Exploring notions of victimhood through the narratives of criminally exploited children

Maxwell, Nina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3931-7729 2025. Exploring notions of victimhood through the narratives of criminally exploited children. Presented at: European Conference for Social Work Research 2025, Munich, Germany, 12-14 March 2025.

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Abstract

Background and purpose: This paper presents children’s narratives about their lived experiences of child criminal exploitation. It is timely given the recent Jay Review (2024:77) of criminally exploited children found that, “too many exploited children experience a criminal justice response as the primary intervention” rather than a child welfare, social care response. This reflects a professional tendency to focus on narrow definitions of victimhood which fail to capture the lived reality of criminal exploitation where children’s perceptions of the risk and rewards of criminality are manipulated by more powerful others. Consequently, children’s rationality is bounded by their unmet needs, their current resources, the false opportunities promised by exploitative peers or adults and their future goals and aspirations. This posits a nuanced picture of victimhood where children may be both victims and perpetrators and where social workers must look beyond traditional definitions of vulnerability. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 18 young people in relation to recruitment, dissolution, service provision, support for young people and future aspirations. Due to limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, participants were recruited through third-sector organisations, education, housing and the police. Some young people chose to take part through trusted professionals rather than speaking to the researcher via Teams. Three of the sample were over 18 years of age. Findings: Children’s narratives showed they were manipulated due to a complex interplay between their unmet needs, wider structural issues and lack of legitimate opportunities to realise their aspirations. Findings highlighted that vulnerability arose as a consequence of their age, as well as their enduring vulnerabilities, such as abuse or mental health issues, and transient vulnerabilities, such as parental separation. Some children talked about being ‘broken’ and appeared resigned to being trapped within exploitative relationships. They spoke about being offered a false sense of hope but how they became trapped by people they trusted and who they thought cared about them. Conclusions and implications: Social work with criminally exploited children can be challenging when children present with tangible evidence of their criminality and when they appear reluctant or unwilling to disclose their abuse. This paper offers insight into their lived experiences and how their choices were bounded by their unmet needs and how their limited opportunities and hopes for the future were manipulated by older adults or peers. In doing so, it offers a nuanced picture of victimhood based on the voices of children who had experienced criminal exploitation.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education) Research Institutes & Centres > Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre (CASCADE)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Funders:	Action for Children
Date of Acceptance:	19 November 2024
Last Modified:	13 Nov 2025 11:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/182353

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