Tackling Gang Crime: Intervening Early to Offer Hope, Support and Guidance to Young People

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Date of Event: Tuesday, March 18th 2025
Time of Event: 9:30 AM — 1:00 PM GMT
Place of Event: Webinar

As of July 2023, the Children’s Commissioner for England believes that at least 27,000 children are County Lines gang members. The Centre for Social Justice estimates that here could be 70,000 children and young people across the UK involved in gangs. The nature of gang crime is ever evolving, meanwhile.  Paul Gerrard, Public Affairs Director at the Co-op, told the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee inquiry into shoplifting, in September 2024, that the 44% rise in retail crime that it experienced in 2023 was mostly down to gangs stealing to order at scale. According to the Centre for Social Justice, 70% of local organised criminals are stealing to fund drug addiction.

In its general election manifesto, Labour committed to intervening earlier to stop young people being drawn into crime, including by creating a new Young Futures programme with a network of hubs reaching every community. Backed by a pledge of £95 million in investment, these hubs will have youth workers, mental health support workers, and careers advisers available to support young people’s mental health and avoid them being drawn into crime. Local prevention partnerships will identify young people who could be drawn into violence and intervene, with youth workers and mentors also being placed in A&E units and Pupil Referral Units, with a view to offering young people a pathway out of violence. Labour also wish to introduce a new offence of criminal exploitation of children, so as to go after the gangs who lure young people into violence and crime. Further to this, Labour have a manifesto pledge to introduce 13,000 additional police and Police Community Support Officers, with guaranteed local patrols, and a taskforce to tackle robberies carried out with knives. Labour have also pledged to halve knife crime in a decade

Research findings from HM Inspectorate of Probation on tackling gang crime and child involvement in urban street gangs “highlight the importance of multi-agency approaches, with a strong understanding of roles and responsibilities, effective data and information sharing, and appropriate representation of services within practitioner meetings,” and “establishing positive relationships with children and engaging local communities,” as well as the adoption of “the public health model of violence reduction combined with focused deterrence policing is the most promising comprehensive strategic approach to tackling gangs.” Critics also point out the urgent need for a huge injection of cash into the criminal justice system, with no sign of that injection coming soon. Meanwhile, Nick Harrison, Chief Executive of the Sutton Trust, states: “It’s concerning that there are no concrete plans set out to address the glaring inequalities in access to early years education for the poorest children, close the school attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, or ease the huge challenges students face in making ends meet while studying.”

This symposium aims to provide an opportunity for stakeholders, including the police, community groups, schools, legal professionals, charities, and local authorities, to understanding the underlying causes of gang crime and the factors which contribute to gang membership, assess how to improve current efforts to tackle gang violence, develop strategies for improving multi-agency collaboration to intervene early to protect vulnerable individuals from exploitation, and critically assess the new Labour government’s plans in this area.

Programme

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