Protection topics

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

Document: County Lines And Cuckooing

Female genital mutilation (FGM) happens any time the external female genitalia (including the labia and clitoris) are deliberately cut, injured or changed, but where there's no medical reason for this to be done.  It is:

• illegal in Scotland and the UK
• usually carried out on young girls between infancy and the age of 15
• a form of violence against women and girls
• never needed for medical reasons
• not approved by any religion

FGM can cause long-term problems with sex, childbirth and mental health and is against a person's rights to:

• health, security and physical integrity
• freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
• life (when the procedure results in death)

• What is FGM? - Scottish Government
• 10 facts about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Scotland - Scottish Women's Rights Centre

Financial harm is not a new phenomenon. Research highlights financial harm as being one of the more common forms of elder abuse.

Financial harm is most often perpetrated in the home of the victim and the perpetrators are often those who act for the person in a trusted capacity.  That could include someone who has Power of Attorney.

Its harmful effects, which impact on both mental and physical health, are far reaching.  It is often accompanied by other forms of abuse, such as physical abuse or neglect.

Possible indicators of financial abuse might include where a vulnerable person is:

• Being pressurised to give money to others
• Being deprived of access to personal bank accounts or bank cards
• Not being told about password or login changes
• Being denied involvement in spending decisions
• Being berated for spending money on small items
• Being forced to ask for money in order to buy essential items
• Being coerced to sign away legal ownership of property or assets
• Being coerced into making new wills leaving money or assets to new beneficiaries
• Being made to feel incompetent about financial matters
• Having funds or valuables going missing
• Having unauthorised loans or hire purchase agreements or credit cards taken out in their name
• Having unauthorised subscriptions to publications, web-sites, insurances, products, services, etc., taken out in their name
• Discovering debt is inexplicably mounting up
• Being asked to share financial or identity information inappropriately.

Guide to Investigations - Office of the Public Guardian    

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.

• The law on forced marriage - Scottish Government

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 4^th 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.

• Forced Marriage Statutory Guidance - Scottish Government)

Hoarding is a disorder characterised by an accumulation of possessions due to excessive acquisition of or difficulty discarding possessions, regardless of their actual value. Such excessive acquisition is characterized by repetitive urges or behaviours related to amassing or buying items.

Difficulty with discarding possessions is characterized by a perceived need to save items and distress associated with discarding them. Accumulation of possessions results in living spaces becoming cluttered to the point that their use or safety is compromised.

The symptoms result in significant distress or significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.

Hoarding Ice Breaker Form

International OCD Foundation - Clutter Image Rating

MIND - What is hoarding?

Every 90 seconds, someone is reported missing in the UK and in Scotland, the Police undertake over 22 thousand missing persons’ investigations annually.

Whilst most missing persons are traced and found to be well and safe, going missing is often a very traumatic experience.  The risks connected with being a missing person can continue for a significant time after the person has returned home.

“Missing People” is the only UK charity dedicated to reconnecting missing people and their loved ones; they offer support to people affected by a disappearance via their free, confidential Helpline on 116 000 and can launch a publicity appeal to help bring missing people home.

They also provide family support, counselling, and specialist services for issues related to missing persons, such as exploitation and County Lines.

Missing People - Key Information about people who go missing.

Missing People - Talk to Us

Missing People - Family Support

Missing People - National Missing Persons Toolkit and Framework for Scotland

Document: Herbert And Philomena Protocols

Document: Return Discussion Pro Forma

Trafficking can involve victims being sexually exploited or forced into the role of a servant, or trapped in forced labour, with nail bars, car washes and construction amongst the industries where potential cases in Scotland have been reported.

• Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 -  legislation.gov.uk
• Modern Slavery Act 2015 - legislation.gov.uk
• Human trafficking: resources - gov.scot - various leaflets in a number of languages

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.

• Revised Prevent duty guidance: for Scotland - Gov.uk

The sexual assault self-referral phone service can refer a victim of sexual assault to a local healthcare professional at a sexual assault response co-ordination service (SARCS).

After the person phones, the healthcare professional at the SARCS will phone back to discuss and arrange appropriate care for the person.

Further details at: NHS Inform - SARCS

For every person who dies by suicide, there are many others thinking about it and living with suicidal ideation every day.  Also, there are friends, family members and loved ones caring for and supporting them on a daily basis.

• Suicide Prevention - SAMH
• Self-Harm - See Me Scotland
• National Self Harm Network forum

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

Scotland has a troubled relationship with both alcohol and drug use.

Since the 1980s, there has been substantially increased alcohol consumption and high levels of alcohol-related harm. The continued rise in drug-related harm is also a matter of serious concern.

On average, higher-risk drinking causes around 686 hospital admissions and 22 deaths a week.  About 75% of the people suffering a drug-related death were over 35 years old, clearly  demonstrating that the age at which drug use has become more harmful is increasing over time.

Alcohol and drug-related harms affect some sections of our population far more severely than others.  In the most deprived areas deaths are seven time higher and hospital admissions are eight time higher when compared to areas with the least deprivation.

Scottish Government believes that everyone has the right to live free from the harms of alcohol and drugs and that those who need help should be fully supported with their individual recovery journey.

• Alcohol and drugs - Scottish Government
• Support for people affected by drugs - NHS inform
• Alcohol support - NHS inform

Trauma can result from an event, a series of events, or a set of circumstances that an individual experiences as harmful or life-threatening, either physically or emotionally, and the experience of which has lasting adverse effects upon the person’s functioning and his/her physical, social, emotional, mental or spiritual well-being.

The prevention and mitigation of the impact of trauma and support for recovery is part of our fundamental human rights.  That approach is  rights-based and recognises the strength of relationships and human connections.

Trauma-informed Practice is grounded in and directed by a full understanding of how exposure to trauma affects the individual’s biological, neurological, psychological and social development.

This Toolkit has been developed to support that our workforce with clear, tangible examples of where trauma informed practice has been successfully embedded across different sectors and how that learning can be applied in a range of contexts.

Trauma-informed Practice: toolkit - Scottish Government