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An Inspection of How Well the Police Tackle Serious Youth Violence – His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (March 2023)

Published:

Summary:

Access to His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services inspection regarding how well the Police tackle serious youth violence.

Description:

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services have published An Inspection of How Well the Police Tackle Serious Youth Violence (March 2023).
The inspection included 12 police force areas – 10 with a Violence Reduction Unit and, for contrast, 2 without. Furthermore, more than 300 documents provided by forces, violence reduction units and community safety partnerships were reviewed. HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services also commissioned User Voice to interview some young people who had been both perpetrators and targets of serious youth violence. The charity conducted face to face interviews with 13 young people aged between 18 and 24, all of whom were in prison, young offender institutions or under probation supervision.

The report is split into three main areas:

  1. How the police work with violence reduction units and partner organisations to reduce serious youth violence.
  2. How well do police use their powers to reduce serious youth violence, and do they understand racial disproportionality?
  3. How well do the police work with partner organisations to take a public health approach to serious youth violence?

Overall the inspection found:

  • There is some early evidence that points to VRUs reducing violent crime.
  • Some VRUs and community safety partnerships didn’t have a consistent approach to allocating resources for reducing serious youth violence.
  • Some VRU interventions weren’t evaluated often or well enough, or, in some cases, at all.
  • Forces are working hard to build trust in their communities.
  • Forces are starting to use outcome 22 in relation to serious youth violence, but some officers had a flawed understanding of it.
  • Some forces don’t record or analyse protected characteristics data well enough, so they don’t understand the extent of racial disproportionality in relation to serious youth violence.
  • Police can support children at risk of exclusion, but better communication is needed between police and schools.
  • More evaluation is needed on the effectiveness of schools liaison officers.