By User Voice

This report presents the voices of young people who have experienced serious youth violence. The principal objectives of this project were to understand young people’s experiences of reporting to the police, safeguarding, interventions, and the support they receive from the police and other services. We examined the factors that made the young people vulnerable to serious youth violence and the facilitators and barriers they experience when it comes to accessing support. User Voice spoke to 13 young people aged between the ages of 18 and 24 who were in prison, in young offender institutions or on probation. Overall, we found that the young people we spoke to had extensive experience, both as the perpetrators and targets of serious violence. Between the ages of 14 and 17, many of the young people we spoke to had been stabbed on numerous occasions, shot, attacked with hammers, assaulted with baseball bats, and run over. They had often been the target first, and had then often become involved in crime and violence. Some spoke of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but most didn’t want to talk about the effect these incidents had had on them. Many of the young people we spoke to had faced many challenges in early life. The majority were poor, had been surrounded by crime and violence, lived in social care, and been criminalised as children. Many of them described feeling let down repeatedly by the people and systems that were meant to care for them. They said that their friends are like family and offer the protection and support they need. Serious violent incidents often relate to earning respect, drugs or money, or to gaining control in specific postcode areas occupied by other gangs or groups. The young people we surveyed have no confidence in the police and other services. Through numerous negative experiences with these systems, they believe that the police can’t protect or help them. There were several accounts of manipulative practices, blame, assault, and police putting them in danger, for example, by dropping them in their ‘enemy’s’ area. There were mixed views on the support offered by the youth offending teams (YOTs). And some of the young people we spoke to said that YOTs, prison services and probation services all failed to consider the life-threatening nature of living in, or passing through, the wrong area. The young people told us they weren’t always offered or didn’t always accept support. They felt that those with ‘perfect lives’ couldn’t understand them and therefore couldn’t help them. Some courses offered were considered tick-box exercises offering unrealistic solutions to complex problems. They stated that they felt set up to fail. They also said that they thought that initiatives led by those with lived experience of serious youth violence, care rather than criminalisation, and alternative means to earn a living would prevent them from committing crime or help them more

London: HMICFRS (Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constbulary and Fire & Rescue Services, 2023. 37p.

By \The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform

Utilizing interviews and data from law enforcement, probation and parole, and community-based organizations, NICJR has conducted detailed analyses of gun violence in several cities throughout the country. Although youth account for only a small proportion of the population involved in nonfatal injury shootings and homicides,² YDII is based on the premise that risk factors for gun violence were likely already present during the pre-teen and adolescent years. If specific experiences and measurable characteristics can predict who will become a victim or suspect in a shooting later in life, these data can be used to guide intervention strategies to prevent the violence.

But what risk factors did the young adult shooting suspect possess at the age of 13? NICJR will select at least five jurisdictions to conduct data analysis and a longitudinal cohort assessment of young people between the ages of 18-25 who have been convicted of homicide or attempted homicide. The study will trace their backgrounds and contacts with the juvenile justice, child welfare, education, and other systems and attempt to identify a common pattern of combined risk factors that predict future gun violence. After the completion of the data analysis and longitudinal assessment to identify the series of risk factors that is predictive of future gun violence involvement, the goal of YDII is to help jurisdictions track these risk factors in youth in real time, most likely through the school system. When any young person reaches the threshold of this series of risk factors, the project team will engage that young person and their family in an array of intensive community-based services and supports

Oakland, CA: NICJR, 2022. 17p.

Edited By Frank J. Cohen

FROM THE FOREWORD: “This publication is a report of the proceedings of the Law Enforcement Institute on Youth and Crime held at New York University, July 18-21, 1955, in the Vanderbilt Auditorium, Washington Square South. It was jointly sponsored by Attorney General of the State of New York, Honorable Jacob K. Javits, and Chairman, New York State Youth Commission, Honorable Mark A. McCloskey, in cooperation with the New York University Graduate School of Public Administration and Social Service.

The purpose of this Institute was that of determining how to prevent and reduce juvenile delinquency, a problem that occupies increasingly the attention of national, state, and local officials and citizens today. Figures released by the United States Children's Bureau show that delinquency has risen 28 per cent in the past four years. It is estimated that about 2 per cent of all children in the United States between the ages of ten to seventeen years were dealt with by juvenile courts in delinquency cases. Approximately a million children are picked up by the police in a year; 100,000 are held in jail and sore 40,000 are sent to training schools.

NY. International Universities Press. 1954. 269p.

By Kim Geurtjens

Whereas outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) were originally perceived as uncivilized white men grouped around a passion for motorcycles and riding, they have now become increasingly associated with organized crime. Governments have defined them as a crime policy priority, resulting in a broad-scale law enforcement offensive aimed at reducing OMCG-related crime, reducing the number of clubs and chapters, and reducing interclub tension. The way in which the general public perceives OMCGs and the attitude toward OMCGs is largely influenced by media coverage on the subject, and in recent years OMCGs have become a popular topic. As public perceptions, policymaking, and media coverage influence each other, this paper seeks to explore the contemporary representation of OMCGs and law enforcement in the Meuse Rhine Euregion by means of analyzing regional newspaper articles from 2010 up to and including 2016. The theories used for this analysis are Quinn and Koch’s criminality typology and the situational crime prevention framework. Results demonstrate that the public image of OMCGs indeed centers around (organized) crime, and that even when events not involving crime are covered, the newspaper article focuses on law enforcement working toward containing the risks of OMCG-related crime and monitoring motorcycle clubs. The public image of law enforcement measures against OMCGs therefore relies heavily on police actions and, to a lesser extent, on administrative authority reducing not only crime opportunities, but also making OMCG life in general less attractive.

Unpublished Paper, 2019. 23p.

By Daniel Gunnell, Joseph Hillier and Laura Blakeborough

As part of the Home Office’s Ending Gang and Youth Violence programme a commitment was made to help police forces better understand their local gang issues (HM Government, 20131 ). This research aims to meet this commitment by testing the use of social network analysis using police intelligence data, as a tool to more systematically understand gangs and to help direct law enforcement activities. As such, the report serves as one example of how social network analysis can be used, but the approach could also be applied to other types of crime and disorder to explore the networks of people involved (such as those connected to acquisitive crime or sexual abuse). The research was undertaken in partnership with Great Manchester Police and addresses two research questions: 1. What can social network analysis tell us about gangs? 2. How useful are the social network analysis outputs for the police? For this, five individuals living in Manchester and identified as having gang links were chosen as the starting point for the network analysis. Further details about how to conduct social network analysis can be found in the ‘How to guide’ 2 published as an annex to this report.

London: Home Office, 2016. 34p.

By Edward Connors, Barbara Webster, Neal Miller, Claire Johnson, and Elizabeth Fraser

Gangs have been a major contributor to the growth of violent crime in the past decade. Heavily armed with sophisticated weapons, gangs are involved in drug trafficking, murder, witness intimidation, robbery, extortion, and turf battles. Gangs now operate in cities of all sizes, as well as suburban communities throughout the United States; gang violence no longer is limited to major cities. What is being done to stop gang activity? Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies across the country have implemented innovative and resourceful initiatives to stop gangs from terrorizing our communities. Interagency and multijurisdictional efforts range from special units dedicated to investigating and prosecuting gang-related crimes to state-of-the-art surveillance equipment and sophisticated data collection and analysis technologies. Our purpose in developing Model Strategies for Urban Street Gang Enforcement was to create processes and strategies that would be useful in many jurisdictions. No one method will solve the gang problem; however, some methods are more effective and better suited to certain situations. This monograph presents strategies to enhance prosecution of gang related crimes. It focuses exclusively on enforcement and prosecution strategies against urban street gangs. The model programs introduced here offer strategies largely based on the practical experiences of agencies that participated in a demonstration program funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and designed to establish model approaches to prevent and suppress gang violence. This monograph offers a step-by-step guide for designing and implementing a program based on Model Strategies for Urban Street Gang Enforcement. It identifies and explores innovative methods of prosecuting gang members involved in criminal activities. Program examples and case studies from the seven demonstration sites illustrate how local objectives were met. By documenting and disseminating effective strategies to combat gang violence, BJA hopes to assist law enforcement agencies.

Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance . 1997. 133p.