Practical support for preventing gang and youth violence

Practical support for preventing gang and youth violence
The Early Intervention Foundation has released two new reports on gang and youth violence, based on international evidence. The reports look at how to identify children and young people who may be at risk of involvement, as well as what types of programmes or interventions appear most effective in preventing this. The authors emphasise the importance of early intervention and of providing high-quality, evidence-based support, delivered in the right way by the right people.

The first report looks to identify children and young people potentially at risk of involvement in gangs or youth violence. Findings are grouped into five domains - individual, peer group, community, school, and family - with the strongest risk factors associated with the individual. This includes behavioural risk factors (eg,violent activity, exposure to and consumption of drugs and alcohol) and explanatory risk factors (eg, psychological issues such as symptoms of ADHD, hyperactivity, self-esteem, levels of aggression, and an inability to say no to peer pressure). The likelihood of involvement increased in line with the number of risk factors.
The authors also produced a second report identifying what types of programmes or interventions appear to be most effective in preventing involvement in gangs and youth violence. Skills-based and family-focused programmes were found to be amongst the most robustly evaluated and effective types of programme. Mentoring, community-based, and sports-based programmes to tackle youth crime and violence appeared promising, but have a limited evidence base. In contrast, approaches based on deterrence and discipline (eg, boot camps) were ineffective, and may even make things worse (eg, increase the likelihood of offending).

Johns Hopkins University 

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