THE DANGER signs of children being exploited by county lines drug gangs are being spelled out by Warwickshire Police and Warwickshire County Council during a week of awareness activity in the lead up to National Child Exploitation Day on Friday (March 18).
County lines is a form of criminal exploitation where young people from large cities are exploited to transport drugs to smaller towns.
The gangs are highly organised criminal networks who use a range of techniques to groom young people to get them involved in their criminal enterprise.
The child will often be offered money and status to attract them.
Signs that someone is being criminally exploited include:
- Frequently going missing from school, home or care
- Travelling to locations, or being found in areas they have no obvious connections with, including seaside or market towns
- Unwillingness to explain their whereabouts
- Acquiring money, clothes, accessories or mobile phones which they seem unable to account for
- Receiving excessive texts or phone calls at all hours of the day
- Having multiple mobile phone handsets or sim cards
- Withdrawing or having sudden changes in personality, behaviour or the language they use
- Having relationships with controlling or older individuals and groups
- Unexplained injuries
- Carrying weapons
- Significant decline in school results or performance
- Being isolated from peers or social networks
- Associating with or being interested in gang culture
- Self-harming or having significant changes in mental health.
The grooming process will often involve:
- Seeking out a child to exploit
- Observing the child for vulnerabilities
- Finding out what the child’s needs and wants are
- Manipulating the child into believing that being in a gang can fulfil these needs.
Gangs target vulnerable children in the following settings:
- Schools, and further and higher educational institutions
- Special educational needs schools
- Places for alternative provision outside of mainstream education
- Foster homes
- Homeless shelters.
Factors that make a child more susceptible to being exploited include:
- Having previously experience neglect, physical and/or sexual abuse in the past
- Social isolation or social difficulties
- Poverty
- Homelessness or insecure accommodation status
- Connections with other people involved in gangs
- Having a learning disability
- Having mental health problems
- Having substance misuse issues
- Being in care or having a history of being in care
- Being excluded from mainstream education.
Anyone who is concerned about drug-related crime or thinks someone may be a victim of drug exploitation can report concerns to police by calling 101, or 999 in an emergency – or contact Crimestoppers anonymously via www.crimestoppers-uk.org or on 0800 555 111.
Visit https://tinyurl.com/yrshp6u5 for more information and support.
