The National Youth Agency - Crime and Youth Justice - Violent Crime

Crime and Youth Justice - Violent Crime - July 2008

7 Jul 2008
This is the first issue of Crime and Youth Justice Quarterly. If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter e-mail Rita Kotecha

NYA - Getting it right for young people

Also of interest...

Violent crime involving young people has captured the political imagination in 2008 and gangs, guns and knives have featured frequently in mass media reports.

A range of messages have been communicated during this period, although a common angle taken by the popular press, and many politicians, has focused on the need for enforcement approaches. The need to be seen to be addressing violent crime has reached the highest echelons of national government with the Prime Minister announcing tougher measures for young people possessing knives.

Central government

Since the beginning of this month anyone over the age of 16 caught in possession of a knife can now expect to be prosecuted on the first offence. Those who commit offences without aggravating factors will still receive a caution coupled with referral to a knife education scheme. Their parents will also be notified and may receive parenting orders to ensure they play their part in changing their child's behaviour. Read more >>

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has announced a further £5m to tackle violent crime in 10 known ‘hotspots’ across the country. The funding will go towards greater use of stop and search by the police and support for community projects like Be Safe which show young people the risks and consequences of carrying a knife.

The government has produced guidance and advice for schools on tackling gangs and offending by groups of young people. It provides information on: gang characteristics; how to find out about local gang activity; prevention, identification and intervention; working with external partners; and examples of good practice.

An advertising campaign devised by young people to warn others of the consequences of knife crime has been launched by the Home Office. The campaign, which will run over the next three years, will feature national radio, website and mobile phone adverts as well as print ads and ads distributed via social networking sites.

Local and young people’s perspectives

However, blanket approaches, particularly those focused on enforcement, have received criticism. A recent Guardian interview with Professor Kevin Stenson suggests that the government’s ideas for tackling knife crime may not work. Instead he focuses on neighbourhood level interventions and the “crucial role” played by youth services, particularly detached and outreach work. Professor Stenson draws on his earlier work from the 1980s at during a time when there was concern about Jewish young men hanging around the streets of certain areas of London. Outreach workers, including youth workers helped to create a “cushioned social space” in which young people were encouraged and supported to use public space in ways that helped to minimise the harms they face.

This is particularly relevant to the findings in a research report Step Inside Our Shoes recently published by NCH following their consultation with over 800 children and young people from across the UK during a six-month period. Young people said that fear, image and a need for protection are amongst the reasons why they and their peers get involved in gun and knife crime. They also said that many young people and children feel unsafe in their own communities. They feel frustrated, misrepresented and angry about the negative portrayal of young people and the misconception they are often perpetrators rather than victims of gun and knife crime.

The voices of young people are often lost in the clamour for headlines and short-term political rhetoric. Here, in a Guardian interview six young men explain why they are motivated to carry knives.

MPs have debated the issue of young people and knife crime in the Commons, in which a number of MPs highlighted the need for more youth provision. Hansard 01/05/2008 >>

In announcing proposals to extend the British Crime Survey (BCS) to include surveys of under-16s' experiences of crime Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has acknowledged that young people remain more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators. This is consistent with a review of knife crime evidence and policy undertaken by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies last year.

Lee Jasper's comment piece in the Guardian website argues that we should not seek to tackle the growing incidence of teenage murders as somehow divorced from the incidence of violence generally within our communities. He says that because violent crimes aren't reported to the police, hospitals, GPs' surgeries and schools need to take the lead in monitoring and preventing them.

Research and analysis

More broadly the government’s overall approach to youth justice since it came to power in 1997 has been criticised by an independent audit of Labour's 10-year strategy for tackling youth crime by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at Kings College, London. The report shows that despite public spending on the problem rising by 45 per cent, the Government's new laws and high-profile initiatives had no measurable impact on youth crime.

The Prison Reform Trust has published a report Criminal Damage, explaining why we should lock up fewer young people than we currently do. With over 3000 under 18 year olds in custody in April 2008, the report suggests twelve ways to reduce the number of children and young people in custody.

New findings from the Tackling Gangs Action Programme (TGAP) has found that firearms offences and injuries fell by up to a half in the four TGAP areas (London, Merseyside, West Midlands and Greater Manchester). The research found that gang members in these areas were predominantly young, Black Caribbean and male, although these characteristics varied across the four areas.

The NYA, together with the Association of Principal Youth and Community Officers and the Speaking Out Project (NCVCCO and NCVYS) jointly organised a round table event to discuss how to combat knife, gun and gang crime, and how this should be taken forward with policy makers.

A Guardian interview with Professor John Pitts focuses on his research showing the proliferation of youth crime and gang culture is a product of inequality.

Forthcoming

The Youth Crime Action Plan is expected to be published in mid July. Some commentators expect it to signal a change in the approach to youth crime, with the DCSF arguing for a more welfare-based approach.

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