Urban Street Gangs
The definition for Urban Street Gangs is “Groups of young people who see themselves (and are seen by others) as a discernible group for whom crime and violence is integral to the group's identity.” Criminal exploitation and gangs | NSPCC
The term “Gang” does not have a precise definition. Section 34(5) of the Policing and Crime Act 2009, as amended by the Serious Crime Act 2015, provides that something is ‘gang related’ if it occurs in the course of, or is otherwise related to, the activities of a group that:
- Consists of at least three people; and
- Has one or more characteristics that enable its members to be identified by others as a group.
- Urban street gangs and many other gangs may evolve into organised crime groups (OCG). Urban street gangs tend to be less organised than OCGs and more concerned with perpetuating a threat of violence or harm across a geographical area related to the gang’s main activities. These types of gangs can be involved in varied forms of serious criminality that can have a significant impact on local communities.
Serious Youth Violence
Refers to anyone up to the age of 24 who is potentially at risk of being impacted by violence happening away from the family home; this might be related to gang involvement, the carrying of weapons, being involved in violent robberies, or having expressed fears about reprisals from others. The child or young adult may be considered as being involved as a victim, an offender, or a witness (although from experience we understand that these distinctions are often inaccurate or unhelpful)
While crime has fallen rapidly over the last 20 years, serious youth violence (hereafter referred to as SYV) is a growing concern in England and Wales. SYV – defined by the Youth Justice Board (YJB) as ‘any drug, robbery or violence against the person offence that has a gravity score of five of more’ – has been rising with figures showing that both perpetrators and victims of these offences are getting younger. Indeed, despite a substantial reduction in violent crime since the mid-1990s, levels of serious violence between children and young people remains ‘stubbornly high’.
- Deprivation and poverty leaves young people more vulnerable to childhood adversity and poor mental health, key risk factors for violence.
- Living in poverty is making the fast money achieved via crime considerably more attractive, aligning young people to an inherently violent business.
- Much of the trauma experienced by young people in West Yorkshire was being passed down through families, potentially exacerbated by service provision which is ill-equipped to deal with intergenerational health inequalities.
What works (from Violence Reduction Unit 2022-2023)
- Good multi-agency working (with meaningful engagement and shared responsibility)
- Clear shared vision with a focus on relationship building
- Development of analytical capacity and improved data analysis
- Engagement with communities and young people
- Development of high impact interventions
- Culture shift:
- Thinking about harm outside the home
- Thinking about the contexts that harm happens in
- Developing effective welfare responses and learning about what works
- Working with parents as 'protective partners'
- Building trusting relationships with third sector partners and non-traditional agencies
'it's easy to criticise a choice without knowing what they had to choose from…' Saferlondon.com