Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) briefing and e-learning

Community Justice Scotland (CJS) was part of a multi-agency group that were aiming to reduce the harm caused by Serious and Organised Crime. CJS was involved with the “Divert” strand of the strategy.

CJS’s role within that group was to increase awareness among our stakeholders about Serious and Organised Crime with the aim of increasing report of concerns, to mitigate risks and to increase the resilience of communities to deter SOCO. We did this by holding events, producing written materials and integrating any knowledge learned into our training materials.

Serious Organised Crime (SOC) is driven by the pursuit of financial gain at the expense of others. It encompasses a wide range of criminal activities, including drug trafficking, the distribution of counterfeit goods, money laundering, human trafficking, and cybercrime.

Scotland’s Serious Organised Crime Strategy is overseen by a multi-agency Taskforce and aims to reduce the harm caused by serious, organised crime through effective partnership working. The strategy is built around four key objectives: Divert, Deter, Detect, and Disrupt. Within the Divert objective, one of the three key priorities is to prevent individuals who are at risk of (on the cusp of) becoming involved in serious, organised crime from entering criminal pathways.

Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) is a form of criminal exploitation in which children (under 18 years), and, in some cases, adults are manipulated, coerced, or forced into criminal activity. To support a shared understanding of criminal exploitation and strengthen the early identification of individuals at risk of involvement in serious, organised crime, the Divert Subgroup has developed this briefing paper.

Criminal Exploitation of Children:  Action for Children (AfC) and the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice have produced an e-learning module to increase awareness and understanding of the prevalence of the Criminal Exploitation of Children. This course provides a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of professionals when protecting and responding to the children they work with who are at risk of or are being exploited criminally. Key learning features from this module are deepening understanding of the nature of criminal exploitation, identifying indicators of exploitation, safe use of a case study to consider ways to respond to exploitation of children. For more information on the aims and objectives of this course, click below. There is a cost attached to this module.