Domestic abuse increasingly takes up significant amounts of police time, yet the quality of the police response to domestic abuse incidents remains inconsistent between and within police forces. Often, this variability is caused by overstretched police resources coupled with high volumes of domestic abuse calls and officer compassion fatigue, especially when repeatedly attending the same people. The perfect storm is created by limited time for responding to domestic abuse incidents and the perception that they may not be able to resolve the situation – i.e., the unique nature of domestic abuse in comparison to other crimes, may mean the victim is inextricably bound with the offender and will not ‘support’ police processes. Moreover, as officers are required to complete substantial paperwork for domestic abuse crimes, even when they do not understand the purpose of established procedures, the result can be a vicious circle of discontentment, with consequences for officers’ morale and their policing approach to domestic abuse.
This presentation will outline how a positive feedback loop approach using victim-survivors’ voices could have significant impact, not only in mitigating police officers’ frustrations but also by providing them with a big-picture understanding of the impact of their day-to-day policing. As officers rarely receive feedback about success stories, especially when that success does not match the criminal justice definition of a ‘positive outcome’, they seldom realise how much the procedural justice dimensions can impact victim-survivors’ journeys. The symbolic power of the police extends well beyond the standard criminal justice system outcomes – although victim-survivors may place a higher value on the way they are treated by police, a conviction is still the most important performance measure of the criminal justice system, leaving victim-survivor voices in the aether.

This paper challenges the prevailing narrative that frames young people as the primary victims of county lines exploitation, arguing that such a focus is overly narrow. Drawing on empirical research conducted by the ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre, we demonstrate that county lines methodologies are not confined to exploiting young people alone but also extend to other vulnerable groups, including cuckooing victims and family members of individuals involved in county lines activities.

Furthermore, our research highlights the pervasive and multi-dimensional nature of social harm inflicted by county lines methodologies, particularly in communities already grappling with austerity and economic decline. Through case studies and analysis, we illustrate how these methodologies exacerbate existing vulnerabilities, perpetuating cycles of exploitation and victimisation.

By broadening the focus beyond young people, this paper sheds light on overlooked victim groups and underscores the need for a more holistic approach to addressing county lines exploitation. It calls for research, policy, and policing efforts to recognize and respond to the diverse range of victims and the broader community impacts of county lines activities.

This presentation will draw on observations and interviews with youth justice practitioners and young people involved in county lines drug dealing to explore the processes by which young people are identified as victims of child criminal exploitation (CCE). The presentation will explore how micro-level interpersonal interactions between practitioners and young people, specifically young people’s capacity to share information and accept intended acts of care, are vital in producing their status as CCE victims. Yet, a lack of appreciation for young people’s divergent experiences of these interactions can create barriers to their realisation. The presentation will conclude by exploring the implications of these processes for contemporary youth justice practice and for theories of victim identification, and by questioning the utility of CCE victim identification as a response to children experiencing harm.

Concerns about child criminal exploitation have to some extent changed how the police perceive and handle young people that are involved in selling, transporting, or storing illicit drugs in the United Kingdom. Whereas these previously would be perceived as ‘offenders’, they are now, under certain circumstances, perceived as ‘victims of exploitation’, who have been coerced or groomed into drug dealing by organised crime groups. Based on interviews with senior officers across all 45 territorial police forces in the UK, representatives from national and regional policing bodies, front-line police officers and partner agencies in the statutory and voluntary sector (n=96), this paper explores how the police understand and respond to the involvement of young people in drug markets in the UK. The findings point to several complexities in this potential recategorization of people involved in drug markets, and that many young people continue to be criminalised in current responses. The findings illustrate how the participants were engaged in ‘policing’ the boundaries around victimhood, based on the perceived appropriateness of diversionary interventions in many cases. Furthermore, we discuss how the reluctance of recognising victimisation more widely, could be linked to how this would potentially unsettle deep-seated assumptions within the criminal justice system about culpability and agency.