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The county lines drug distribution model exploits children and young persons to supply and sell drugs exposing them to several harms to secure their participation including violence, sexual violence, extortion and coercion. This research establishes the challenges and controversies of dealing with the criminal exploitation of children and young persons in the county lines drugs model in England and Wales, a declared national problem at the local level. Conducted over three years, this exploratory study includes interviews with 40 participants drawn from academia, law enforcement and statutory and non-statutory organisations. It finds that despite growing awareness of county lines, the term child criminal exploitation is yet to receive equal recognition as child sexual exploitation. Despite claims made by the government and the National Crime Agency that child criminal exploitation represents a national issue, there is no national strategy meaning that the local identification of and responses to it are beset by definitional issues, siloed working practices, ineffective coordination of multiagency resources, poor information sharing, limited joint knowledge sharing and training and data collection incompatibilities. With lead responsibility for the response resting with the Home Office, child protection and welfare are overlooked in favour of treating the criminal exploiters of children as drug dealers or human traffickers. Neither has proven effective in reducing the criminal exploitation of children. Persevering with extant legislation not originally designed for this form of exploitation and which is currently buckling under the burden of cases means that children continue to be criminally exploited. This research views the problem through the theoretical framework of the policy context, legislation and operational practice. It makes recommendations for bespoke child criminal exploitation legislation that labels exploiters as child abusers and a national child criminal exploitation strategy with lead coordination responsibility sitting outside of the Home Office and law enforcement. The national strategy would promote child welfare and safeguarding over criminal justice responses. The responsibility for identifying and dealing with child criminal exploitation in county lines needs to be one that is shared with all the relevant organisations, parents/guardians and communities and, as essentially, must involve children and young persons in finding solutions.

This study aims to contribute to the understanding of the emerging profession of Security Risk Intelligence Analysis in the private sector by exploring the individual and collective professional identity of practitioners who identify and analyse threats and risks to the security of personnel, key assets and operations of an organisation or business in the private sector. The study used a mixed-method approach for the empirical research of how practitioners across different organisational contexts and national boundaries construct and maintain their professional identity in their quest for meaningful work. Security risk intelligence analysts in the private sector share the same individual professional identity, forming the collective professional identity's blueprint. There were some elements of difference, but none of them impacted the overall results that emerged during the study. Their professional identity is centred on their expert knowledge and ability to perform complex intellectual tasks in providing forewarning and insight into threats to the organisation or client's well-being and sustainability. They have a strong individual professional identity that reflects high levels of job satisfaction, pride and autonomy in their profession who thrive on connecting on a professional, functional level with stakeholders. Their main professional challenge related to the relative lack of understanding of their role in the private sector by various stakeholders in and outside the organisation. Lastly, proposals are made on how the profession as a collective and individual security risk intelligence analysts can increase their professional identity and their concomitant impact on the security risk management field and the security sector.

This paper seeks to examine the dynamics of the transnational security consulting sector from the perspective of UK practitioners, thereby redressing the previous lack of research into the sector. Whilst there has been a substantial tranche of academic research into the UK's private security industry dating back to the 1970s, with much academic research focused on the activities and regulation of what are frequently termed as Private Security and Military Companies (PMSCs), those studies have almost without exception been focused on the provision and regulation of combat services or armed security in conflict zones, with a paucity of research into the provision of security consultancy services. In order to obtain a flavour of the sector a review of the websites of 24 UK based companies involved in the provision of security services was conducted. This was followed by a qualitative study involving the conduct of 20 semi- structured interviews with individuals employed in, or with extensive knowledge of the provision of security risk consulting. The research participants considered that security consultancy is not some form of private policing, but acts as an extension, or in lieu of the corporate security function. Whilst consultants are expected to have specialist security knowledge, commercial awareness and an understanding of clients' aims are considered to be key skills, with basic competences in the form of being able to communicate verbally and in writing believed to be pivotal to successful consulting. The research indicates the label of Transnational Security Consulting is perhaps a misnomer, as the sector has evolved to deliver a broad suite of complex services. Though cyber security has attracted a degree of emphasis, it is apparent that the requirement for physical security has not gone away, with a converged approach to security being supported as opposed to the siloed methods so often encountered. Whilst calls for regulation are by no means uniform, there is a palpable desire to see the sector improve to match the requirements of a complex global market, with regulation and the further professionalisation of the sector regarded as tools to achieve this. It notes that the sector remains relatively immature and is undergoing a protracted period of change in terms of the people involved, and with a number of multinational companies making their presence felt. The regulation of consulting, consultants and consultancies is assessed as being minimal, with a mixture of opinion as to whether regulation would be beneficial to the sector. Nonetheless, a palpable theme is the desire to professionalise the sector, which aligns itself with recent research into the professionalisation of the security industry as a whole.