Common terms
Child criminal exploitation terms will vary according to region.
Many of these terms have become common slang. Not all young people using them will be criminally exploited.
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Branded line | A mobile phone line that is used to take orders from customers. It is controlled by older youths higher up the drug dealing chain. Branded lines can be given the name of a young person or place, e.g., ‘the Barry line’. |
| Clean skins | Young people unknown to the police or children’s services. These young people are targeted by exploiters as they are less likely to be suspected of being criminally exploited. |
| Cuckooing | The process where young people are used to take over houses acquired from vulnerable adults, including class-A drug addicts. |
| Debt bondage | Young people are robbed by members of their own network so they become indebted to the exploited and must repay the debt. Exploiters impose large rates of interest to trap young people. |
| Elders | Young people who are one higher than street runners. Elders generate sales and build an active customer base. They criminally exploit other young people. |
| Food | Exploiters refer to drugs as ‘food’ to minimise their actions. This means young people believe they are ‘feeding’ vulnerable drug addicts and helping them. |
| Going country | Where young people are groomed and recruited in large cities and urban areas, they may be trafficked into rural or coastal areas. |
| OT, out trapping, out of town | Being away (trafficked) dealing drugs in urban or rural areas. |
| Plugging | Hiding drugs internally. Young people may be forcbily held down while drugs are hidden or retrieved from their bodies. |
| Road man | A drug dealer |
| Runners | Young people at the bottom of the drug dealing hierarchy. Runners are criminally exploited into transporting and selling drugs. |
| Shank | A knife |
| Strapping, on tick | Where young people are given free drugs |
| Taxing | Where violence is used as a form of control. Young people who have ‘done wrong’ may be marked or injured as a lesson to others. |
| Trap house, bando | A building that is used as a base to sell drugs. It is often occupied by drug users. |
| Trapping | Selling drugs on the street |