An exploration of police discretion in the identification of child victims of county lines drug trafficking

ABSTRACT In recent years, children’s involvement in County Lines drug trafficking (CL) has been of increasing concern to national government, the police and safeguarding agencies. However, few studies have explored how child victims of county lines are identified by the police. This exploratory research study provides insights into the police decision-making process for identifying child victims of CL. Interviews with eight police officers from three police forces in South England were conducted to understand how they came to recognise children involved in CL as victims and in turn, how this related to decisions to refer children into the UK’s formal victim-identification system – the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The research found decisions to recognise children as victims and later refer them into the NRM varied amongst the police officers in the sample. This was because officers had different understandings of what constitutes modern slavery, considered different factors in their decisions about signs of exploitation, displayed varying attitudes towards children involved in CL and viewed their duties in CL cases differently to one another. The research also identifies various barriers in the process of victim-identification. The most significant barrier appeared to be the over-reliance on victim accounts, compounded by the inability of children to disclose exploitation. The notion that children involved in CL may have experienced differing levels of exploitation and display varying levels of willingness to facilitate CL drug dealing, further complicated understandings of what constitutes a victim and in turn an NRM referral.