What needs to be done to tackle youth crime?

Public Service Review: Home Affairs

To the victims, families and areas of the UK blighted by knife/gun/gang violence and antisocial behaviour involving youths, the resulting pain and misery are unacceptable. The causes are multi-faceted, the solutions are long-term. Our expert panel debates the issue

Communities faced with crime and problems caused by young people want the behaviour complained of to stop and not recur. They want solutions, and because contributory factors often stem from deep-rooted socio-economic factors, multi-agency targeted interventions are required.

It is of deep concern to me that short-term gains often carry a political premium whilst measures that offer long-term solutions, built around prevention and diversion, are seldom supported by national funding. A consequence is that more and more young people with behavioural problems appear to be written off, as evidenced by the growing numbers of exclusions from schools. From there, they spiral on downwards and their inevitable landing place is the criminal justice system.

Those who look for solutions based on regulating behaviour through ever tougher enforcement of the law are building a foundation on sand because sanctions applied in isolation do not provide a lasting deterrent.

If we are to tackle problem and criminal behaviour effectively, then we need early multi-agency interventions. Interventions should deal with both cause and effect in a proportionate way and put sustainable measures in place to provide victims with relief and divert culprits from offending, rehabilitating them in the process. This must be at the heart of all we do.

Barbara Wilding CBE QPM FRSA CCMI, Chief Constable, South Wales Police

I'm too long in the tooth to pretend that the current focus on youth crime is all a 'moral panic', but that focus does draw attention away from the crimes of the adult world and plays into a broader – largely political – agenda that wants to see our society as 'broken', and young people as the main cause of the breakage. That's nonsense. Of course young people do commit crimes and the daily focus on knife attacks committed on and by young people is a sad reminder of that fact.

What should be done? Let's consider knife crime and then use that type of offending to think more broadly. For me, solutions have to go far deeper than immediate, practical and 'common sense' responses such as knife amnesties, metal detectors at the school gates, and 'get tough' actions by the police and our courts. These are not necessarily bad in themselves, but they hardly scratch the surface about the gap that exists – and is growing ever wider – between young and old in our society and which has contributed to more and more young people carrying weapons.

When I spoke with young people about why they carried knives, two main groups emerged. The first said that they carried knives because it made them feel 'grown up' – it made them feel 'like a man'. The second group had more instrumental reasons. Quite simply, they said that they carried knives because they were afraid, and that they felt that they couldn't turn to the adult world for help. For them they saw the adult world dismissing them as 'chavs', 'hoodies' and as 'feral', and so they did not believe that that adult world could help them when they were scared, distressed and in need of guidance. So they looked out for each other, and if that meant that they had to carry knives, so be it.

Putting all of this right takes a great deal more thought than knife amnesties. It involves the adult world recognising the contribution that young people make to our society, and also the problems that that generation faces. It is about that much overused demand: respect. So perhaps, the problems to youth crime will be solved when we give young people good quality education and properly trained and supported teachers; when we begin to recognise what young people do and achieve instead of constantly focusing on what they do that annoys us; and when we begin to value who they are and what they do. It is about respect – but respect by our generation for the generation that will replace us, and closing the gap between 'us' and 'them'.

Professor David Wilson, Centre for Criminal Justice Policy and Research, Birmingham City University

An alarming increase in gang violence and the fact that each city struggled alone to combat the problem, spurred the creation of California's 13-City Gang Prevention Network. The Network's assumptions were that:
• A city-wide strategy – not a single programme or intervention – blending prevention, intervention and enforcement, must be developed;
• The Network provides a forum for ideas, competition, conveys a sense of movement and hope, and knowledge of what works and what doesn't;
• Local work would suggest the amount and type of support and the policy changes needed from the state and federal levels.

If a city subscribes to five core principles, the chances to reduce gang violence and help build communities that don't produce crime, increase:
• The mayor and chief must manifest leadership that combines the moral, the conceptual, and the bureaucratic;
• Law Enforcement and Social Services must not be seen as anti-theoretical concepts. The message: certainty of consequences; certainty of help;
• A city-wide strategy with specific, trackable commitments from all key stakeholders, eg. police, schools, business, the faith community, neighbourhood organisations, etc;
• Identification of an entity that tracks the work, oversees plan implementation;
• Getting close to young people in the community. Violent youth and potentially violent youth ache (some would say die for) a relationship, as most of them emerge from a tangle of broken or abusive relationships. While structural change is essential, many cities are attempting relational mentoring: grandmothers on the streets in Salinas, ex-cons as peacekeepers in a number of cities, and 'decentralised' or 'neighbourhood-based' services where police, zoning, or child welfare workers, for example, know a neighbourhood and its families well, and know people not as clients, but by name.

Doing what we've always done won't work. To convey that he cares about his entire city, San Bernardino's Mayor Pat Morris has frequently stood on some his city's roughest corners, barbecuing, listening to citizens, seeking ideas, pledging his support, seeking help.

There are some hopeful signs, including some dramatic diminishments of crime in some of the participating cities. It is hopeful, but the key point is this: cities must be prepared to do business in a different way.

John A Calhoun, Founder and for 20 years President and CEO of the National Crime Prevention Council, USA, and author of Hope Matters: The Untold Story of How Faith Works in America

Recently we have seen the emergence of a worrying trend in relation to knife crime. We see both an intensification in the severity of offending, and a worrying change in the age profile of offenders and victims, which has decreased from mid-late teens to early twenties down to early-to-mid-teens.

ACPO is leading work across the police service nationally to tackle knife crime in those areas where it is a problem. Yet, it is very important that all of us working to tackle violence are clear about the scale of the problem. To achieve this, I have accepted the Home Secretary's request to head up the national knife crime programme to further build on this work with police forces.

To tackle knife crime, ACPO is at the forefront of a strengthened approach to enforcement and sentencing, and has been working with the Crown Prosecution Service to draw up new guidance for all forces. We will send out a strong message to those who carry knives for no good reason that they will face serious consequences.

However, tackling knife crime is not just a policing issue but one for society as a whole. It requires each and every one of us to ask what we can do to help, that's parents, neighbours, agencies, business and media, especially in those neighbourhoods where the problem is acute.

Alf Hitchcock, ACPO Lead on knife crime and Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service

Police forces have a long and proud history of engaging young people positively. An example of this is the KICKZ football programme where we partner football clubs to provide young people with meaningful activities and opportunities. The Prince's Trust focuses upon young people at risk of becoming offenders or victims and has an established track record of success.

Underpinning many national programmes are varied initiatives. In Merseyside alone during the last two years, we have engaged 16,000 young people in activities from football and rugby coaching to dance events and even Dragon Boat racing. I am sure this is indicative of work across the country.

Building bridges however is about more than engagement – it's about partners focusing on the right young people and offering them opportunities to transform their lives. We also need to support them to make decisions that are right for their community. Resisting gang membership or the carrying of a gun or a knife can be a real problem for a young person under pressure. However, we can influence their decisions. In many other forces there is commitment to the Miss Dorothy educational programme, which deals with these difficult issues at an early age, working with schools – many of which have officers under the Safer Schools Partnership.

The Youth Crime Action Plan polarises our attention and we are fully committed to its three-track approach of enforcement, prevention and support.

Deputy Chief Constable Bernard Lawson, Merseyside Police

To tackle the problem of youth crime we need to take action early to stop children from embarking on a life of crime before it's too late. The old parties are falling over each other to appear tough on crime, but do little to tackle the causes.

The last 10 years of youth justice policy under Labour has been a disaster, criminalising a generation of young people with millions squandered and little in the way of results.

Dragging more and more of our kids into the criminal justice system for minor offences has simply not worked. Youth crime remains high and three-quarters of children who go through our criminal justice system go on to re-offend.

We need a different approach to youth crime. Liberal Democrats would form a Youth Volunteer Force to engage young people in activities that benefit local people and their own communities. We would create a dedicated PCSO youth officer in every neighbourhood to work with teenagers most at risk of offending. Gun and knife crime should be targeted through intelligence-led stop and search, hot-spot policing and action in schools.

Where young people do commit antisocial behaviour, they should be made to pay back damage caused to communities, wherever possible without involving the criminal justice system. We would run nationwide restorative justice programmes, focusing on early intervention in schools and care homes.

Chris Huhne MP, Shadow Home Secretary, Liberal Democrats

The Youth Crime Action Plan (YCAP) has set out a long-term, multilayered approach to tackle youth crime – the government deserves credit for rejecting the easy, headline grabbing option of quick fixes.

Tackling gun and knife crime requires a range of measures that look at the problem at every stage. As the YCAP recognises, we need prevention, assertive and persistent support, and effective enforcement and sentencing.

What is especially important, but often overlooked, is that children and young people want gun and knife crime reduced as much as adults do. They selected the subject to be my top priority for the year, demonstrating that they want to feel safe too.

Interestingly, the thinking of the young people with whom I am now working reflects much of what is in the YCAP. They tell me that raising aspirations and self-esteem of young people is crucial. They speak of the importance of education about staying safe, early intervention and good parenting.

On stop and search, they accept it has a role. But they want to be respected when they are searched, not treated like criminals. And they say when crimes are committed, there must be better rehabilitation so re-offending rates fall.

Young people are increasingly the victims of gun and knife crime, and so it is vital we place their views at the heart of this debate, and act on them.

Sir Al Aynsley-Green, Children's Commissioner for England, 11 MILLION

There is a lot of talk these days about 'youth crime' but not much understanding of what that actually is. All we do know is that the offender population is disproportionately young. A lot of young people have, at some time, offended but it was ever thus, and most 'grow out' of it – think back to your own youth and what your friends were up to. The disproportionate representation of young people also applies to the victim population and there is not too much made of that, although watch this space as the British Crime Survey expands to cover the under-16 year olds.

If you want to tackle a crime problem, you need to know what specifically it is and exactly how much of it there is. If youth crime is defined as everything from gun and knife crime to hanging around on a street corner (which is not yet illegal), then we begin with a major problem.

We should stop talking about youth crime and talk about crime. We should be clear on which crime we are talking about and be able to locate it (in time and space), measure it and have a sensible menu of activities to deal with it. Arguably it is not for the police to deal directly with kids hanging around on the street. And arguably it is not for the community to deal directly with gangland shootings (although they may well be involved indirectly).

With greater specificity on the nature of these problems, solutions are easier to identify. For example, do we know how many people (young or otherwise) really are carrying a knife? We do know the numbers being killed (they are low) but do we know how many people are stabbed but not killed? Clearly this is important if we are to tackle the problem properly. What has risen disproportionately is the number of young people being stabbed to death, but some were caught in the crossfire of adult disputes. They are the innocent victims. But the headlines generated are all about youth crime – muddling up everything from serious violence at one extreme to youths hanging around at the other.

We only know that an offence was committed by a young person when it is solved. Most crime is not solved. Let's stop demonising the young and start to tackle the crime.

Gloria Laycock, Professor of Crime Science, University College London

Are we doing enough to prevent children and young people becoming victims of knife crime? How do we support this?

No, we need to do far more. We know that young people are more likely to be victims of crime than any other age group and also less likely to report it. We know that young people are afraid of becoming victims and many carry knives as protection. This shows that we are not doing enough to protect them.

There is clearly a need for the police to work to gain the trust of young people including those who have been offenders. But addressing this issue is not just the responsibility of the criminal justice agencies: engaging parents and schools is equally important.

Young people believe it is important to have someone impartial and non-authoritarian to talk to. They also think that practical ways of dealing with strong emotions as well as opportunities to be involved in supervised activities are ways of preventing violence. So it is really important that we listen to young people and take on their ideas if we are to find ways to reduce youth crime. 

Youth crime is also quite hidden, because of the reluctance to report it. So, we are delighted that the British Crime Survey is being extended to cover under-16 year olds. That will give us a much clearer picture of the nature and extent of crime committed against young people. That is vital if we are going to develop effective ways of preventing them from becoming victims of crime in the first place.

Gillian Guy, Chief Executive, Victim Support

The government's rhetoric on crime cannot mask a worrying growth in offences involving young people. Last year, one in eight violent crimes was committed by school age children – 280,000 in total. As the number of young offenders has increased, so have the number of victims. The number of youths admitted to hospital with stab wounds has almost doubled in the last five years.

Labour's complacency risks betraying a generation of young people. We need concerted action over the short, medium and long term to tackle this growing problem.

In the short term, this means robust law enforcement and honest sentencing. A Conservative Government will free up our police to tackle youth crime, as well as making clear that those found guilty will be properly punished.  

In the medium term, we will reform young offender institutions, as well as providing proper rehabilitation and education to help young people turn their lives around. But prevention is better than cure. We will also introduce a National Citizens' Service, and encourage the role of the voluntary sector in deprived areas, to engage more young people in constructive activities.

It is also vital to take decisive action over the long term to tackle the root cause of this problem. This means restoring discipline in schools and taking steps to strengthen families.

Only then can we start mending our broken society.

Dominic Grieve QC MP, Shadow Home Secretary, Conservative Party