The European Crime Prevention Network (EUCPN) has published a toolkit for professionals working to prevent children and young people from becoming involved in criminal networks. It offers European examples and policy-oriented guidance to support prevention, protection and exit strategies, with responses that address both public safety and children’s rights.
The toolkit notes that across Europe, organised crime groups increasingly involve children and young people in activities such as drug trafficking, online fraud, property crime and other serious offences. It examines the overlapping dynamics of vulnerability, coercion, exploitation and criminal involvement, and the various ways in which that recruitment may begin, such as through family or peer networks, social media, gaming platforms, financial incentives, promises of status and belonging, or gradual manipulation and control.
The toolkit also presents prevention strategies at community, family and school level, as well as measures to strengthen digital safety in order to prevent online recruitment. Finally, it explores child-friendly justice responses, diversion, restorative justice and exit support for young people seeking to disengage from criminal networks.
Its central message is that preventing youth recruitment into organised crime requires more than law enforcement alone: effective responses must combine safeguarding, education, family and community support, digital prevention, diversion and reliable pathways out of criminal networks.