Child criminal exploitation and county lines
What is child criminal exploitation?
Child criminal exploitation (CCE) is abuse where children and young people are manipulated and coerced into committing crimes.
CCE often occurs without the victim being aware that they are being exploited and involves young people being encouraged, cajoled or threatened to carry out crime for the benefit of others. In return they are offered friendship or peer acceptance, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes or even food.
Criminal exploitation is not restricted to drugs; some children are transporters of cash as well as firearms and weapons, and are coerced into carrying out theft and burglaries. Many children and young people subject to CCE are exploited by criminal gangs.
Children and young people involved in criminal exploitation are often sent to differing locations within the United Kingdom to carry out tasks for gangs, such as supplying drugs to suburban areas, market and coastal towns. Gangs are usually based in cities. This criminal activity is known as 'County Lines'.
What is county lines?
County Lines is a term used to describe gangs, groups or drug networks that supply drugs from an urban location to suburban areas across the country, using dedicated mobile phone lines. They exploit children and vulnerable adults to achieve storage and/or supply of drugs, movement of cash proceeds and to secure the use of houses for supply (referred to as 'cuckooing').
A mobile phone line is established, to which orders re placed by customers. The line will commonly (but not exclusively) be controlled by a 3rd party, who is remote from the market. The group will use intimidation, violence and weapons to gain control upon the child and vulnerable adults to establish a foothold in the marketplace.
Additional resources
Contextual Safeguarding Network - Practice Guides [external link] - dead link
GOV.UK
- Criminal Exploitation of children and vulnerable adults - County Lines Guidance [external link]
- Knife, gun and gang crime guidance [external link]
NSPCC
Criminal Exploitation and gangs [external link]
National County Lines Coordination Centre
County Lines Awareness YouTube Video [external link]
National Crime Agency
County Lines [external link]
National Crime Agency
County Lines Drug Supply, Vulnerability and Harm (2018) [external link]
Home Office
Home Office Child Exploitation disruption toolkit [external link]
The Children's Society
- County Lines and Criminal Exploitation [external link]
- Child Exploitation Language Guide [pdf document] revised November 2024
NWG Network
Making Language Matter - Attending to Language when working with children subject to or at risk of Exploitation - A Practice & Knowledge Briefing [pdf document]
The Children's Society
Appropriate Language in Relation to Child Exploitation [pdf document]
Crimestoppers Fearless
Access information and advice about crime and criminality [external link]