Knife crime is right at the top of the political agenda. It’s the police’s top priority. It’s Gordon Brown’s top priority. National politicians are falling over themselves to trumpet new initiatives. But what are the real solutions to the problem? Labour needs a measured response that understands and deals with the real problem.
It’s local government that’s providing answers because we’re closer to the communities that are the most affected. Here in Lambeth, we spent a year conducting the biggest piece of research ever carried out in the UK to understand what lies behind the problem. The final report, written by Professor John Pitt, identified violent youth crime as a socio-economic problem with a criminal dimension – not the other way round. That insight is key because it recognises that the real parent of violent youth crime is poverty and the opportunity gap that locks too many of our young people out of the positive life chances they deserve.
The research involved interviews with young people across Lambeth, including some gang members. One teenage boy’s story captures the reality of the situation. He had moved onto a tough estate that was dominated by two violent youth gangs. His choices were stark. Join one gang, and he’s prey to the other. Join the second, and he’s targeted by members of the first. Join neither, and he’s at risk from both. This young man felt his only rational option was to join one of the gangs so he had at least some protection. But once in membership, he’s forced to engage in activities that might include committing violent assault, dealing drugs, and carrying a knife.
As a society, we are letting young people like this down by only giving them choices that could lead to prison or an early grave. Cameron’s answer is shallow and perverse. Fresh from hugging hoodies, now he wants to lock them all up if they’re caught carrying (not just using) a knife. Young people need to see there are positive alternatives so they can turn their lives round, not a prison sentence that in all likelihood will see them locked into criminality for the rest of their lives. We already have examples of projects that turn young people away from crime, such as the X-it project on one of Brixton’s toughest estates. Involving former young offenders as peer mentors, it has a 72 per cent success rate in preventing re-offending. Surely that’s better than just locking them all up?
Lambeth’s just finished consulting on a new strategy I first reported on this site back in February. It takes a twin approach: tougher enforcement against those who commit violent crime, but also a bold new approach to giving young people back their futures.
We’re introducing major new investment in youth programmes targeting those young people getting involved in low-level crime before they progress to more serious offending. For mainstream youngsters, we are investing in more positive, healthy activities including sport, dance, music and IT. We’re bringing new skills training programmes onto our estates to get unemployed young people into work, offering more support for families that are struggling or young parents who lack parenting skills. We’re developing new resources for schools to use to teach their students about the dangers of gangs and how to stay out of them, and offering a telephone advice line for parents worried that their child might be involved with a violent gang.
Putting the community centre-stage is key to our approach. The whole strategy will be backed up by a community advisory panel to oversee investment and monitor progress. Where possible, we’re involving the community – including faith groups and voluntary organisations – in delivering the new projects. Working with the Greater London Authority and the Metropolitan Police, we’re piloting a restorative youth justice scheme that will see young offenders confronted by victims and community leaders and given a stark choice – accept support to turn your life around or face stark consequences including close surveillance, curbs on your liberty and tougher payback schemes.
Just this week, we’ve launched our new Drug Deterrence Policy in Brixton designed to drive the drugs trade off our streets. It will see convicted drug tourists and dealers served with ASBOs so we can publicise their details in an attempt to turn round Brixton’s damaging reputation as London’s drugs supermarket. The drugs trade fuels the gangs that are responsible for so much of the violent crime on our streets. It sounds illiberal, but it would be far more illiberal to let any more of our young people face death or injury from the guns and knives this trade brings onto our streets.
The real answers to violent youth crime are complex and require a detailed understanding of what’s causing the problem in the first place. There are no easy answers and no quick-fix gimmicks. Cameron’s lock-them-all-up instincts risk further criminalising those who we’re already denying real choices. The answer to youth crime is to tackle the poverty and social instability that breeds it, but with the tough enforcement the public demands to feel safer in the meantime.
Steve Reed