From contextual to criminal harms: young people's understanding and experiences of the violence of criminal exploitation

The criminal exploitation of children represents a significant threat to their individual wellbeing as well as to wider community safety. Despite the legacy of conflict, enduring paramilitarism and widespread violent victimisation, there is a paucity of research regarding the criminal exploitation of children (CCE) in the context of Northern Ireland (NI). In this novel exploratory study, forty-four young people engaged in in-depth focus group interviews. The data converged as well as diverged with research on CCE elsewhere suggesting that some distinct features of the mechanisms of CCE exist in the NI context. The study also found that those who experience the greatest contextual harms are at elevated risk to also experience criminal harms. CCE is experienced in a range of ways, from agile to more sustained exploitation. Leveraging mistrust of others; engaging in the mass deception of communities; minimising of the harm caused to victims; and the use of violence as capital all appear to contribute to the phenomenon of CCE in NI. This study suggests that multi-tiered responses could help to prevent CCE and protect victims of CCE; that young people require safer spaces to reflect on their experiences of contextual as well as criminal harm; and that joined up safeguarding across systems is required.