Tackling the illicit commercial exploitation of children off campus: a case study.

Smith, Robert; Frondigoun, Liz

Abstract

The illicit exploitation of children and young persons for commercial gain by rogue shopkeepers and unscrupulous business proprietors is an important topic seldom considered by criminologists. In this case study we report on research with School Link Officers in Edinburgh in which this interesting topic came up in a focus group. The illicit sale of cigarettes and alcohol to minors is a criminal offence dealt with by both Police and Trading Standards Officers. In this practice note we discuss how campus officers can play a role in detecting, preventing and deterring such activities off campus. In the first part of the note, we provide some theoretical underpinnings to explain the importance of this policing approach. In the second part we present a case study which describes the effectiveness of some very practical policing strategies and why they proved to be so. The emergent theme was dealing with the issues informally and effectively. Part three identifies key factors and draws conclusions.

Citation

SMITH, R. and FRONDIGOUN, L. 2013. Tackling the illicit commercial exploitation of children off campus: a case study. SIPR Practice Notes Number 2. Dundee: Scottish Institute for Policing Research, School of Social and Environmental Sciences, University of Dundee.

• Report Type: Discussion Paper
• Online Publication Date: Sep 30, 2013
• Publication Date: Sep 30, 2013
• Deposit Date: Oct 10, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 10, 2013
• Publisher: Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR)
• Keywords: Exploitation of children for commercial gain; Sale of illicit goods to children
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/883
• Publisher URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20140904214314/http://www.sipr.ac.uk/downloads/Child_exploitation.pdf