Introduction: Cuckooing in Context

This introductory chapter provides a brief overview of the current state of knowledge, research, and policy on cuckooing in the United Kingdom (UK), to give context to the insights presented in this edited volume. Current understandings, definitions, and models of cuckooing are explored, both in relation to county lines drug trafficking and home takeovers as a form of exploitation affecting vulnerable people. This introductory chapter then situates cuckooing within its political, economic, and social context by outlining the conditions in which home takeovers have come to be defined as a problem—with reference to neoliberal forms of governance and the fraying of the social safety net; economic decline, ‘crises’, and austerity-focused policy; and increasing social isolation, exclusion, and ontological insecurity. Ultimately, this chapter introduces some of the theories, concepts, and contextual background needed to understand cuckooing and responses to it.