Supporting authorities in identifying and combating 'cuckooing' in society

Two researchers at the University of Leeds are spearheading efforts to prevent county lines gangs from 'cuckooing' vulnerable people.

In June 2020, Dyfed-Powys police in South Wales responded to a report of people trashing a flat while its occupant was away. The caller also noted a recurring smell of cannabis.

Officers arrived to find two 16-year-olds inside. One was a missing person from the West Midlands, raising suspicions of county lines drug activity. Both teens were detained under child protection laws and arrested for drug-related offences. They claimed they had been brought to the area the day before and didn't know where they were.

The flat's true occupant was later found and arrested for drug supply. As a person struggling with heroin addiction, he revealed that a man from Wolverhampton had coerced him into housing the boys and selling heroin for them in exchange for free drugs. He feared violence if he attempted to force them out, as they had a key. Feeling trapped and dehumanised, he stated he was treated “like a dog”, confined to his room or driven from his own home.

The boys were released under investigation, and inquiries continue.

 

The practice of ‘cuckooing’, as it's called, is a highly predatory practice named after the nest stealing practices of wild cuckoos. It is a form of criminal exploitation where people are conned, coerced, controlled, or intimidated into providing access to their home to criminals, who then use it as a base for their activity. Such activity may include sex work, storing cash and weapons, or dealing drugs. Perpetrators may also take over a property to financially abuse its occupier.

Victims are typically vulnerable and primary targets are those who are dependent on drugs and alcohol, those with learning difficulties, and those with disabilities or mental health issues. Some victims may receive benefits for their cooperation such as drugs or money, yet are likely to be subjected to serious threats, coercion, physical and psychological violence, and intimidation once perpetrators have gained access to their property.

It’s an ever-increasing risk for vulnerable people – as Dr Laura Bainbridge, Associate Professor in Criminal Justice at the University of Leeds, knows all too well.

Cuckooing is often a hidden crime, occurring behind closed doors.

“Because statutory agencies are not routinely recording instances of cuckooing, we don’t have robust data concerning cuckooing trends over time. However, when I speak to police officers and safeguarding professionals, they consistently maintain that cuckooing is on the rise across England and Wales. And of course, there are potentially thousands of victims that are not on their radar. Cuckooing is often a hidden crime, occurring behind closed doors,” Laura explained.

 

Cuckooing may be a form of exploitation but is not currently a specific criminal offence. That makes it even more difficult for the authorities to identify, prevent and investigate, let alone prosecute.

Understanding and tackling a hidden problem

Combined with the strange nomenclature, the lack of a legal distinction means public awareness levels of cuckooing remain low despite being highlighted in shows like Line of Duty and Happy Valley.

“Understanding among practitioners and police officers is also a mixed bag,” Research Fellow Dr Amy Loughery, who works closely with her colleague Dr Bainbridge, said.

People often read the word 'cuckooing' and think 'what on Earth is that?' – I know that was what went through my mind when I first heard about it, and what inspired me to learn more about it initially.

In studying the subject, Laura and Amy are shining a spotlight on an as-yet under-researched field.

“There's been more political and professional concern around cuckooing over the last five years,” Laura explained. “But academically, research is still very much in its infancy; I wanted to help address this by delving deeper into the phenomenon, and in doing so collaborate with practitioners who are tasked with trying to reduce victimisation on a daily basis.”

 

Uniting voices, sharing data and tools

To that end, Laura secured funding from the N8 Policing Research Partnership, a collaboration of 11 police forces and eight universities in northern England to investigate how cuckooing targeting works and find possible preventative measures.

The aims of the study were to:

• Investigate the mechanics of cuckooing
• Gain an insight into the lived experience of cuckooing victims and perpetrators
• Identify potential preventative and disruptive measures for practical application.

To meet these aims, over 600 publicly available and internally redacted documents were collated, qualitative interviews were conducted with cuckooing experts, and graphic elicitation interviews were undertaken with those with lived experience of cuckooing.

The research highlighted the importance of effective partnerships between police, housing providers, mental health services, drug and alcohol services, adult social care and the third sector – all of which need to work together to disrupt cuckooing.

To seize on this finding, the researchers set up the Cuckooing Research & Prevention Network, a Research England-funded initiative to bring stakeholders together to tackle the problem. The Network currently has over 800 members from statutory, private sector, voluntary, academic and political organisations that operate at the local, regional or national level.

 

The Network has also campaigned vociferously for cuckooing to be designated a specific offence, gaining support from politicians including former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Labour MP Jess Phillips and seeing Laura interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

More recently, Laura, Amy and partners at West Yorkshire Police, Leeds City Council, Horton Housing and homelessness charity Groundswell published a toolkit for police, local authorities and third-sector organisations – providing practical guidance they can use on the frontline.

“We're incredibly proud of it because there are, unfortunately, vulnerable people out there who are at real risk of not feeling safe in their own homes and need support and protection,” Dr Bainbridge said.

The resources, including a booklet, a risk assessment tool, a list of key contacts and explanations of safeguarding processes, have already been praised and shared by law enforcement agencies nationwide.

“Cuckooing is a feature of many different crime types, and significantly for my area of work, it occurs within the county lines business model,” Detective Inspector Anne Rannard from the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre said.

The toolkit that Dr Laura Bainbridge and her colleagues have developed will be an excellent resource for professionals from a wide range of organisations and will hopefully go some way to enhancing the reporting of and the response to cuckooing.

 

Making legislative waves

However, developing both the network and the documents was no mean feat, requiring both determination and patience from Dr Bainbridge and Dr Loughery.

“It took a long, long time to produce the toolkit,” Laura recalled.

All of the resources required input from a range of key stakeholders to ensure that the content is accurate and accessible.

“We've also had to make sure we aren't spreading ourselves too thinly,” Amy agreed. “Our work has gained plenty of attention, which is brilliant, but we've had to balance our important impact-related activity – like building relationships and exchanging knowledge – with other academic commitments. Whereas our partners are living and breathing the battle against cuckooing day in, day out, we have to carve out time to teach, publish papers, present at conferences, submit research grant applications and fulfil our academic citizenship responsibilities. People often ask us when we sleep, because we are always so busy.”

The team were recently recognised for their role with a win at the Impact and Engagement awards at the University of Leeds. The award celebrates staff who exemplify Leeds’ ambition to maximise positive impact, drive down inequalities, and address social and economic challenges.

It's safe to say that the pair have chosen a somewhat grim and disheartening specialism; another challenge that sometimes catches them off-guard.

 

“Quite often, particularly if I've been interviewed in the media, I'll receive emails from people telling me they're being cuckooed or that they're worried about someone else,” Laura noted.

I always pass them on to senior police officers with the sender's permission, but they can be very difficult to read, and working around such a harmful practice for individuals, families, and communities takes its toll emotionally.

In the summer of 2024, the researchers' hopes were raised when a clause was added to the Criminal Justice Bill set for debate in the House of Commons.

Those hopes were soon dashed when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called an early election, and the Bill was not one of those passed before parliament was dissolved.

However, with cuckooing being included in the Government’s new Crime and Policing Bill, their campaign for policy change may soon be coming to an end. “Securing legislation to make cuckooing a specific criminal offence has been a hard-fought battle… we’re going to be on tenterhooks waiting for the Bill to receive royal assent,” Dr Bainbridge said.

 

Modern tools for a modern fight

In the meantime, the team's work continues to raise awareness of cuckooing and support authorities to spot and stop it.

Dr Bainbridge and Dr Loughery are currently co-editing a book called Understanding and Preventing 'Cuckooing' Victimisation: County Lines and Beyond with Professor Rose Broad from the University of Manchester, set for publication in 2025.

And they have also secured further funding from Research England to create an innovate virtual reality headset-based training module to increase practitioners' understanding of the signs of cuckooing. Scheduled to be piloted in West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire, it's hoped that the training will then be deployed nationally.

It looks a little like the hazard perception test that you need to take when you're learning to drive.

“Our hope is that it will help those who work with vulnerable people, or who have access to their homes, to recognise cuckooing ‘red flags’ and feel confident about raising the alarm around any suspicious activity. So home-visit opticians, fire and rescue workers, housing maintenance staff and meter readers are some of our key targets,” Laura explained. 

Ultimately, the duo's tireless efforts are helping to move the needle on a lesser-known yet all-too-harmful practice taking place behind closed doors in homes across the UK.

Their hope is that by continuing to partner with those who share their passion, further progress will be made in spades.

“We've had fantastic support from representatives from West Yorkshire Police, Leeds City Council, Horton Housing and the National County Lines Coordination Centre.” Laura said.

Sharing expertise and experience has been invaluable; it's how we'll help protect people.

Watch their video here: Tackling ‘cuckooing’ victimisation: establishing a research and practice network | Policy Leeds - YouTube.

Find out more about Dr Laura Bainbridge and Dr Amy Loughery’s work on cuckooing here.