St Mary's Hosts a Consultation on Forced Criminal Exploitation of Children

St Mary’s University, Twickenham hosted a consultation to develop collaborative research on the Forced Criminal Exploitation of Children (FCEC) in partnership with the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull. The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Kevin Hyland, who was appointed as a visiting professor at St Mary’s earlier this year, gave opening remarks to an audience of academics and practitioners to address concerns about child exploitation from a law enforcement point of view. Mr Hyland: “The trafficking of children for forced criminality is an issue of increasing concern in the UK and elsewhere. There is growing evidence of organised crime groups trafficking children and forcing them to engage in a various criminal activities. I am confident initiatives like the Forced Criminal Exploitation of Children Academic Research Project will help increase the knowledge and understanding of the nature of this problem, how it is perceived and handled by professionals and others who come into contact with children who have been trafficked for forced criminality.” Prof John Oldfield, Director of the Wilberforce Institute addressed the delegates. This was then followed by a discussion on research gaps and priorities from a practical perspective. The event follows the announcement of a proposed Centre for the Study of Modern Slavery (CSMS) at St Mary’s which will be established to respond to increased awareness of the current intensification of human trafficking and slavery cases globally. Carole Murphy, Programme Director at St Mary’s, who is in the process of setting up the research centre at the University said, “Through this consultation, we were able to elicit the thoughts of stakeholders, policymakers and practitioners on what the most important research gaps are and on the sorts of research that can make a real practical impact in this field. By taking this collaborative approach forward, we have laid the foundations for a meaningful partnership between academic, practitioner and stakeholder, leading to real improvements in collective effort to tackle the problem of the forced criminal exploitation of children.” The chair of the event was Professor Gerry Johnstone from the University of Hull with contributions on existing research from Dr Shahrzad Fouladvand (WISE) and Dr Carole Murphy, (CSMS).