Individual risk factors

Any young person of any age, gender, ethnicity, or background can be criminally exploited.

Exploiters target young people who are vulnerable due to their unmet needs or lack of social capital and social inclusion. Practitioners must learn the risk factors that indicate young people who may be at risk of criminal exploitation.

8 risk-factors

1. Age

Young people are typically targeted between the ages of 13 and 18, but there has been a shift to younger children.

2. Abuse

Young people may be vulnerable due to emotional, physical, sexual abuse, or neglect.

3. Additional needs

Young people are groomed due to their difficulties in making friends, naivety

4. Accommodated

Young people who are looked after, including those placed in hostels through family or foster care breakdown, and unaccompanied asylum-seekers.

5. Authoritarian

Young people who are subjected to rigid controls or loss of liberty either by parents, carers, or the local authority.

6. Alienated

Young people with  low self-esteem or confidence, including those with low social capital.

7. Adaptive

The term ‘ghost young people’ means those who are unknown to services. This includes young people from affluent homes, girls, young people excluded from school, and university students.

8. Adultification

Young people who are perceived as more mature than their peers, such as Black youth or young people who are looked after.