We are organising a pan-London support initiative designed to help prevent youth violence. This initiative will be:
• Overseen by social impact experts, producing evidencable outcomes
• Delivered by existing youth services, with integrated social and emotional learning
• Funded by private investment and underwritten by the public sector
Our role in this initiative will be to help track and monitor outcomes. This information will feed into our centre of excellence in order to inform policymakers across the globe on the effectiveness of the public health approach for tackling youth violence.
The Cost Of Youth Violence
Youth violence is a global problem. Not only is its impact felt by young people, but by their families and wider communities too. In London alone in 2018, serious youth violence and knife crime claimed the lives of 135 young people, making it the worst year for murders in almost a decade.
In London, knife crime is a leading cause of death for youths between the ages of 10 and 24 with more than 700,000 youths being treated in A&E departments due to violence-related injuries. In the UK, the lifetime costs associated with assault injuries among youth ages 10 to 24 in the year 2010, including NHS costs, lost work and household productivity, were estimated to exceed $17.8 billion pounds.
We aim to use our research and social impact activities to help identify the factors that protect young people and prevent violence before it begins and will support the adoption of evidence-based programs and practices in its delivery. Focusing on prevention allows schools, families and communities the opportunity to tackle youth violence before it starts.
Youth violence affects people in all walks of life. Putting an end to it is not going to happen overnight. Comprehensive prevention strategies are needed to help address the interwoven factors that lead to violence among young people in communities.
Over the last several decades, research in the US around youth violence prevention has made tremendous strides in identifying what works to prevent youth violence. By working together with proven experts in their chosen field and sharing information and best practice we hope to identify the most effective programmes and make use of the best scientific findings to enhance our delivery and inform policy.
The Cost Of Gang Culture
Imagine two children, both with the exact same risk factors for joining a gang. As teenagers, one joins a gang, the other doesn’t. Even though the first teen eventually leaves the gang, years later he or she is not only at a significantly higher risk of being incarcerated and receiving illegal income, but is also less likely to have finished high school and more likely to be in poor health, receiving government assistance or struggling with drug abuse.
This is according to University of Washington research, designed to examine the possible public health consequences of adolescent gang membership for adult functioning. The report found that, in comparison with their nongang peers, those who had joined a gang in adolescence had poorer outcomes in multiple areas of adult functioning, including higher rates of self-reported crime, receipt of illegal income, incarceration, drug abuse or dependence, poor general health, and welfare receipt and lower rates of high school graduation.
