Young Men’s Perspectives on Child Criminal Exploitation and Their Involvement in County Lines Drug Dealing: An Intersectional Analysis

Abstract

This chapter uses an intersectional approach to explore the perspectives of young men based in one English county, who were involved in county lines drug distribution, and who had been identified by the professionals in their lives as potential victims of child criminal exploitation. Drawing on observations and semi-structured interviews, this chapter engages with intersectional scholarship to develop two key themes. Firstly, it conveys young men’s descriptions of their involvement in county lines as shaped by intersecting pressures of economic hardship and their expectations of their familial roles. Secondly, the chapter engages with the ways in which young men’s conceptualizations of their involvement in county lines, specifically, their rejection of the term ‘victim of exploitation’ and identification with the idea of involvement as a ‘constrained choice’, were informed by intersecting experiences of masculinity, socioeconomic marginalization and working-class identity.