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Criminal Exploitation, FGM, Financial Harm, Forced Marriage, Hoarding, Missing Persons, Modern Slavery, PREVENT, SARCS, Self-Harm & Suicide, Sextortion, Substance Use, Trauma-Informed Practice

Topics for Adult Protection Professionals

Criminal Exploitation Female Genital Mutilation Financial Harm

Organised crime is a serious threat to us all and we pay for it every day, either directly as victims or indirectly by paying for the services – such as police, prosecution, the health services - that respond to it.

This policy aims to maximise Scotland’s coordinated and joined up response to all exploited individuals, making it easier for practitioners across Scotland to support children, young people and vulnerable adults who have been victims of exploitation.

This guidance will give professionals from across multiple agencies more comprehensive knowledge, understanding and develop that wider perspective needed about criminal exploitation.

Understanding the exploitation of individuals requires more than just recognising the characteristics of those people who are vulnerable to abuse. It is also necessary to gain a wider perspective of the contexts, relationships and situations in which exploitation is likely to occur.

Criminal Exploitation: practitioner guidance - Scottish Government

Topics for Adult Protection Professionals (2)

Forced Marriage Hoarding Missing Persons Modern Slavery

Forced Marriage

Forced marriage is when you face pressure to marry. This can be physical pressure such as threats, physical or sexual violence. It can also be emotional and psychological pressure. For example made to feel like you're bringing shame on your family.

You have the right to choose:

  • who you marry
  • when you marry
  • if you marry at all

Forced marriage is different from an arranged marriage – where families take a leading role in choosing a partner for their son or daughter and both parties give their full and free consent.

People of any gender, age and background can be victims of forced marriage.

Whatever the situation, if anyone uses emotional or physical pressure to force you into a marriage or a civil partnership without your consent, this is an abuse of your human rights and against the law.

Forcing someone into marriage is a criminal offence in Scotland. This includes:

  • taking someone abroad to force them to marry (whether or not the forced marriage takes place)
  • marrying someone who lacks the mental capacity to consent to the marriage (whether they're pressured to or not)

Police Scotland takes forced marriage seriously. However, civil protection through a Forced Marriage Protection Order is also an option. 

New statutory guidance released on 4th Oct 2024 describes the responsibilities of chief executives, directors and senior managers in agencies that handle cases of forced marriage.

Supporting documents include forced marriage public awareness posters and factsheets and a list of organisations that can support.

Topics for Adult Protection Professionals (3)

PREVENT (Radicalisation) SARCS - Sexual Assault Self-Referral Self-Harm and Suicide

Prevent is a strand of the UK Government’s Counter-Terrorist Strategy known as ‘CONTEST’ and the purpose of Prevent is to ‘stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism’.

In Scotland, the Prevent strategy aims to tackle all forms of violent extremism and terrorism, including international, Northern-Ireland related and the extreme right wing.

Prevent is delivered in Scotland through a multi-agency approach which focuses on the early identification of individuals who are vulnerable to being drawn into violent extremism. At the heart of the strategy is a partnership response designed to put in place appropriate safeguarding and supportive measures. Prevent is not a police led agenda, it is founded on a shared responsibility across partners and communities to ensure that vulnerable people are appropriately supported.

Topics for Adult Protection Professionals (4)

Sextortion Substance Use Trauma-Informed Practice

Sextortion has many forms and includes child grooming, intimate image abuse, phishing emails, hacking and online extortion.               

Often the extortion element involves the threat of having sexual information, images or clips shared in order to extort money from the victim.

Frequently, the victim is contacted via a social media platform and is asked to remove clothing and sometimes to perform a sexual act. The victim believes this to be a private act but is then told that they have been recorded and the image will be shared with family and friends or a social group if money is not paid. 

It is believed that this type of crime is vastly under-reported.  There has been a very significant increase in reported incidents between 2022 and 2023.  One report suggests that 91% of victims are male and that victim’s ages range from 9 to 78 years old.  Data insights suggest that young males aged 14 to 26 years are disproportionately targeted. 

The impact on victims is significant.  Often involving financial loss, there is additionally a significant risk of long-term emotional and mental health impacts.  Fear, helplessness, shame, humiliation and extreme distress can occur all of which impact on the victim’s wellbeing and create a potentially significant vulnerability, which can be further exacerbated by their reluctance to seek help from the police or other agencies.

Whilst victims are often children or adolescents, adults too - particularly some types of vulnerable adults - can be at significant risk of being sextortion victims.

For Partner Agencies, from Police Scotland

Police Scotland would like to encourage all victims of Sextortion to come forward and report to the Police or otherwise seek support where required through another means. They also want to ensure that anyone targeted has the relevant information in terms of what to do next.

They would like to ask their partner agencies to consider how awareness can be increased across their networks and to support the Police Scotland campaign.

Police Scotland has posters, messaging and some short clips (below) which can be shared to support learning which includes:

A case study video of “Stuart’s story”:

Facebook - Stuart's story

Police Scotland Sextortion poster

Sextortion Is Blackmail

Useful resource:

Suggested links to educate children and young people who are online:

CEOP - Should I make a report?

CEOP - Education

 

 

Last updated: 6 November 2024

Next review date: 31 January 2025