Our Story

Ending Coercive Offending (ECO) began in July 2025 because an injustice was being ignored. 

While the harms of child sexual exploitation are increasingly recognised and addressed, which we welcome, children who are criminally exploited continue to be punished for the abuse they experience. This contradiction is not accidental — it is the result of systems that still prioritise enforcement over safeguarding. 

ECO exists to end that injustice. 

One of ECO’s founders, Sherry Peck, has spoken openly about no longer being able to ignore a simple but troubling reality: as a society, we find it far too easy to criminalise children. 

In conversations between the organisation’s founders, a shared and long-standing commitment became clear — children should be safeguarded, not criminalised. Those conversations led directly to the establishment of Ending Coercive Offending (ECO). 

We believe that children who are groomed, coerced, and controlled into offending are victims. Yet too often they are: 

• Arrested 

• Charged 

• Given criminal records 

• Left to carry lifelong consequences of that criminalization  

This is not protection. It is institutional failure. 

We believe the criminalisation of exploited children is itself a form of harm — and it must stop.

Our position is clear: 

• Exploited children should not be criminalised 

• Criminal records arising from exploitation should be removed 

• Safeguarding must outweigh enforcement — every time 

This is not a radical idea. It is a safeguarding obligation. 

ECO does not seek to duplicate existing work. 

We exist to: 

• Amplify collective challenge 

• Support those already pushing for change 

• Give weight and coherence to what many know to be true 

The criminalisation of exploited children is widely recognised as wrong. What has been missing is the willingness to end it.