Cuckooing Explained

Cuckooing is a form of action, termed by the police, in which the home of a vulnerable person is taken over by a criminal in order to use it to deal, store or take drugs, facilitate sex work, as a place for them to live, or to financially abuse the tenant. The practice is associated with county lines drug trafficking. It is also known to occur as part of mate crime, the act of befriending a person with the intent of exploiting them.^[1]

As of the 2010s, cuckooing was becoming an increasingly common problem in the South of England.^{[2] [3] [4]}

The term cuckooing, with reference to an undesirable trespasser whose purpose is to use the victim's home as a base for county lines drug trafficking in the UK, comes from the cuckoo's practice of taking over other birds' nests for its young.^[5] In this context, the term was mentioned in 1992 by Michael E. Buerger, was subsequently overlooked, and then regained wider use from 2010.^{[6] [7] [8]}

Jess Phillips and Iain Duncan Smith are leading calls for cuckooing to be criminalised as part of a review of the 2015 Modern Slavery Act. North Wales Police told the Centre for Social Justice that between March 2021 and April 2022 they had identified 54 cuckooing victims, 44 were thought to have problems with substance misuse, 10 were disabled or learning disabled, and 39 were unemployed. Phillips stated “We must outlaw this exploitation of vulnerable people, threatened and manipulated by drug gangs who take over their home”^[9]

Further reading

• "It can be stopped". Centre for Social Justice, August 2018

Notes and References

1. News: 'Cuckooing' criminals took woman's house and turned it into drug den. BBC News. 6 August 2024. 7 August 2024.
2. Web site: New-look police team hits the streets in Headington, Marston and Barton. Oxford Mail. Michael. Race. en. 25 October 2017. 5 November 2017.
3. News: Vulnerable tenants targeted by drug gang 'cuckoos'. Doward. Jamie. 2 October 2010. The Observer. 2017-11-05. en-GB. 0029-7712.
4. Web site: Drug dealers target vulnerable in south. BBC News. 5 November 2017. 22 June 2017.
5. Windle. James. Moyle. Leah. Coomber. Ross. 6 February 2020. 'Vulnerable' Kids Going Country: Children and Young People's Involvement in County Lines Drug Dealing. Youth Justice. en. 20. 1–2. 64–78. 10.1177/1473225420902840. 212422315. 1473-2254. 10468/9640. free.
6. Book: McLean. Robert. County Lines: Criminal Networks and Evolving Drug Markets in Britain. Robinson. Grace. Densley. James A.. 2019. Springer Nature. 978-3-030-33361-4. 32–35. en.
7. Spicer. Jack. Moyle. Leah. Coomber. Ross. 21 June 2019. The variable and evolving nature of 'cuckooing' as a form of criminal exploitation in street level drug markets. Trends in Organized Crime. en. 10.1007/s12117-019-09368-5. 1936-4830. free. 10072/386328. free.
8. Buerger. Michael E.. 1 January 1992. Defensive Strategies of the Street-Level Drug Trade. Journal of Crime and Justice. 15. 2. 31–51. 10.1080/0735648X.1992.9721463. 0735-648X.
9. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/26/jess-phillips-and-iain-duncan-smith-lead-calls-to-criminalise-cuckooing Jess Phillips and Iain Duncan Smith lead calls to criminalise ‘cuckooing’