Our Purpose

One of our founders Sherry Peck has spoken openly about no longer being able to ignore the fact that as a society we find it way too easy to criminalise our children.  In fact, when speaking to the organisations' founders, what is apparent is that they all hold a long-term commitment to ensure that children are safeguarded rather than criminalised. Their conversations together led to the establishment of End Coercive Offending - ECO 

More than a decade ago MP Ann Coffey, amongst others, called for the term Child Prostitute to no longer be used. In an article in the Guardian, she was quoted as saying, “When you read report after report about the attitudes of agencies to these children, you find they did actually see [the exploitation] as a lifestyle choice; the children were considered to be child prostitutes – that suggests victims were complicit in their abuse, it protects the abusers and it absolves agencies from failing to take action.” Anyone that has heard Sherry speak about children affected by violence and exploitation will know that she welcomed this commitment to those sexually exploited but felt it needed to be expanded to include those being groomed into violence, including those trafficked into county lines. 

Despite advances such as Contextual Safeguarding, evidence shows that criminal justice priorities still outweigh welfare considerations for children criminally exploited. For a child whose offending stems directly from exploitation, the consequences are profound, unfair, and unjustified compounding the harm they have already suffered. The impact can be life-altering: children with insecure immigration status may later be denied leave to remain; others may face lifelong barriers to employment due to a criminal record; and many spend significant periods in custody for behaviour rooted in their victimisation. 

ECO has been founded by professionals with extensive experience working with children, who believe this is the urgent next step following the recognition of the injustices faced by victims of child sexual exploitation. They are committed to open-source sharing of knowledge about what works in achieving change and to leading a movement for genuine system transformation. Our founders state, “ECO views this as a fundamental children’s rights issue that must be addressed as a matter of urgency.”