Child criminal exploitation and “cuckooing” are set to become specific criminal offences as part of new legislation being introduced to Parliament next week.The Crime and Policing Bill will also include measures that could see restriction orders put on people thought to be at risk of exploiting children for criminal means.Cuckooing is when the home of a vulnerable person is taken over by criminals who use it as a base for illegal activities, such as drug dealing.Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said exploitation like this was “sickening”, adding that legislation would ensure victims were “properly protected and prevent these often hidden crimes from occurring in the first place”.”It is vital we do everything in our power to eradicate it from our streets,” she said.Under current CPS guidelines, prosecutors dealing with a suspected case of cuckooing may look to other offences such as assault, harassment and modern day slavery in order to bring charges – but these might not cover all examples. The previous Conservative government had announced plans to criminalise cuckooing in its Criminal Justice Bill last year, but this legislation made no further progress when Parliament was dissolved for the snap general election.Gennine Bird, a former heroin and cocaine user, told the BBC last year that cuckooing can involve a lot of intimidation by drug dealers, and that they will give drugs to the vulnerable person in order to stay in the property.”A lot of people get beaten up, people get raped, women get sent out to do prostitution to pay off debts because, you know, they’ll say give you the drugs, give you the drugs and then ‘oh, you owe me money, you’ve got to pay that, and you don’t have any money’. So they like, go out and sell your body,” she said.Dr Laura Bainbridge, an associate professor of criminal justice at Leeds University who specialises in cuckooing, welcomed the legislation saying the criminal and civil orders currently used to charge cuckooers are not consistent across England and Wales, and the ha …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnChild criminal exploitation and “cuckooing” are set to become specific criminal offences as part of new legislation being introduced to Parliament next week.The Crime and Policing Bill will also include measures that could see restriction orders put on people thought to be at risk of exploiting children for criminal means.Cuckooing is when the home of a vulnerable person is taken over by criminals who use it as a base for illegal activities, such as drug dealing.Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said exploitation like this was “sickening”, adding that legislation would ensure victims were “properly protected and prevent these often hidden crimes from occurring in the first place”.”It is vital we do everything in our power to eradicate it from our streets,” she said.Under current CPS guidelines, prosecutors dealing with a suspected case of cuckooing may look to other offences such as assault, harassment and modern day slavery in order to bring charges – but these might not cover all examples. The previous Conservative government had announced plans to criminalise cuckooing in its Criminal Justice Bill last year, but this legislation made no further progress when Parliament was dissolved for the snap general election.Gennine Bird, a former heroin and cocaine user, told the BBC last year that cuckooing can involve a lot of intimidation by drug dealers, and that they will give drugs to the vulnerable person in order to stay in the property.”A lot of people get beaten up, people get raped, women get sent out to do prostitution to pay off debts because, you know, they’ll say give you the drugs, give you the drugs and then ‘oh, you owe me money, you’ve got to pay that, and you don’t have any money’. So they like, go out and sell your body,” she said.Dr Laura Bainbridge, an associate professor of criminal justice at Leeds University who specialises in cuckooing, welcomed the legislation saying the criminal and civil orders currently used to charge cuckooers are not consistent across England and Wales, and the ha …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
