By Shannon Jordan

The importance of safety is one we hold dear to our hearts, especially when it comes to the safety of the youth around us. Now more than ever, young people are at risk, and their all-round wellbeing is at stake. One of the main causes of this is youth violence. It is everywhere you look and affects youth all over the world. The youth we are around are experiencing it every day, whether it’s them individually, someone they know, or an issue in their community. Youth continue to be pulled into engaging in it, for many different reasons, and can end up physically and mentally damaged from the effects. Youth violence often leads to the death of many youth and is troubling for everyone involved. So it is our duty to inform ourselves and our youth on how to keep themselves safe in a world filled with violence.

Youth violence is described by the government as a serious public health issue, and as “any offence of most violence or weapon-enabled crimes.” This definition can include highly serious crimes such as GBH, wounding with intent and sexual assault and exploitation to crimes such as assault, injury, bullying, gang crimes, county lines, and more. At its core, youth violence is anything which causes destructive, severe harm to a young person and puts them in immense danger, whether it is physically, or mentally. Youth violence is listed as a public health issue because it is seen as contagious, and causes ill-health through fear and loss, affecting individuals, families, and communities all over. According to the World Health Organisation in 2020, across the world, homicides involving youth violence are around an estimated 200,000, making it not only the 4th leading cause of death between 10–29-year-olds globally, but also 42% of all homicides worldwide. 84% of these homicide victims are male, as well as also being the majority of perpetrators of youth violence.

Knife crime in particular is a major part of youth violence in the UK. Being defined as “a crime involving a blade or sharp object,” it is not only one of the most well-known kinds of crime globally, but also one of the most prominent kinds of crime involving youth. In the year ending March 2018, 6.5% of children aged 10-15 knew of someone who had carried a knife and the number was not much different for youth between the ages of 16-29 (5.7%). Also, in the year ending March 2020, statistics show that there were just over 4,400 Knife and Offensive Weapons among children aged 10-17. What is even more concerning is that in 2020, the number of ‘children in need’ assessments that identified gangs as a factor increased by 34%. More and more children and youth are ending up hospitalised because of injury from a knife or sharp object. In 2020/2021, data collected by the NHS showed that there were 4,091 finished consultant episodes (FCE) recorded in English hospitals due to assault by a sharp object. This was 14% lower than in 2019/20 but 12% higher than in 2014/15.

However other forms of youth violence are just as harmful. Bullying for example, although maybe not considered as youth violence, is just as damaging to the physical and mental safety of an individual, and according to a study done by the charity Ditch The Label in 2020, 51% of children ages 12-18 said that they either witnessed of have been bullied, and this is a 25% year-on-year increase. The most common forms of bullying were social exclusion and verbal bullying, with children giving those responses 89% and 86% of the time respectively.

CSE (child sexual exploitation) is also a part of this, with the police recording over 12.000 related crimes to CSE in 2019-2020.

Youth violence can not only come in different forms,but exist for different reasons. We are aware of many of these reasons and risk factors, such as education, income and employment deprived areas, exposure to trauma, psychological and learning differences, peer involvement, and others. Although many of these risk factors and reasons are common, the reasons for each individual are separate, and it is important to understand the personal reasons instead of the stereotypical ones.

With the rise of social media, youth violence can be affected and influenced by it as social media spreads fast, meaning that whatever gets put out can reach and affect a group instantly. Through posts, videos, tweets, shares, likes, etc, displays of youth violence can be readily seen by a larger group, and lead youth to feel the need to go on the offense or defence quicker, because now more than ever, people are watching what they do. Environments and people that regularly surround youth such as schools, youth groups, parents and guardians, authority figures, and police, are working harder to be aware of how the social media community can influence the rates of youth violence. Further addressing this point[SJ1] , Max Hill QC, Director of Public Prosecutions, stated, “The use of social media by gangs to threaten and taunt others about recent attacks where young people have been killed or seriously injured is becoming all too familiar. The instant nature of social media means that plans develop rapidly, disputes can escalate very quickly and are seen by a large audience, which increases the perceived need to retaliate in order to ‘win’ the dispute.” (CPS, 2020)

Youth violence is not just physically harming, but also mentally. Research taken in 2015 shows that gang members are at an increased risk of a range of mental health conditions including conduct disorder, antisocial personality disorder, anxiety, psychosis and drug and alcohol dependence. How safe a child feels in an environment that they live in is just as important. In the Exeter Schools Health Unit’s survey in 2018, 1 in five young people aged 8-15 said that safety after dark in their area was ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.

In an effort to combat the sharp rise in knife crime, on 4 February 2021, the government published a total police funding settlement of up to £15.8 billion in 2021/22, an increase of up to £636 million compared to 2020/21. The government have also introduced the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in March this year, seeking to increase minimum sentencing for certain offences, introduce provisions for the management of offenders, including new targeted stop and search powers for the police targeting knife crime offenders. In particular, Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) aim to implement the government’s manifesto commitment to target known knife carriers, making it easier for officers to stop and search those previously convicted of a knife crime. This seeks to help the police target those most at risk of being drawn into serious violence, deter offenders from carrying weapons, and “set them on a more positive path” (Home Office, 2021).

Knowing how prevalent youth violence is, The Safety Box ® CIC runs the Aspire Higher program, specifically targeting youth violence and knife crime, which aims to change the actions and the mindsets of the youth we come across. We work with our partners Syrus Consultancy CIC and Wipers Youth CIC to deliver the programs, and collectively we have 20 years’ experience in delivering intervention programs for youth. The main goal of the program is to build the confidence and self-esteem of the youth we work with, ensuring that they leave the program with not just tools to better their mindsets, but physical skills to safely defend against knives. We use advanced coaching methodologies combined with knife crime prevention workshops using the creative arts, motivational strategies, high level conflict resolution, non-aggressive knife defence and violence prevention. Our facilitators are not only credible, but have a deep understanding of the environment themselves, many of whom have experiences of violence, gang affiliation and or offending behaviour. This allows for our programs to not just be a detached discussion, but a deep, fulfilling, relatable one.

Knowing the depths of what our youth are experiencing daily is important, not just for their well-being and safety, but ours. The effects of youth violence and knife crime impact everyone involved, from the individual to the community, and the prominence of it in certain areas makes all of us feel unsafe, and worried for our youth. However, although it is prominent, it is not impossible to prevent. The safety of our youth depends on our ability to understand and address the complexity of the issue, target the root causes and put prevention tactics in place. The Safety Box ® CIC is only one of the organisations doing this work, but we are not alone. It requires us all to be able to put our best forward to create a safer environment for the youth now and in the future.