The exploitation of young perpetrators to carry out criminal acts has emerged as a fast-evolving tactic used by organised crime. This trend was underlined in the European Union Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2025 (EU-SOCTA), which identified the deliberate use of youngsters as a way to avoid detection and prosecution.

Recruitment, manipulation, exploitation

Violence-as-a-service refers to the outsourcing of violent acts to criminal service providers — often involving the use of young perpetrators to carry out threats, assaults, or killings for a fee.

Investigations show that these acts are often orchestrated remotely, with young people recruited and instructed online. There is a clear demand from the criminal underworld for youngsters willing to carry out violent tasks — and a supply of vulnerable young people being groomed or coerced into doing so.

Young people are being deliberately targeted and recruited to commit a wide range of crimes — from drug trafficking and cyber-attacks to online fraud and violent extortion. Recruitment is often highly strategic, exploiting vulnerabilities and glamorising a luxurious, violent lifestyle. Social media platforms and messaging apps are used to reach young people through coded language, memes and gamified tasks. In return for money, status or a sense of belonging, they are drawn into criminal schemes that are both violent and transnational.

This is not random – it is calculated. By using young perpetrators, criminal networks seek to reduce their own risk and shield themselves from law enforcement.

Cracking down on criminal recruiters

Recognising the urgency of the threat, law enforcement agencies are stepping up their response. OTF GRIMM will:

Coordinate intelligence sharing and joint investigations across borders;
Map the roles, recruitment methods and monetisation strategies used by VaaS networks;
Identify and dismantle the criminal service providers enabling violence-on-demand;
Cooperate with the tech companies in order to detect and prevent the recruitment on social media.

Europol is at the heart of this international effort. Through OTF GRIMM, it provides a platform for data analysis, operational coordination, and joint investigations — ensuring that law enforcement across Europe is aligned in tracking, investigating and disrupting VaaS networks.

To support national authorities and raise awareness of this growing threat, Europol has already made public an intelligence notification outlining how criminal networks lure young people into violence and crime. The notification breaks down the recruitment ecosystem — from the use of encrypted messaging apps and social media to lifestyle messaging, manipulation tactics and gamification.

Further updates will be shared as investigations developed under OTF GRIMM progress.

What can parents do if they’re concerned?

Look out for the subtle signs — sudden behaviour changes, expensive new items with no explanation. If your child stops asking for money but seems to have it, that’s not independence — it’s a red flag.

Europol has put together an awareness guide with a list of warning signs.

This isn’t about catching the kids out — it’s about pulling them back, before organised crime pulls them in.