions are surfaced in the praxis of multi-agency, child welfare responses to “county lines” affected young people. Generalising these findings to the child welfare sector at large, it is proposed that the contextual dynamics of child harm via “county lines” must be understood in a broader sense, including how multi-agency child welfare practices contribute to the harm experienced by young people. Originality/value There are limited peer-reviewed analyses of child welfare responses to “county lines”. This paper contributes to that limited scholarship, extending the analysis by adopting a critical analytic framework to a regional county lines partnership at the juncture of future national, child welfare responses to “county lines”.

Controlling the Line: Exploitation and Sanctions

County Lines ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 143-178
Author(s):  
Simon Harding
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Street Gangs ◽  
Line Managers ◽  
Profit Margins ◽  
Debt Bondage ◽  
Criminal Exploitation ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter investigates how county line managers employ strategic and tactical actions to control their lines to keep them active and thriving: first, through exploitation and; second, via the County Line Control Repertoire, which provides multiple tactical sanctions for county line operatives to control the line. Exploitation by street gangs and organised crime networks is UK-wide. Within county lines, exploitation of both adults and young people is fundamental to all county line business models and is essential to achieving the profit margins making county line models a profitable enterprise. Child criminal exploitation within county lines can include grooming and selection, recruitment, running drug lines, interlay carrying drugs, hiding or carrying weapons, and money laundering. The chapter then considers the role of gender, with detailed insight into the exploitation, intimidation, and violence now ever-present in county lines via issues such as debt bondage.

Developing theory-based risk-reduction interventions for HIV-positive young people with haemophilia

Haemophilia ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Schultz ◽  
R. B. Butler ◽  
L. Mckernan ◽  
R. Boelsen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Hiv Positive

Young People, Comics and Reading

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Cedeira Serantes
Keyword(s):  
Young People

Deaf Young People and their Families

1995 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Gregory ◽  
Juliet Bishop ◽  
Lesley Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
Young People

Social representations of human rights violations: Further evidence

2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Clémence ◽  
Thierry Devos ◽  
Willem Doise
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Questionnaire Study ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
High Tolerance ◽  
Individual Actions

Social representations of human rights violations were investigated in a questionnaire study conducted in five countries (Costa Rica, France, Italy, Romania, and Switzerland) (N = 1239 young people). We were able to show that respondents organize their understanding of human rights violations in similar ways across nations. At the same time, systematic variations characterized opinions about human rights violations, and the structure of these variations was similar across national contexts. Differences in definitions of human rights violations were identified by a cluster analysis. A broader definition was related to critical attitudes toward governmental and institutional abuses of power, whereas a more restricted definition was rooted in a fatalistic conception of social reality, approval of social regulations, and greater tolerance for institutional infringements of privacy. An atypical definition was anchored either in a strong rejection of social regulations or in a strong condemnation of immoral individual actions linked with a high tolerance for governmental interference. These findings support the idea that contrasting definitions of human rights coexist and that these definitions are underpinned by a set of beliefs regarding the relationships between individuals and institutions.

Information-Seeking on the Internet

Crisis ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinod Singaravelu ◽  
Anne Stewart ◽  
Joanna Adams ◽  
Sue Simkin ◽  
Keith Hawton
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Young People ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Specific Advice ◽  
Restriction Sites ◽  
Self Harm ◽  
Negative Tone

Abstract. Background: The Internet is used by young people at risk of self-harm to communicate, find information, and obtain support. Aims: We aimed to identify and analyze websites potentially accessed by these young people. Method: Six search terms, relating to self-harm/suicide and depression, were input into four search engines. Websites were analyzed for access, content/purpose, and tone. Results: In all, 314 websites were included in the analysis. Most could be accessed without restriction. Sites accessed by self-harm/suicide search terms were mostly positive or preventive in tone, whereas sites accessed by the term ways to kill yourself tended to have a negative tone. Information about self-harm methods was common with specific advice on how to self-harm in 15.8% of sites, encouragement of self-harm in 7.0%, and evocative images of self-harm/suicide in 20.7%. Advice on how to get help was given in 56.1% of sites. Conclusion: Websites relating to suicide or self-harm are easily accessed. Many sites are potentially helpful. However, a significant proportion of sites are potentially harmful through normalizing or encouraging self-harm. Enquiry regarding Internet use should be routinely included while assessing young people at risk.

Age at Exposure to Parental Suicide and the Subsequent Risk of Suicide in Young People

Crisis ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuan-Ying Lee ◽  
Chung-Yi Li ◽  
Kun-Chia Chang ◽  
Tsung-Hsueh Lu ◽  
Ying-Yeh Chen
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Proportional Hazards ◽  
Proportional Hazards Model ◽  
Cox Proportional Hazards ◽  
Cox Proportional Hazards Model ◽  
Birth Registry ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Parental Suicide ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Age At Exposure

Abstract. Background: We investigated the age at exposure to parental suicide and the risk of subsequent suicide completion in young people. The impact of parental and offspring sex was also examined. Method: Using a cohort study design, we linked Taiwan's Birth Registry (1978–1997) with Taiwan's Death Registry (1985–2009) and identified 40,249 children who had experienced maternal suicide (n = 14,431), paternal suicide (n = 26,887), or the suicide of both parents (n = 281). Each exposed child was matched to 10 children of the same sex and birth year whose parents were still alive. This yielded a total of 398,081 children for our non-exposed cohort. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to compare the suicide risk of the exposed and non-exposed groups. Results: Compared with the non-exposed group, offspring who were exposed to parental suicide were 3.91 times (95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.10–4.92 more likely to die by suicide after adjusting for baseline characteristics. The risk of suicide seemed to be lower in older male offspring (HR = 3.94, 95% CI = 2.57–6.06), but higher in older female offspring (HR = 5.30, 95% CI = 3.05–9.22). Stratified analyses based on parental sex revealed similar patterns as the combined analysis. Limitations: As only register-­based data were used, we were not able to explore the impact of variables not contained in the data set, such as the role of mental illness. Conclusion: Our findings suggest a prominent elevation in the risk of suicide among offspring who lost their parents to suicide. The risk elevation differed according to the sex of the afflicted offspring as well as to their age at exposure.

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