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Monday, 19 August 2024

Stable Lives Safer Streets Hub (SLSS Hub) has a new paper published in "Crime Prevention and Community Safety" Journal. This Journal edited by Robin Mawby offers global coverage of crime prevention theory and practice. It explores crime trends; investigative technology and policing policy. SLSS Hub Co Lead-Investigator Dr Colm Walsh of Queens University Belfast and SLSS Hub team member Dr Katie Sheehan (UL), in conjunction with Alan Cusack have written a paper titled ‘It’s a group-on-one’: social disconnection as a tool of and defence against child criminal exploitation in the Republic of Ireland.

Paper Abstract: Despite increasing evidence on the exploitation of young people into criminal activity, their perspectives on and experiences of exploitative processes are not well understood. Despite progress in Great Britain with regard to ‘County Lines’ exploitation, and in the Republic of Ireland regarding youth criminality and grooming, the subjective accounts of how young people understand the phenomenon of child criminal exploitation (CCE) remain under-evaluated. This exploratory study captures the perspectives of Irish youth on CCE and draws on the theory of social capital to explore the social structures that enable CCE and the (limited) choices available to the young people.

Read this paper