Preventing criminal exploitation: evidence summary

Footnotes

1 ‘Prevention of human trafficking and exploitation: evidence review’; ‘Preventing sexual exploitation; Evidence summary’; ‘Preventing labour exploitation: evidence summary’

2 Grey literature is any information that is not produced by commercial publishers. This includes publications such as policy documents, working papers, reports produced by government departments and NGOs and research reports.

3 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

4 Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Beings The Council of Europe)

5 Critical appraisal is the process of carefully and systematically examining research to judge its trustworthiness, and its value and relevance in a particular context (CASP - Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (casp-uk.net)).

6 The Home Office began recording criminal exploitation as a type of exploitation in the NRM in 2019. The child criminal exploitation marker was first adopted by Police Scotland in 2022 and a county lines marker added to the NRM in 2020 (Dixon, 2023; Home Office, 2024).

7 The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is a framework for identifying and referring potential victims of modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK. Referrals are made through certain organisations known as First Responders. Consent of potential victims for referral is not necessary for children but it is required for adults.

8 Under international obligations, the UK has a non-punishment provision to avoid criminalising victims for crimes they have committed as a direct consequence of trafficking and exploitation (Sereni and Baker, 2018). In Scotland, rather than a statutory defence, there is a strong presumption against the prosecution of child where there is credible and reliable information that the child is a victim of trafficking or exploitation (Unicef, 2017).

9 Section 8 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 requires the Lord Advocate to issue and publish instructions for prosecutors regarding the prosecution of victims of human trafficking or exploitation who are alleged to have committed criminal offences. The section further provides that the instructions must, in particular, include factors to be taken into account or steps to be taken by the prosecutor when deciding whether to prosecute a person who has been compelled to commit an offence and the compulsion is directly attributable to the person being or appearing to be a victim of trafficking or slavery servitude and forced or compulsory labour. Those instructions were published in May 2016, updated in January 2024 and continue to be applied by prosecutors as relevant cases arise. Lord Advocate’s instructions for non-prosecution of victims of human trafficking | COPFS

10 Since the time of writing (2024), cuckooing is to be made criminal offence in Scotland through the Crime and Policing bill, which would make it a specific offense in Scotland to take over the home of a vulnerable person, and use it for illegal activities.

11 ‘Preventing Human Trafficking and Exploitation: Evidence Review’ (published on same day as this paper on the Scottish Government website)

12 Contextual safeguarding is recommended in the Scottish Government’s Practitioner Guidance on Criminal Exploitation (2023b). It provides a more comprehensive approach to understanding the risks to child safety that exist beyond the home in a range of environments and people outside of their family, including school and other educational establishments, peer groups, the wider community and, or online (Barlow et al, 2022; UK Gov, 2021).

13 E.g. UK Government’s Practitioner Toolkit: Working with young people to prevent involvement in Serious and Organised Crime (Home Office, 2021)